In June 1993, the world was reintroduced to dinosaurs, this time on the big screen. It is now July 2025, and Gareth Edwards has taken the director’s seat with Jurassic World: Rebirth. This is not his first time creating a new piece that ties to cinematic history. In 2014, he directed Godzilla, and in 2016, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. He understands just how much homage to Spielberg is needed without crossing the line of trying to be Spielberg. Another skill he brought is knowing when and how to build tension. Going from scenes of beautiful blue water to something bumping a boat, or two herbivore dinosaurs being gentle and sweet with each other, to moments later a flying dinosaur roughly the size of an F16 with a very sharp beak, and it isn’t afraid to use it.
Assisting with creating these moments, the John Williams score for the franchise is used throughout. Twenty-four hours later, the earworm is still with me, yet I am not annoyed by it. When and how it was manipulated and played fit well, keeping my heart rate in sync with what was intended to be happening on the screen.
This story takes place five years after the events of Jurassic World: Dominion. The crawl wasn’t enough for me to understand when and where things were taking place. (How did a dinosaur create a traffic jam in a major city? How did it get there? Why was everyone calm about a dinosaur?) A group heads out to a “no one allowed” area, which all governments call a restricted zone at the equator, to extract DNA for medical exploration. Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend) is an employee of a major pharmaceutical company, and he hires Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) to assist with this mission. They take Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) along to identify the three species to be collected from.
I do need to give credit where credit is due. I enjoyed Bailey in his role in this film. An educated gentleman who isn’t afraid of adventure might be attracted to the age-appropriate character in this film, which completely changed my opinion from last year.
The script itself left me wanting. While some of the sequences and scenes were amazing, the storyline has me wondering if this was fan fiction that was turned into a movie. Some aspects were a bit too predictable, where adding depth to the character or filling in more pieces of the storyline would have closed some gaps. Other storylines did not hold any surprises and were almost yawn-worthy due to their frequent use.
All in all, I am glad I saw this in an IMAX theater with a reclining seat, air conditioning running at full blast, and an audience to enhance the experience and emotions. Make sure to grab Snickers, M&M’s, or Twix on the way in with your popcorn. Go earlier in the day and get out of the heat this weekend.
Director: Gareth Edwards
Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence/action, bloody images, some suggestive references, language, and a drug reference.
Selig Rating: 3 stars
Runtime: 2h 14m
Release Date: July 2, 2025
Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Movie Site: Jurassic World: Rebirth website
Trailer: Jurassic World: Rebirth trailer
The Selig Rating Scale:
5 Stars – Excellent movie/show, well worth the time and price.
4 Stars – Good movie/show
3 Stars – OK movie/show
2 Stars – Well, there was nothing else…
1 Star – Total waste of time.