Rating: ***
Review Date: 7/5/25
Director: Gareth Edwards
Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey,
Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Luna Blaise, David Iacono, Audrina Miranda,
Ed Skrein
"We don't rule The Earth. We just think we do."
Five years after the events in "Jurassic World: Dominion" (2022), dinosaurs no longer co-exist with humans and have died out everywhere except for a small collection of equatorial islands where the environment suits them. And like all the previous movies, those islands are off limits to human visitors, but that doesn't keep people from trying. This time, a pharmaceutical company sets up a contrived covert mission to retrieve some dinosaur DNA from the forbidden islands, and hires Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) as the team leader. Doctor Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) is the requisite dinosaur expert, a merc named Duncan (Mahershala Ali) supplies the transportation, and slimy Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend) is there to protect the sponsor's interests. Naturally, everything goes to hell when the dinosaurs show up. There's also an unnecessary side plot involving a family whose boat gets sunk by some passing Spinosaurs.
I never bothered watching any of the Chris Pratt "Jurassic World" movies because they looked too silly, so I was intrigued by this film's "back to basics" approach. That, and Scarlett Johansson with a gun is a no-brainer for me. Unfortunately, I found it to be rather disappointing. It all felt just a little too familiar and the best review I read called it "Jurassic World: Rehash." Most of the film felt like it was lifted straight out of the original "Jurassic Park" (1993) when it really didn't need to be. Have they really run out of ideas for ways to have dinosaurs terrorize people?
Fortunately, most of the characters aren't stupid, but they're not super likable, either. The family subplot is ridiculous, although it adds some nice eye candy and additional dino action. Zora, Henry, and Duncan are the obvious heroes, so the film tries to make them as endearing as possible, and while it doesn't quite succeed, you certainly can't argue with the actors' charm and charisma. Scarlett Johansson may have brought me to the theater, but I think it was Mahershala Ali who stole the show. I realize this was a dream role for Johansson, but she feels sorely out of place as a soldier of fortune. They also cut her best line of dialog from the trailer out of the film for some reason, which annoyed me.
The visual effects look great, but there's yet another unique mutant on the loose this time called a D-Rex. They really need to just stick with the basics, but that comes with its own risks. Additionally, the film introduces some silliness that's just too outrageous to ignore, especially regarding the Titanosaurs. Then there's the climbing sequence, where the team is in a valley looking at sheer vertical cliffs that go up at least 300 feet. Zora says, "Looks like we'll be doing some climbing," and then in the next scene they're already at the top. Seems like that would have taken the better part of the day and it looked like a pretty big deal. And then there just happens to be an ancient temple carved into the cliff? Despite all of the over-the-top dino action, the film feels bloated and sluggish, as if it were trying to check off too many boxes. At the same time, so much of it makes so little sense that it feels like it was written by AI. Not the rebirth I was hoping for.