Jurassic World: Rebirth

Directed by Gareth Edwards, Jurassic World: Rebirth follows several characters, including Scarlett Johansson’s Zora Bennett and Mahershala Ali’s Duncan Kincaid, as they find themselves under attack by dinosaurs during a perilous (and lucrative) mission. Filmmaker Edwards, armed with David Koepp’s screenplay, does a nice job of initially drawing the viewer into the progressively lackluster proceedings, as Jurassic World: Rebirth kicks off with a tense, exciting sequence detailing a deadly accident within a dino-mutating laboratory – with the picture, beyond that point, seguing into a generic and hopelessly deliberate narrative that contains few wholeheartedly enthralling attributes. The far-from-engrossing atmosphere is compounded by John Mathieson’s unappealing, muddy cinematography and a wildly overlong (and padded-out) running time, while the almost total absence of compelling protagonists ensures that one’s ongoing efforts at working up any interest in or sympathy for their perilous exploits fall completely flat (ie they’re all just so bland). By the time the endless, dimly-lit climax rolls around, Jurassic World: Rebirth has cemented its place as a woefully misguided sequel that stands as an obvious low point within a regrettably erratic series – which is a shame, certainly, given the back-to-basics bent of the film’s approach and storyline.

*1/2 out of ****