Jurassic World: Renaissance

I wish I could take a previous review for a Jurassic park clone and insert it here to get across the effort the studio is putting into these now. It's just a cheap cash in for some money. Very boring and predictable. The CGI actually looked worse than the 1993 movie. How is that even possible you ask? By just having gratuitous CGI constantly. It just looks bad and I'm actually depressed after watching this. Something about it all just felt cynical and like it somehow ruined my love of the original a little bit. With that said, this is the last ride for me on this franchise. It hasn't been good for decades as I look back and think about these films.

As someone who's watched every entry in the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World franchises, I have to say, this latest installment is the most disappointing of them all. But should you skip it entirely? Absolutely not. It still works as a decent popcorn flick if you're just in the mood for some dino-action without expecting much else.

When Scarlett Johansson was announced as part of the cast, I had high hopes for a standout performance, especially given her strong track record and the charisma Chris Pratt brought to the previous Jurassic World films. Unfortunately, the film doesn't give her much to work with, and her potential feels underutilized.

What really lets this movie down is its tone. The signature humor that helped balance the tension in earlier films is noticeably absent. Even worse, the horror and suspense hallmarks of any good dinosaur movie are dialed way down, leaving the action feeling flat.

The story itself is a mess. It stumbles at the start, never quite finds its rhythm, and ends without impact. The plot feels disjointed, and the characters are poorly developed, you never feel emotionally invested in what's happening.

And then there's the CGI. For a franchise known for groundbreaking visual effects, this entry is shockingly subpar. The effects are shabby and unconvincing, which really takes you out of the experience.

Bottom line: it's a missed opportunity in almost every way. Still, if you're a fan of the series or just want to see dinosaurs on screen, it's worth a one-time watch, just lower your expectations.

I didn't go in with very high expectations, but this still should have been better considering David Koepp was returning as a writer and Gareth Edwards is a good choice for director. I even liked his 2014 Godzilla movie more than most people, so I am far from a hater.

I'll break this down into three pros and cons to keep this short.

Pros:

1) There are dinosaurs.

2) Some great location photography, especially in Thailand.

3) There are a couple of great moments of grandeur, although the best one for me (revealing a herd in a valley) relies on a lot of nostalgia farming. Still, it's effective. There's also a sequence with a raft that feels like Spielberg could have directed it, in a good way.

Cons:

1) The script is bad. Lots of exposition, despite the fact that the plot is very simplistic. Some of the characters are annoying. Everything is very predictable, to the point that there's really not a single surprise. There's little tension or sense of danger or even mystery.

2) The cast. Most of them seem to be here to collect a paycheck. Scarlett Johansson seems a little miscast for the character she's playing, though I'd still primarily blame the writing rather than her performance. Jonathan Bailey is a non-entity. Mahershala Ali is wasted. None of these characters are memorable. The best character is probably a tiny dinosaur they meet along the way that gets a few easy "aww" moments. It's cheap, but it works.

3) The special effects. As far as I could tell, the dinosaurs are 100% CGI (or close to it). Dominion was far from good but the mix of practical and CGI effects was nice to see, and a step in the right direction. I was hoping for more of that here, especially since there are several opportunities for practical effects once they get on the island. Everything looks artificial. It's also one of those movies where despite the great location photography, some of the environments still look really fake.

Anyway... the last three movies in this franchise have all been pretty bad. I don't expect something on par with the first Jurassic Park, but I think we could do a little better than this!

5/10.

It's rare I see films on their opening day, opening weekend is relatively common but - as I'm otherwise engaged this weekend, I decided to see "Jurassic World Rebirth" on a Wednesday evening. I wish I could say it was because of enthusiasm for the series, but that has largely been beaten out of me at this point. I wish I could say that Rebirth was a film that reignited my love of the franchise but, whilst it's fine, it's largely another retread.

Dinosaurs have proven ill adjusted to the climate of most modern countries, with those that have survived clustering around the equator. Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend) representative of ParkerGenix believes that genetic material from three live dinosaurs will help with the research into heart disease that his company are planning. He hires Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johannson) and Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) as lead and scientific expert of his expedition, and they head to the island of Ile Saint-Hubert. But the island was InGen's genetics experiment hub, abandoned following an incident years earlier.

To stress, I didn't think that "Rebirth" was a bad film. I thought the central performances were good and I liked the chemistry between Johansson and Bailey and the endless charisma of Mahershala Ali. I thought the film looked really good Gareth Edwards is a great visual film maker and has plenty of experience with large scale creatures.

The problem is that it's essentially 'another' Jurassic movie and feels like its plot is cribbed almost entirely from existing elements of the series. The stranded family from "Jurassic World 3", the experts from "Lost World", the really dangerous 'final boss' creature from "World" - with a nod towards the jails underneath Jabba's palace.

Without any sort of new angle the word I kept coming back to when thinking about the film was 'inessential' and, once again whilst this was fine, I do feel like the whole franchise could benefit from a lengthy break.

Honestly, the first half felt all over the place - too much talking, too many introductions, and pacing that dragged. But once they hit the island, it got better: dinosaur action scenes were intense and visual effects impressive, especially that river chase and cliff sequence.

Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey were solid, with Bailey bringing unexpected charm despite some forced emotional lines. The movie leans heavily on spectacle and nostalgia, yet the human characters felt shallow and underwritten - I never truly cared about them.

It's entertaining as a summer blockbuster if you just want dinosaur chaos, but it lacks depth. Still, worth the watch for the action and visuals.