We take a look at what is being said about the latest film in the franchise…
The Guardian: **** “This new Jurassic adventure isn’t doing anything so very different from the earlier successful models, perhaps, and I could have done without its outrageous brand synergy product placement for certain brands of chocolate bar. But it feels relaxed and sure-footed in its Spielberg pastiche, its big dino-jeopardy moments and its deployment of thrills and laughs. Maybe the series can’t and shouldn’t go on for ever: we need new and original ideas. This one would be great to go out on.”
BBC.com: ** “There is a definite whiff of staleness about the latest Jurassic film, which strains to come up with a fresh take on a formula – outrun those dinosaurs – that has made billions of dollars and clearly can’t be messed with too much. It turns out the film-makers should have messed with it a little more. Jurassic World Rebirth has major stars in Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey, and better-designed creatures than ever, but so few thrills that it may be the weakest of the Jurassic franchise.”
The Independent: **** “Starring Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey and Mahershala Ali, this revival rescues a long-in-the-tooth series that – when led by Chris Pratt – had spun wildly out of control.”
Time Out: *** “Throwing a terrified family and some munchable supporting characters into the mix, Jurassic World Rebirth gets on with delivering everything you’d expect and not much that you wouldn’t. Credit to Edwards, who gives us a kind of mega-budget version of his arresting debut sci-fi Monsters, substituting lush Thailand locations for the movie’s Central American island and delivering one or two of the best sequences since Jurassic Park. One T-rex attack along a set of rapids is a masterclass in action design. “
The Telegraph: ***** ” The combined charisma of Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali and Jonathan Bailey makes this thrill-ride the blockbuster of the summer.”
IGN.com: “But I’ve gotten this far into the review without focusing much on the main attractions: the dinosaurs. The insanely mutated genetic cocktail that gets loose in the opening sequence looms over much of Rebirth. Edwards and writer David Koepp keep its threat off screen for the most part, in a very Spielbergian show of restraint. And this is, as I said before, the basket in which I was keeping all my ostrich eggs and amphibian DNA: a Gareth Edwards sense of scale.”
BFI.org: “To give Jurassic World: Rebirth its due, there’s a pleasantly throwback feel to its island survival thrills. British director Gareth Edwards, now an experienced hand at blockbuster sequels (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)) and monster mashes (Godzilla (2014)), shoots on 35mm film, self-consciously reaching for Spielberg’s bygone sense of wonder. The tripartite water-land-air mission deftly switches up locations and creatures, and an abandoned lab now overrun by its mutant crossbreeds attempts to amplify the horror element. The domed head and thrusting jaws of new big bad, Distortus Rex(!), resemble nothing so much as a prehistoric Alien xenomorph.”
Rolling Stone: “And while director Gareth Edwards knows how to mount a production heavy with CGI spectacle and multi-character business (he’s responsible for the 2014 Godzilla reboot as well as Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), there’s a sort of auto-pilot feel to the proceedings here. Jurassic World: Rebirth has a better-than-average filmmaker at the helm, a top-notch screenwriter, a bona fide movie star in action-hero mode, one of the best actors working today — both Johansson and Ali are doing a lot of heavy lifting here, and are serious troupers in terms of scared-reaction-shot duties — and the benefit of a reliable, time-tested intellectual property.”
Variety: “Gareth Edwards rejects the silliness of the previous three films, directing Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey through a series of tense, exciting set-pieces that hew closer to Steven Spielberg’s 1993 classic.”
Jurassic World Rebirth is out in cinemas now.