Jurassic World Rebirth is one of the most anticipated releases of the year. One of the most beloved film franchises all over the world, the upcoming film arrives with high expectations. The first reviews for the Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey-starrer have arrived, but unfortunately they are not all roaring with praise! (Also read: The Devil Wears Prada 2 begins filming: Here’s who is not returning from the original cast)
What are the critics saying?
The film has opened to a 54% score on the review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes after 98 reviews. David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter gave a mixed review, noting, “There are some mighty new monsters on the prowl, but this is primarily an assembly of recycled story beats.”
Writing for The Daily Beast, critic Nick Schager pointed out that the characters are thinly written, “Jurassic World Rebirth is totally devoid of personality, with Johansson stuck playing a thinly sketched covert operative whose self-interest quickly and jarringly gives way to altruism, and the Oscar-winning Ali saddled with a featureless role that’s far beneath his talents and mostly consigns him to the background.
What doesn’t work
Most reviews noted the sluggish plot, which takes time to set up and constantly refers to the original film. Sidhant Adlakha of Inverse wrote, “From the moment everyone reaches the central island, the filmmaking on display is just plain bad. Moments of horror, action, and awe are cut together without nearly enough consideration of rhythm or emotional impact.”
Peter Debruge of Variety pointed out, “The movie offers an updated version of the same basic ride Spielberg offered 32 years earlier, and yet, it hardly feels essential to the series’ overall mythology, nor does it signal where the franchise could be headed.”
Praise for visual effects
Nevertheless, there was unanimous praise for the special effects in the film. “One of the best set pieces this time is a river encounter with a sleeping T-Rex awakened to wreak havoc came from Crichton’s novel but not feasible to film in 1993. It clearly was now, judging from the results, as modern technology has caught up to it so we get a nice T-Rex cameo as a big bonus. And let’s face it, as in every Jurassic pic, the real stars we come for are the dinos, and this current bunch are dino-myte (sorry, so sorry). Credit the effects wizards who worked overtime to deliver, and they do,” wrote Deadline‘s Pete Hammond.
Aaron Neuwirth of We Live Entertainment wrote, “Jurassic World Rebirth does a fine job of having these mega beasts register as true forces of nature that happen to be contending with tiny humans. Smart choices are made as far as which dinosaurs receive a lot of attention, which includes being the first Jurassic movie to deemphasise raptors for a change, as well as only giving so much time to the most notable mutant that arrives later in the film, following a brief introduction at the top.”
Jurassic World Rebirth, directed by Gareth Edwards and written by David Koepp, will be released in theatres on July 2.
