Jurassic World Rebirth (2025) Review

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

The Jurassic Saga has explored heavily on what happens when life finds a way, but it was a matter of time to get deeper into that idea and ask what happens after.


PLOT


Jurassic World Rebirth takes place five years following the events of Dominion, revealing that most of the dinosaurs of Isla Nublar are not suited for Earth’s modern climate, resulting in most of them to survive in equatorial regions that become exclusive zones for them. Martin Krebs, pharmaceutical executive of ParkerGenix, recruits covert operative Zora Bennett & paleontologist Doctor Henry Loomis to extract biomedical samples of three dinosaur specimen in the abandoned Île Saint-Hubert. Wanting to collect from colossus proportions, they must specifically collect from the Mosasaurus, Quetzalcoatlus and Titanosaurus. The purpose to collect is to test their potential in disease treatment. When passing through Suriname, Zora recruits Duncan Kincaid of similar expertise to lead the expedition. With him does he bring along mercenaries Nina (Philippine Velge), LeClerc (Bechir Sylvian) & Bobby Atwater (Ed Skrein) for extra assist. They do get a Mosasaurus sample as planned upon reaching the island, but they unintentionally take part in rescuing a small family. Reuben Delgado was sailing nearby with his two daughters, Isabella & Teresa, and the latter’a boyfriend Xavier Dobbs, until their boat was attacked by the same Mosasaurus hours prior. Only after rescuing this family does the Mosasaurus attack everyone again with the assist of a Spinosaurus pack. As Martin prevents Teresa from radioing for help, he does nothing when she falls overboard. Her family follow her which causes them to be separated from the team, whereas Bobby and Nina get killed by the team they reach shore. As they must wait 24 hours for a rescue helicopter to come for them, Kincaid leads the team to get a Titanosaurus sample. They do also get a sample from a Quetzacoatlus egg, but LeClerc gets killed in the process. As for the Delgados, Isabella adopts an Aquilops she would name Dolores before evading the wrath of a Tyrannosaurus Rex via raft. Xavier would also almost be eaten by velociraptors, but that would be avoided as well due to the carnivores being killed by a pterosaur/raptor hybrid, Mutadon. They do regroup with the others at an abandoned InGen complex and Teresa immediately exposes Martin for what he did to her, resulting in him to try ditching them with the samples and retreat via UTV. More Mutadons follow them to the point where they flee through underground tunnels. Just when the rescue helicopter arrives, the pilots and even Martin get killed by another hybrid, a six limbed tyrannosaur dubbed the ‘Distortus Rex’, which escaped confinement years prior and took so many lives that prompted the island’s abandonment in the first place. When reaching the end of the tunnel, Isabella fits through the gate to open it for the others so they can get off the island with a nearby boat. Once Zora grabs the samples, Duncan distracts the D Rex with a flare long enough for it to lose him, where he can escape with the others in time. As they officially escape the island, the film ends with Zora & Henry agreeing to distribute the samples as an open source, so that global access is ensured for those who’ll likely need such medicine from it down the line.


THOUGHTS


Since each entry of the preceding trilogy that had starred Chris Pratt surpassed a billion dollars each at the box office, there was no way Universal was gonna stop milking the cow of Dino madness. Instead of Colin Trevorrow, we got Gareth Edwards of Godzilla ‘14 and honestly, he sure nailed it with the formula audiences were expecting. Going to a whole other island was smart because that would mean the obstacles would vary much differently from what we’ve seen before. Since we know the visual effects are gonna be stunning, it goes without saying they peaked when seeing the Titanosaurus herd, homage to when we first saw the Brachiosaurus all the way back in Jurassic Park. Hell, even seeing the dolphins at the end of this movie was a neat callback to the pelicans at the end of said first movie. There were a few digital shots for Dolores, but the puppetry done for her was so damn adorable. Apart from that however, the tension was consistent with the various carnivores that were shown. Having a Spinosaurus pack cooperate with a Mosasaurus was quite genius of a scene because it expressed there is always more than one threat in the ocean. The Quetzacoatlus nest scene was quite suspenseful because it made me afraid of heights again. Truthfully, the raft scene with the T Rex was the standout for me because we were reminded how dangerous this creature has always been. I do think the Mutadons and the D Rex were appropriately creepy as they’re designed to be, but I would’ve been scared of them more if they were completely hidden from marketing, something that was a problem for past hybrids, the Indoraptor and Indominus Rex. Now with those creatures being the big selling point as expected, I think the reason this one is going to be memorable for the better because we still get to learn something important amidst the chaos. In this case, it is more than just doing the right thing but more about making a difference while you can because you only live once and the best way to do so is to put others before yourself at least once. We sure have a villain who is the opposite of that because Rupert Friend nails it in being dead on greedy of a corporate figure that he’d leave a kid to die to make sure he strikes gold with those samples. Apart from that, it’s the fact he isn’t upfront of the rest of the danger that surrounds the island. If he really wanted everyone to trust him, honesty would’ve gone a long way for him. Instead, karma bit him hard. As for the rest of the characters who are far less of a scumbag compared to him, they each succeeded in being likable solely off of looking out for each other. Scarlett Johansson & Mahershala Ali were a great pair as Zora & Duncan respectively because while they have their moments being thrill seekers, they use that to express loyalty & courageousness in order to survive. Even though they start out focused on the payday, that doesn’t mean they’re selfish because they know they wouldn’t forgive themselves if they let the innocent get killed in the crossfire. Zora was motivated to take part in retrieving the samples due to how she wish she could’ve saved her mom from a coronary disease and Duncan’s loss of a son was a combined motive for them to look out for the Delgados as much as they could. They only knew them for a day and Duncan was willing to put his life on the line for them, which showed how much he wanted to redeem himself from something that couldn’t be undone. And on the bright side, he gets to live with a much clear conscience. Henry Loomis may not be a skilled mercenary like them two, but Jonathan Bailey makes him likable as well because due to being under Alan Grant’s wing, he is a guy who loves nature and doesn’t need to think with violence to be the voice of reason, which is what makes it easier for him to consider open sourcing the samples. He knows the whole world is gonna need the medicine should it be the ideal breakthrough that ParkerGenix envisions it to be and catches on how unfair it would be for it to be overpriced for those who need more help. Off of that, he knew he’d better his chances having Zora on his side on what to do with it. While we don’t know what she’d do had Krebs survived, what matters is that she made the right choice and Duncan likely would agree if he was part of the conversation. As for the Delgado family, they do fall into the franchise’s stereotype of a broken family, due to the absence of a matriarch, but they do feel more than that when following them along. I think Manuel Garcia-Rulfo made a solid patriarch as Reuben even though he doesn’t know how to protect them in the wild, he came from the heart wanting to spend time with his kids since their boat trip was to celebrate Teresa going to NYU. If he’s going out of his way to get creative an celebrate a milestone like that, you can’t really hate on him. Audrina Miranda made Isabella a standout because she’s the most curious that makes her brave enough to get through everything, otherwise she wouldn’t be willing to take a liking to Dolores and risk her life opening the gate when a D Rex was near. As for Teresa, Luna Blaise makes her interesting as well because she takes her dad’s footsteps in being resourceful, but has her own dose in bravery since she didn’t hesitate exposing Krebs for what he did or set up the raft that woke up the T Rex. Looking back, it does seem to me that she is attracted to Xavier due to how David Iocono portrays him as the polar opposite of her dad where he’s too laidback for his own good. When the going got rough however, he stepped up each time and did his best protecting her which he proved when jumping into the water for her after Krebs refused to save her. With all that being said, there’s no denying that they’ll all appreciate each other moving forward. I’ve given this movie enough credit on where it shines, but there were still some things that held it back from being better. Like from the top, there should’ve been much better security software of a research facility that would be immune to a goddamn candy wrapper. Billions of dollars on such a facility shouldn’t be that easy to tamper with on accident. Hell, that employee shouldn’t even be that clumsy to have a snack while working on a cautious job like checking on a mutant dinosaur. And if her employee doesn’t want to risk everyone else’s lives by leaving the door shut on him, there was no need for her to stay and watch in regret. If we’re gonna point out Xavier being very lucky that the mutadon focused on eating the raptors, I’d have to say he was at his luckiest out swimming the Mosasaurus. That beast is supposed to have the speed up to 30mph, so it’s insane he had enough time to get back on the boat. Not only that, but not one Spinosaurus chose to shift their focus on him and the Delgados once they got off Duncan’s boat, which is luck at its finest. The same can be said with how they stop going for the kill after Nina. Moving on, Krebs was dumb for many reasons and one of them would be to not have trackers on other dinosaurs to have a better understanding on what would surround the area apart from what he was focused on. I mean having a tracker on the Spinosaurus pack could’ve better prepared them on how fast the team would’ve had to deal with the Mosasaurus’ sample and save the Delgados even though they didn’t anticipate the latter. It even feels too unreal for Krebs to retrieve an abandoned gun that still works after being in the jungle for so long. The same can be said with the cars still working after 17 years, which is how many fans felt with Jurassic World when Zach & Gray jumpstarted a 20 year old battery. That felt dumber than him missing like stormtrooper when shooting at the Mutadons. If the miracles were to get any higher, it’d have to peak when the raft survives being chomped by the T Rex. Also, was he even sure there was a boat left to escape? He wasn’t there when Duncan when found out there’d still be one, so the guy was getting way too much on luck at that point. Lastly, did the group really avoid the Spinosaurus and Mosasaurus when taking the boat? I’m sure dinosaurs sleep, but I’m sure these creatures wouldn’t turn down a meal like that if they passed. The fact we don’t know if they didn’t follow is crazy. Ignore these things however, then you’ll still enjoy another batch of Dino madness that is Jurassic World Rebirth. If these kind of movies are still your jam, check this out.