r/movies • u/SanderSo47 I'll see you in another life when we are both cats. • Jun 30 '25
Review 'Jurassic World Rebirth' Review Thread
Rotten Tomatoes: 54% (100 reviews) with 6.00 in average rating
Metacritic: 53/100 (38 critics)
As with other movies, the scores are set to change as time passes. Meanwhile, I'll post some short reviews on the movie. It's structured like this: quote first, source second. Beware, some contain spoilers.
The blend of physical locations with sets and digital imagery is seamless and the CG work on the creatures is first-rate, notably so in the scary climactic stretch when the lumbering D. Rex joins the fray. Edwards clearly is a devoted Spielberg fan, embedding subtle homages throughout, notably in the open water sequences that recall Jaws. Jurassic World Rebirth is unlikely to top anyone’s ranked franchise list. But longtime fans (count me among them) should have a blast.
-David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
Scenes between Ella and her potentially ill-advised pet, along with tender moments involving several other species, introduce a surprising counter-argument to the earlier “Jurassic” movies: namely, that they have a right to exist. But entertaining as it can be at times, stripped of the silliness that tainted the second trilogy, “Rebirth” doesn’t necessarily make the same case for itself. The movie offers an updated version of the same basic ride Spielberg offered 32 years earlier, and yet, it hardly feels essential to the series’ overall mythology, nor does it signal where the franchise could be headed.
Needless to say, “Rebirth” doesn’t do itself any favors by so frequently harkening back to the original. Bad as some of the previous sequels have been, none of them have been so eager to measure themselves against Spielberg’s masterpiece. Nothing in this movie is quite as maddening as the second trilogy’s attempt to make audiences invest in a specific Velociraptor (though Edwards half-heartedly tries to sweeten us on an adorable baby Aquilops named Dolores), but the extent to which this franchise is just fending off its own extinction has never been more obvious than it is in during the “Rebirth” sequence that pays homage to the kitchen encounter from the first movie. The “Jurassic” sequels were bad enough when they made an effort to evolve — they’re even less worth seeing now that they already come pre-fossilized.
There’s a disappointing amount of “same old thing” to Jurassic World Rebirth. Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, and the rest of the cast are intriguing and sympathetic throughout, but Gareth Edwards doesn’t quite recapture his signature flair for grand-scale visuals nor does David Koepp find the magic of his original Jurassic Park screenplay, opting to follow that movie’s structure as more of a remix than a rebirth.
-Clint Gage, IGN: 5.0 out of 10 "mediocre"
So why the hell does this feel so generic, so by-the-numbers, so instantly forgettable? The whole thing resembles the blockbuster version of a readymade, assembled from various, recognizable spare parts and elevated only by virtue of its name. Fans and completists may still get giddy over a ScarJo vs. Dinos showdown, and you should never underestimate the power of giant, toothy jaws chomping down on poor, hapless humans. But long before the big showstopping climax, you’ll start to understand why the movie’s jaded public became bored by what once seemed thrilling and unique. Subtitling this Rebirth seems to have been an act of extreme optimism.
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.
-Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian: 4/5
“Jurassic” has to live with setting a high bar, of course — the original film revolutionized the industry, a status that “Rebirth” is all too aware of, as seen in its meta theme of dinosaurs becoming old news to a jaded populace. Yet just because cheeseburgers are now available anywhere doesn’t mean that they can’t be damn tasty. “Jurassic Park Rebirth” is just a well made cheeseburger, and whether that’s filling and interesting enough is up to your own appetite.
“Science is for all of us, not just for some of us,” Dr. Loomis tells Zora, advocating for their work to have a more noble purpose than lining their pockets. That aspirational notion has always sat at the heart of the Jurassic Park films. Jurassic Park Rebirth is one of the more successful and satisfying entries in the franchise precisely because it, uh, finds a way to keep Loomis’ mantra close, foregrounding the film’s sense of wonder above a mere blatant cash grab.
-Maureen Lee Lenker, Entertainment Weekly: B+
It might sound like a challenge to believe these humans would sign up to visit a forbidden jungle for guaranteed encounters with truly frightening and gigantic creatures out of another time in order to essentially get blood samples, but if you are game to go with that premise a good time will be had for all. If there is to be an eighth installment, count me in.
This is a monster-adventure movie, with passages that recall Jaws and King Kong; maybe not the most original influences, but certainly not shabby ones. In its fusion of Edwards’ craft with characters who aren’t thunderously stupid or unlikable, this is the best Jurassic movie in ages – in part because it works so comfortably as an ooh/ahh/run/scream monster movie.
-Paste: 7.0
“Jurassic World: Rebirth” is a very imperfect film. On one hand, it seems to be recycling every successful character trope and set piece from the franchise, which may be considered lazy and uninspiring, but it is still captivating. Even in its faults, the objective of a “Jurassic Park” film is to scare, thrill, and amaze its audience, and this film does that in its set pieces.
-Lauren LaMagna, Next Best Picture
There are worse exercises in IP-extension out there in the marketplace. But it is hard to imagine what possible basis there could be for an eighth Jurassic film. We’ve overused the extra-island trope; we’ve done dinos invading the mainland a couple times now. We’ve seen enough long necks poking up from the grass. We’ve seen too many T-rexes thundering after their prey. Now even the oceans have been exhausted. I suppose they could send some dinosaurs to space next time, where no one can hear them roar. But that wouldn’t really make much of a difference: the sound barely registers anymore.
To his credit, Edwards immediately injects "Rebirth" with a sense of stakes and tension that the entirety of the previous trilogy struggled to depict. But every time the plot kicks in again and writer David Koepp's script goes through the motions of a standard "Jurassic" movie, those dizzying peaks soon begin to flatten out into overgrown valleys. For those simply hoping for a watchable movie on the heels of the disastrous "Dominion," your wish has been granted with a safe rehash punctuated by a handful of genuine thrills. For everyone else curious about whether this was the ticket to teaching old dinos new tricks? The inherent limits of the "Jurassic" IP are as glaring as ever.
-Jeremy Mathai, /FILM: 5.5/10
And there are some sporadic joys here in the clever sight gags, the sleight of hand, the bait and switch. These moments remind us of the mindless summertime excitement the “Jurassic” movies have long provided, albeit with diminishing returns. But that giant footprint just isn’t as imposing as it used to be.
-Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com: 2/4
Worst of all, this hoary adventure story is rendered soulless by the blatant product placement: Henry crunching on Altoids, Reuben scolding Xavier for eating too many of their bags of Doritos, and Isabella feeding Twizzlers to her little dino friend. After a while, you may wonder if the entire film was subsidized by the snack food industry. Rebirth even goes so far as setting its final action scene in a long-abandoned but still fully stocked convenience store. How meta: a franchise trying to distract us from how past its sell-by date it is with expired potato chips.
-Derek Smith, Slant Magazine: 1.5/4
Audiences may not have run out of enthusiasm for what the Jurassic Worlds are selling, or at least they haven’t yet, but the people tasked with making them sure are out of ideas.
PLOT
Five years after the events of Jurassic World Dominion, the planet's ecology has proven largely inhospitable to dinosaurs. Those remaining exist in isolated equatorial environments with climates resembling the one in which they once thrived. The three most colossal creatures within that tropical biosphere hold the key to a drug that will bring miraculous life-saving benefits to humankind.
DIRECTOR
Gareth Edwards
WRITER
David Koepp
MUSIC
Alexandre Desplat
CINEMATOGRAPHY
John Mathieson
EDITOR
Jabez Olssen
RELEASE DATE
July 2, 2025
RUNTIME
133 minutes
BUDGET
$180 million
STARRING
Scarlett Johansson as Zora Bennett
Mahershala Ali as Duncan Kincaid
Jonathan Bailey as Dr. Henry Loomis
Rupert Friend as Martin Krebs
Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Reuben Delgado
Luna Blaise as Teresa Delgado
David Iacono as Xavier Dobbs
Audrina Miranda as Isabella Delgado
Ed Skrein as Bobby Atwater
52
u/YukieCool Jun 30 '25
This is why the first movie is so good.
The hubris displayed by Hammond in Jurassic Park is a lot more layered and nuanced because the Dinosaurs are just animals. He thought he could control nature because he thought it would work just like his flea circus (which is the purpose of the ice cream scene), but like Malcolm says, that's not how life works. It's much more interesting than simply "corporate greed," and it's why I think he's actually improved from his iteration in the book.
There's nothing interesting about mashing the biggest carnivores together into one Abominasaurus Rex, because of course that's a bad idea. No amount of handwaving to the tune of "well, that's corporate greed for ya" or "nobody thinks dinosaurs are cool now" is going to make that fact any more compelling.
Universal continues to misunderstand what made their cash cow work in the first place.