JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH

JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH is a science fiction adventure about a team of tough mercenaries trying to fetch blood samples of three giant dinosaurs for a major new drug cure, but who run into problems when their boat is shipwrecked by a herd of smaller scary dinosaurs hunting with the team’s giant marine target. JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH turns into one of the great, inspiring all-time adventure movies when the mercenaries pick up a shipwrecked father with his two daughters, which adds immensely to the movie’s sense of jeopardy in its brilliantly directed and edited action sequences, but the movie is marred by some foul language and other content issues.

The movie opens with an accident in a dinosaur lab years ago on a tropical island. One of the lab tech drops a candy wrapper, which drifts into an air vent and shorts out the electrical system. The accident opens an enclosure holding a giant genetically engineered dinosaur, which gets loose and creates havoc.

Cut to 17 years later. Martin Krebs, a representative from a Big Pharma drug company, offers billions of dollars to Zora Bennett, played by Scarlett Johansson, and her team of mercenaries. He wants to take her team to the equator to extract DNA from three massive dinosaurs for a medical breakthrough. Such massive reptiles have a large heart system. Their DNA will help provide a cure for victims of heart disease, the biggest killer of humans on the planet. Krebs travels with Zora and her team, which includes Zora’s longtime friend, Duncan Kincaid, played by Mahershala Ali. They pick up a young paleontologist named Loomis, played by Jonathan Bailey. Their first target is a Mosasaurus, a large marine dinosaur swimming in warm tropical ocean waters.

Meanwhile, Reuben Delgado is taking his two daughters, Teresa and Isabella, on a sailing trip for some family time before Teresa goes off to college. Unhappily for Reuben, Teresa has brought her lazy boyfriend, Xavier, along. This irks Reuben to no end. Their sailing trip turns into a nightmare when the big marine dinosaur being hunted by Zora’s team, capsizes and overturns their sailboat. Happily for them, Zora’s ship goes out of its way to pick up the family after the family sends out a distress signal. Krebs isn’t happy about it, however.

When Zora’s team returns to tracking the Mosasaurus, they find that a herd of smaller marine dinosaurs with large fins helps the larger reptile hunt for food. Zora’s team manages to get the sample from the Mosasaurus. However, all chaos breaks out when the big dinosaur and the smaller ones attack. Teresa tries to put out a distress call over the radio, but Krebs stops her and pushes her out of the cabin. He ignores her cries for help as she clings to the side of the boat, and she then falls into the ocean. As the dinosaurs keep attacking, Xavier sees Teresa in the ocean and jumps into the water to save her. Maybe he’s not such a bad guy after all.

Everyone gets shipwrecked on the same island. However, Reuben, his daughters and Xavier are separated from Zora, Krebs, Duncan, Loomis, and a French mercenary named LeClerc. Reuben’s family follows pipelines to the center of the island while Zora and her people try to retrieve samples from a large brontosaurus-type dinosaur and the eggs of a large flying reptile.

Will they all make it in time to the helicopter pad at the center of the island, where Zora has arranged a rendezvous with a rescue copter? Nothing will prepare them, or the movie audience, however, for the dinosaurs lurking around the helicopter pad.

JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH has several tremendously exciting sequences with various vicious, scary dinosaurs. In one of them, Reuben and his family encounter a sleeping Tyrannosaurus Rex while trying to retrieve a rubber raft. It’s one of the most intense and suspenseful sequences in all the JURASSIC WORLD and JURASSIC PARK franchise. The other dinosaur encounters in REBIRTH are also wonderfully exciting. Each sequence is well structured. They all combine to make this movie one of the great all-time adventure movies.

However, it’s the plight of the family, the lead performances and the wonderful use of music that makes JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH stand out above many other recent adventure thrillers. Led by Manual Garcia Rulfo, who plays the father, the family gives the movie its heart. The chemistry between Scarlett Johansson’s character and her character’s friend, Duncan, played by Mahershala Ali, also enlivens the story.

The movie’s story leads to a great climax with more action and suspense. An act of sacrifice at the end rounds out the whole movie with some emotional depth. It accentuates the movie’s theme, borrowed from the original JURASSIC PARK movie and its iconic music, that life always finds a way.

JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH has lots of mostly light foul language. It also has some anti-capitalist and environmentalist elements involving the Big Pharma company man and the dinosaurs. Also, the paleontologist makes a comment about the human race being on Earth for 200,000 years, which gives a nod to some controversial evolution dating schemes. Of course, the dinosaur encounters are pretty scary. So, MOVIEGUDIE® advises caution for older children. We don’t recommend that families take their younger children to JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH.