'Jurassic World Rebirth' Review: A Better Sequel That Still Can't Rex-amine Its Flaws

A Mutated T-Rex and the Fall of Climate

Seventeen years ago, in 2008, seven years before the Jurassic World incident, a laboratory on the remote island of Ile Saint-Hubert in the Atlantic Ocean was quietly working on mutated dinosaur specimens. Among them was a deformed six-limbed tyrannosaur, eerily dubbed Distortus Rex. As is tradition, it escaped. Chaos ensued. Personnel abandoned the island. You know the drill.

Cut to the present. Earth's climate has deteriorated so badly that dinosaurs can only survive in zones near the equator, which mimic the Mesozoic climate. These are now classified as no-travel zones. Enter ParkerGenix, a pharmaceutical company that sends Martin Krebs (Friend), a morally flexible executive, to assemble a team. He recruits Zora Bennett (Johansson), a former ex-military covert operative, and teams her up with Dr Henry Loomis (Bailey), a dino-loving paleontologist, for a mission to collect biomaterial from three prehistoric specimens. The goal? To extract compounds that could be key to curing heart disease. Clearly, someone at ParkerGenix missed biology class but paid extra attention to Jurassic Park reruns.

Mission Impossible: Dino Sample Edition

Krebs is your standard pharmaceutical company honcho, the kind who smiles with menace and talks in clinical buzzwords. Dr Loomis, played with endearing sincerity, is a man who probably thinks of the Brontosaurus as his spirit animal. And then there's Zora. Scarlett Johansson brings intrigue to her role, playing a woman who seems kind-hearted and mission-ready but is not above entertaining the temptation of walking away richer. There is no elaborate backstory, but she has that kind of energy where every look and silence adds layers to her motivations.

And to be honest, the makers do try to build a solid foundation. The first thirty to thirty-five minutes involve a lot of world-building and character work. There is sincere effort in explaining why anyone would want to risk their life again for a bunch of angry reptiles. There is logic. There is science. There is some emotion. But here’s the problem. None of it quite sticks because you are never fully invested in these people. You know exactly what beats they are going to hit. You know who is the 'villain', who is the voice of reason, and who will eventually wrestle with their conscience while outrunning a dinosaur.

Talk First, Run Later

Here is where things get a little frustrating. For a franchise that defined the idea of running away from large, carnivorous creatures, Jurassic World Rebirth spends way too much time talking. It is like watching a TED Talk on ethical extinction events. There is dialogue, explanation, verbal build-up, and repeated reminders of what is at stake. And for a while, you get it. The film is trying to infuse emotion and intelligence into the franchise. That is a commendable shift.

But again, character investment is key. And if your primary cast is not compelling enough, you are simply filling the screen with beautifully worded monologues that are ultimately forgettable. Zora tries to carry the film’s moral complexity. She is torn between duty and reward. But apart from her, the others often feel like they're standing around waiting for dinosaurs to attack just so they can become more interesting.

Finally, the Dinosaurs Show Up

Thankfully, things get going eventually. Around the forty-minute mark, the dinosaurs begin to appear in full swing, and with that, the real Jurassic World experience returns. There is spectacle. There is mayhem. There is that old-school panic that comes when a predator towers over a human who definitely does not run fast enough. The last thirty to forty minutes are packed with sequences that are visually and narratively thrilling.

The Mosasaurus gets a long and incredibly fun action stretch, especially in the ocean. Watching a sea-bound dinosaur engage in prolonged aquatic terror is always a good time. The Titanosaurus makes its presence felt with grandeur. However, the aviary Quetzalcoatlus sadly does not get the same share of thrill. It flaps in, makes some noise, and then exits like a celebrity cameo that was hyped in the trailer but forgotten in the film. A missed opportunity, really.

When CGI Meets Budget Cuts

Now let’s talk about the most uneven part. The visuals. The CGI here swings between immersive and laughably artificial. In several moments, you are watching thrilling sequences. In others, you are painfully aware that a green screen is doing all the heavy lifting. Especially during cliff-side scenes or jungle sequences, you can practically see the chroma bleed through. The 3D element feels more like a formality than an enhancement.

Sound design too lacks consistency. There are scenes where you can feel the roar vibrating in your chest. And then there are others where even a dinosaur’s rampage feels oddly muted. To be fair, this could partially be affected by which theater you are watching in. But if a film with a budget close to 200 million cannot ensure consistent visual and sound quality across premium formats, that becomes a glaring issue. Jurassic films are nothing without visual spectacle. And anything that undercuts that, whether by design or accident, takes a major chunk out of the experience.

Improvement, But Still Not Innovation

Let us be honest here. Jurassic World Rebirth is a definite improvement over the last two films in the series. Especially over Dominion, which was more chaos than content. This film makes a genuine attempt to reframe the franchise. It goes back to where it started, tries to infuse some logic into the madness, and puts forward characters who, while not very memorable, are at least functioning within a thought-out framework.

But improvement does not mean innovation. The structure is still familiar. The tropes are still around. And while the plot is more cohesive, it still feels like a bunch of rehearsed notes rather than a spontaneous performance. There is fun to be had. But it is the kind of fun that feels like going back to a theme park where you have been too many times. You remember the rides. You enjoy them. But you are also a little bored.

A Franchise on Life Support or Just Warming Up?

Jurassic World Rebirth entertains. No doubt about that. It has enough moments to keep the audience engaged. It has enough dinosaurs to justify the title. But the question is not whether the film works. The question is whether this franchise still has enough fire to truly evolve. The studios clearly believe in its commercial viability. And as long as these films keep earning double what they cost, they will continue to be made.

But what is truly needed is the consistent effort to make them stand out. Not just louder or bigger. Smarter. Bolder. More emotionally grounded. Because even though this film tries to move in that direction, the execution falters too often. The action sequences save the day. The characters try their best. The director clearly wants more. But you leave the theater knowing that while this was an improvement, it was not the full transformation the franchise needed.

Jurassic World Rebirth is not the end of the road. But it is not quite the beginning of something exciting either. It is the middle point. A moment of pause. A question mark in the form of a roar.