Jurassic World Rebirth (c) Universal Pictures, Amblin Entertainment
Film: Jurassic World Rebirth
In Cinemas
The seventh film in the Jurassic Park series, Jurassic World Rebirth retains the World rebranding of the second trilogy, but essentially ignores everything about those movies (including stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, and there’s just one mention of Sam Neill’s Alan Grant) and ties up the whole “we live with dinosaurs now” thread in the first fifteen minutes. After that, it’s just a countdown before we follow a different eclectic group of dino food, I mean, thrill seekers, on their way to another island filled with rejected mutant dinosaurs after a horrific accident many years ago that involves the first of many hysterical product placements, with Snickers playing a major role here. The corporate baddie of Rebirth (there’s always one) is Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend), a pharmaceutical exec who is funding a covert operation to extract dino DNA in order to cure all sorts of human diseases, a theory put forth by paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey). Along for a huge payday are their ex-military escorts, led by Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) and Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali), but unexpectedly, there is also a family who gets stranded in the middle of the ocean on their capsized boat after being attacked by an angry mosasaurus. These films always have children in danger (remember Jeff Goldblum’s daughter stowing away in Jurassic Park: The Lost World?) and this time it’s young Isabella Delgado (Audrina Miranda) who, along with her father (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), her older sister Theresa (Luna Blaise) and Theresa’s lazy boyfriend (David Iacono), are thrown into the mix. The two groups get separated once they land on the island and each group has run-ins with various dinosaur species, some veggie eaters, but mostly violent predators who appear when the plot needs them to be there.
Jurassic World Rebirth (c) Universal Pictures, Amblin Entertainment
Directed by Gareth Edwards with a serviceable but laughably plotted script by David Koepp, Jurassic World Rebirth just retools what made the original Steven Spielberg film work so well in 1993. No one comes for the acting, but it’s nice to have the geeky scientist as our hero again, which Bailey handles nicely, imparting scientific mumbo-jumbo (and crunching Altoids) whenever needed. Johansson and Ali make a good team, handling the brawn of the operation. But even though their inclusion defies logic, it is the Delgado family’s section of the film that is the most fun and has the highest amount of suspense and even a cute Aqualops that Isabella calls Dolores. By the time the two groups reunite at the requisite, climactic, rendezvous point, the meanest dino, the Distortus rex, finally makes its appearance, the story becomes inconsequential and the fun of seeing who survives and how they do it takes over, leading to a satisfactory conclusion. (Star Wars fans will giggle as Edwards recycles a “pull the lever” moment from his Rogue One.) The real reason to see this film are the dinosaur effects as they are done seamlessly, with Alexandre Desplat’s score providing much needed suspense and action support, while also peppering some nostalgic, original John Williams themes when needed. There’s not an original moment in this film, but there’s enough excitement and wonder to keep you occupied as you enjoy the air conditioning.
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There are other films you can catch up on this weekend if dinos don’t interest you:
F1 (c) Apple, Warner Bros Pictures
Film: F1
In Cinemas
F1 may be the action alternative to Jurassic World Rebirth, but it is even more unoriginal, repetitive and, in many ways, more exhausting as you have to endure nine F1 races during its run time with Brad Pitt entering two different scenes identically (humbly carrying his own bags) as the white savior when all hope seems lost. The camera loves Pitt, so if the sexy cars are not your jam, Pitt in an ice bath or draped shirtless on a sofa will keep you awake. But the story is filled with cliches and is just plain silly, with the film resetting itself for each race as to whether we should be rooting for Pitt as veteran Sonny Hayes or British upstart Josh Pearce (Damson Idris), who are both, mind you, on the same team. Exciting editing and a stirring score by Hans Zimmer keep you interested throughout, but even Pixar’s Cars had more character development. The only truth in the film’s title is “formula.”
Elio (c) Pixar, Walt Disney Studios
Film: Elio
In Cinemas
Speaking of Pixar, there seems to be an air of failure surrounding Elio, Pixar’s latest animated film, after its disastrous openinging weekend box office performance. A shame since Elio is an original idea (a lonely kid who begs to be abducted by aliens, unexpectedly gets abducted) with some fun charm, although it follows a similar story beat of the 1999 film, Galaxy Quest. Most Pixar films do focus on children protagonists (even WALL-E is a child at heart), but Elio has enough sweet flights of fancy and charming set pieces to make it worth a watch on the big screen before getting lost in its inevitable home on Disney+.
M3GAN 2.0 (c) Universal Pictures
Film: M3GAN 2.0
In Cinemas
M3GAN gets the Terminator 2 treatment for its sequel, in which the eponymous killer doll of the original gets reprogrammed as the good gal. No longer a horror movie, M3GAN 2.0 has the same plot of the recent run of Mission: Impossible movies without much of the goofy camp that made the first movie so fun. Ok, there are a couple of music moments, one at a dance club and the other involving Kate Bush (!), that made me laugh. But those were few and far between.
28 Years Later (c) Sony
Film: 28 Years Later
In Cinemas
28 Years Later is a zombie movie in a genre that has already been saturated, especially on TV in shows like The Last of Us and The Walking Dead. But the OG 28 Days Later from 1995 was a career high for director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland, and while there are some good scares and ugly imagery (I never need to see Zombie schlongs again), the film seems to be building towards its own sequel 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, which comes out in January, instead of providing a satisfactory conclusion. The best thing about the film is its cast, especially young Alfie Williams as our hero. It was certainly enjoyable without giving us anything new to (cough, cough) chew on.
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