Jurassic World Rebirth brings the iconic dinosaur franchise back to the big screen with some brilliant set pieces, but loses some of the whimsy and charm along the way.

Gareth Edwards
David Koepp
Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend, Mahershala Ali, Luna Blaise, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo
Release Date: July 2, 2025

Jurassic World Rebirth has finally arrived to kick off a stacked month of movies. As a massive, well-documented fan of the series (yes, even the last two), I’ve been eagerly awaiting this entry. With David Koepp coming back to handle the script and Gareth Edwards feeling like a uniquely perfect director for the franchise, I was thrilled to see where things were headed.

Generally speaking, the film is successful in showing there’s still life to be had in the franchise. There are numerous impressive action sequences—some of which I’m still un-clenching from—some intriguing ideas, and some genuinely fun character moments. The problem, however, is the story and characters don’t feel complete; almost like it’s a first draft of a movie rather than the final product.

If you’ve watched the trailers, you’ve likely already got a firm grasp on the story. Dinosaurs are old news at this point in time, and largely out of vogue with the public. Despite their public release and how things went with the previous films, many of those dinosaurs have died out. Turns out, our modern environment isn’t hospitable (outside of the zoo setting) for dinosaurs to truly live again. As such, there’s a limited band of space along the equator where they’ve been surviving and it’s, of course, strictly prohibited to visitors.

Of course, that’s not gonna stop some people. Enter Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend) of ParkerGenix, a pharmaceutical company looking to extract specific blood samples in order to develop a revolutionary new medical drug. He enlists covert-ops mercenary Zora (Scarlett Johansson) to get him and his scientist, Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) onto the island and back out with the necessary samples. Zora brings along an old friend, Duncan (Mahershala Ali) and his crew to help ensure success and all the money they need to retire from the mercenary life.

I won’t go into any detailed spoilers, but as you could imagine, things don’t go according to plan and they find themselves (along with a family they rescued) stranded on the island, which also turns out to be one of InGEN’s secret labs where they concocted some mutant dinosaurs as well…the ones that didn’t work out. The goal becomes to survive long enough to still snag the samples and hit the backup extraction point.

By and large, it’s a fairly straightforward plot that keeps the characters moving from one wild situation to another. It introduces some interesting ideas along the way, not only about the ethics of dealing with de-extincted animals, but what it means to truly survive and live for something. Not all of these things are necessarily conveyed the way I wanted…but I’ll get to that here in a bit.

If you’re looking for great dinosaur action, Rebirth absolutely brings the goods. I love the overall creature designs. The new mutant-dinos are fun and terrifying in their own ways, while some of the more classic dinos we’ve seen in other films are given a refresh. The result are some impressive looking creatures that pop off the screen.

Even better, Gareth Edwards is no stranger to creature feature action. One of the things I’ve always loved about his filmmaking style (even with The Creator and Rogue One), is how he manages to provide a distinct sense of scale to everything. From how he frames his shots and handles certain reveals, he manages to make each encounter feel as epic as you’d imagine them to be.

This translate well to the action pieces (which are in abundance once they get to the island) which will have you on the edge of your seat. There are numerous “holy shit” moments presented in some fun ways. Even during sequences where you know, roughly, how things are about to shake-out, the film manages to still shock you with its execution.

Despite seeing much of the T-Rex/raft scene thanks to the trailers, it’s still one of the most intense moments in the film. Seriously, I was white-knuckling the armrests and didn’t take a full breath until the scene was over. All of the major action scenes manage to bring this level of intensity without feeling like it relies on the same tactics each time. And how Rebirth builds to these moments embraces the horror aspect of the franchise to provide some legitimately scares/thrills.

I was also pleasantly surprised at how genuinely funny the film is at several points. Not just from one or two designated characters, but nearly everyone brings some necessary comedic relief to help break up the tension. More importantly, these comedic beats feel as though they come about naturally and very much in line with the characters themselves.

One of the film’s biggest issues rears its head early on: it is ridiculously heavy on the exposition through dialog. I mean, the first act of the movie is packed with conversations that feel the need to explain every character/story detail. It’s a clear-cut example of ‘telling’ versus ‘showing’ in storytelling, which is wild considering the film does a pretty solid job of showing much of the important stuff too. So the exposition feels redundant and just slows things down, or stops the momentum dead altogether.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good human story with these films—I think too many forget just how much of a slow burn the original really is. The problem here is in the execution. Nearly every conversation feels forced in some way. The types of discussions they have, and the amount of lore/backstory, don’t feel like things that would pop up naturally between people. It feels like it happens simply because the script needs them to convey this information.

The result is a first act that feels bloated, leaving you feeling like Milhouse from The Simpsons frustrated and yelling, “when are they going to get to the [dinosaur island]!” Again, the idea isn’t necessarily bad. After all, establishing the characters ahead of time helps to make (some of) their inevitable death’s all the more impactful. But Rebirth goes overboard with it.

How much did we really know about Lex and Tim in the original film before they started their tour/journey? Not much. We learned more about them as they traveled with the group and experienced things. Bits of detail sprinkled throughout the entire film. Rebirth front loads everything. Imagine if we spent the first 5-10 minutes with Lex had a conversation with Alan Grant about how she’s an animal loving vegetarian who also happens to be a whiz with technology and a hacker.

That’s pretty much how Rebirth parses out information, and for some reason is insistent on doing this with just about everyone, one right after another. Aside from messing with the general pacing, it makes the characters feel…well, like characters rather than real people.

It’s strange, because it’s those smaller moments between characters, the off the cuff remarks and humorous beats, where they feel the most natural. Which is where the “feels like a first draft” aspect comes into play. There are some genuinely great character moments sprinkled in here, bright spots which show the potential in this particular story. It just needed another couple passes to “trim the fat” and smooth out a few things.

What might be even more important (and the factor I think is tripping up more of the diehard Jurassic fans) is that Rebirth is missing a sense of wonder and awe…maybe even a dash of whimsy. It’s likely an intentional choice, as the whole idea is the world has moved on from dinosaurs and aren’t as interested in them. They’re “old news.” The problem, is it makes for a more sterile story and characters; making it hard to connect at points.

Easily one of the film’s best scenes (not a spoiler since it’s all over the trailers/commercials) is when the group encounters the herd of Titanosaurus. As we witness two of them interact lovingly, it hammers home the idea these are real, living and breathing creatures with thoughts and even feelings. It’s a emotional moment, and we see its impact on the humans witnessing it and serves as a turning point for many of them in how they approach things.

Despite the fact it’s not part of an action sequence, I suspect this will be one of the scenes that sticks with people most and remember fondly. Largely because it’s one of the few moments that brings back that sense of whimsy/awe we tend to associate with these movies.

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It feels like I’ve done more to tear this movie down, and I don’t want to leave you all with that impression. It definitely has its issues and you can almost feel how the studio mandated they stick to a specific release date and did everything they could to make it happen. But there are good things in this movie. Things that make me feel like this franchise can still be viable (I also think they should stick to standalone stories), and that whatever comes next could be truly special.

For what it is, however, it remains a lot of fun. The action sequences rival all of the best moments in the franchise and a begging to be seen on the biggest screen possible. The story, and characters, are engaging enough to keep you invested to the end, even if they’re presented a little flatly.

Honestly, after sitting with it for the night, I’ve actually warmed up to it more than when the credits first rolled. There are elements that are absolutely sticking with me and I keep dwelling on, leaving me interested in making a return visit to see how it holds up.