Jurassic World: Rebirth 4K 2025

Why does the dinosaur movie franchise still exist and gross billions at the box office? It's not about the monsters or the actors' performances, but about nostalgia. I still remember watching Jurassic Park for the first time thirty years ago at a video rental store. At the time, it was something new, unexpected, impressive, and a little scary to watch. Later, there were sequels, a reboot, and even an animated series. But everything revolved around Michael Crichton's novels and Steven Spielberg's film. In fact, in over thirty years, they haven't been able to come up with anything new.

I saw the seventh film as a kind of “correction of mistakes” after the frankly disappointing “Fall Kingdom” and “Dominion.” In fact, “Resurgence” was promoted as a return to the roots of the dinosaur film franchise. On paper and in the trailers, it sounded and looked good, but in reality...

I'll be blunt and honest: we've already seen all this somewhere between 1993 and 2022. The plot twists are easy to read and simply cannot surprise. Although I'm lying: the stupidity of some characters, ready to jump into the water towards a mosasaur. Or the invisibility of giant titanosaurs, which are impossible to spot ten meters in front of you. And the traditional indestructibility of the main characters, for whom falling off a cliff is a piece of cake. Probably, before being sent to the island, Zora Bennett and company had a few beers with Dominic Toretto and embraced family values.

Speaking of the latter, no film in this series is complete without children. Here there are three of them, along with their dim-witted father, who has taken them on a trip to a restricted area (yes, that's happened before too). A significant part of the screen time is taken up by the sluggish conflict between fathers and children - a teenage junkie and a father who is tired of life. Perhaps the most interesting thing was to watch the youngest child, who found a true friend on the island. However, even this plot arc is, alas, not new.

Despite the repetitiveness of the plot and the simplicity of the dialogue, the seventh installment of the Jurassic franchise turned out to be very spectacular. Finally, for the first time in ten years, we were shown a lot of dinosaurs! A lot, I would say. And not just the classic Tyrannosaurus rex and velociraptors. There are also mosasaurs, spinosaurs, and numerous mutants dreamed up by the sick imaginations of the screenwriters. Some of them look quite good, but others were borrowed from another monster franchise featuring Godzilla, King Kong, and all the rest. The main monster, Distortus Rex, reminded me most of Ghoul from the 2014 film Godzilla, which was directed by the same director, Gareth Edwards. And the Mutadons are winged skullosaurs from the 2017 film Kong: Skull Island. The screenwriters have already opened Pandora's box, so in the next installment, they can create human-raptor hybrids, because everyone is already tired of ordinary dinosaurs.

Perhaps the main disappointment of the film was not even its predictability, but the completely bland, cardboard characters without any charisma or zest. The polished Scarlett Johansson is stuck in the role of Black Widow, and the wonderful Mahershala Ali is not particularly convincing as a mercenary. Although he is almost the only one who tries to act with soul. Young Audrina Miranda, on the other hand, is very convincing for her 12 years. The rest are just extras who flit about and annoy until the very end.

The natural locations are a delight. Finally, it's not the Hawaiian Islands, which have served as a dinosaur reserve for a quarter of a century. The landscapes of Southeast Asia add their own color and atmosphere, as if the heroes have landed on Skull Island to visit a giant gorilla. And John Williams' immortal music is capable of saving even the most disastrous scenes.

The scenes with the mosasaur deserve one and a half points. I give one point each for the landscapes and music. Another point goes to the young actress's performance. I add half a point for Dr. Loomis's good decision at the end and for the indestructible rubber boat.