Monday night I saw JWR at Cinemark's Secret Movie Series.
Movie showed 7pm, didn't start til 7:30 from what felt like every trailer out there.
Movie was introduced by Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey. It was a really cool little introduction saying how we were among some of the first to see the movie that weren't seeing it at some big red carpet style premiere.
I will preface my spoiler review with I took my dad with me to see this movie, and we both left happy. In the car we talked about the movie the whole time.
I think this was an awesome addition to the Jurassic Franchise. And it was a solid summer 2025 blockbuster movie.
Being the 7th film in the franchise after first watch, it falls around the 3rd spot for me. I don't know what is so different about the original JP movies vs the JW movies in terms of watch ability. I could sit down any time and watch any of the JP movies on repeat. I have to be in a mood to watch a JW movie.
1. JP
2. TLW:JP
3: JW:R
4: JW
5: JP3
6: JW: D
7: JW:FK
SOUNDTRACK
I enjoyed the overall soundtrack of the movie. The John Williams original theme gets played a handful of times throughout the movie. The most notable is the piano only version when they are collecting the blood from the large herbivore (titanasauras?) if my memory serves me right. There was other times the soundtrack sounded down right terrifying like it was in a Hitchcock movie, most notably the opening scene. One of my favorite over all things about the soundtrack was almost the LACK of. When they are in the jungle, you just hear jungle sounds. The soundtrack for a large bit of the movie felt like just ambient natural sound. To me it let the movie breathe more. The only time the music felt weird was when they were in the compound at the end of the movie and the power comes on. I wasn't sure if they could hear the music, or just the audience. The choice of song was just a little too cliche for me.
CINEMATOGRAPHY
So I went into this movie and saw that it was shot on Kodak Film. I assume it was like this at all the screenings? But there was multiple times in the movie I can remember at least 3 when the movie had a hiccup that you only see with film. Like where it almost skips. I don't know what the technical term is, but it's like giant pixels on the screen. I absolutely loved the color grading of the movie. The shoots that were done on a physical location vs Green screen sound stage like most every movie is these days was absolutely refreshing to the eyes. The scale felt really nice on everything too. The only thing scale was that seemed off was at times the D Rex felt larger than life, and then at the very end of the movie when they are on the dock, it didn't feel like it was that large as prior. A good majority of the movie is in or near water, and I thought the scale of everything was just shot really well in the aspect that water is a new thing for the Jurassic franchise.
BREAKDOWN
The movie starts off with a flashback to 17 years ago. If we are operating that all this happens in a real timeline, Jurassic World came out in 2015. That would make the flashback 2 years prior to Jurassic World. Ingen is in the lab cookin up Dinos and experimenting to make hybrid theme park monsters. This movie or the Jurassic World franchise almost has zero ties with the Jurassic Park side of things other than Dominion had the OG cast in the movie. Dr Henry Loomis mentioned he studied under Allen Grant briefly but that might be the only connection.
To my knowledge there was no movie title anywhere in the movie, and I stayed for most of the credits and never saw one. After the flashback there was a red Jurassic logo and then the movie flash forwards to present time with a few title card scenes to catch everyone up on what's happening, like a Star Wars crawl, except this was a few sentences.
We are in present time and all the remaining Dino's alive on earth are starting to die. The ones that remain live near the equator because that is the climate that most resembles theirs.
Act 1 of this movie is breaking down all the info on what's going on. It's lots of dialogue. We are understanding the plot of the movie. That's why this part of the movie felt slow and long. As much as I agree with that, I think this movie does a great justice of literally spelling out everything. Like why do we have to go after XZY Dino… because they have the largest hearts… why can't we collect blood from a dead dinosaur… because something decays rapidly. As cheesy as some of the things were it's explains everything where you'd have to be pretty dense to not understand what's going on.
I believe the entire movie takes place over a 3 day span? And it feels like that. From the start of the movie, to the end… just go go go. One thing i appreciate is when Zora is talking to Duncan on the boat. It serves 2 purposes in my eyes, to show the passage of time ( it was just snap your fingers and we are on the island) and it's also character building because they are all brand new people we know or have nothing invested in at this moment. It was slightly strange conversations that I don't understand after 1 viewing. Zora had a partner or husband die? I swear she was going to say something happened in Budapest. And Duncan had a soft spot for kids like did his son die? Or his wife just get custody of him. He takes his photo off his ship once they get to land and then was adamant about saving the kids at the end. Their character development didn't fully land with me.
Act 2 is collecting all the blood samples from the 3 Dino's. I thought we were going to get a megaladon pop up in the movie. I was slightly confused about how many mosasaurus there was. Are there multiple in the ocean or was it a glitch? I felt like the introduction of the family on a sailboat was subtle enough and again when the weird dialogue happens like what are you doing out here… or why do you have kids with you… as cheesy as it is, the movie answers those questions right away. From the moment the boyfriend is introduced I was hoping that he'd get eaten. I liked how the movie splits up the 2 groups and goes back and forth through out act 2. Everyone felt like they had developed and reason… the one group had reason to collect samples. The family team was following the geothermal pipe in hopes it would lead them to the compound. The scene on the beach where the spino just stands up before killing that let was AWESOME. In JP3 there's a whole lot of flying dinosaurs, then same with JW. After they collect the 2nd blood samples and see where they need to climb the mountain, it felt weird that there was only ONE flying dinosaur. And from the group you see multiple flying around. The way the one guy gets eaten there was AWESOME you see the crest of the Dino and then the full mouth as it's rearranging the guy to swallow him whole. RIP the velociraptor. In the music for like a a minute if that only to get killed by the mutadon. Looked like the raptors design from JP3. The riverboat scene was goated in my opinion. It never crossed my mind that the Rex didn't bite down hard enough to pop the raft. The Rex seemed more curious like a cat that was playing with it to find out what it was than actually kill it.
Act 3 when you think you are going to be rescued only for the D Rex to show up and wreck the party. The big pharma rep, Martin has a weird dynamic in this movie, especially once the family enters the movie. Like he just randomly stumbled on a crashed helo with a guy holding a pistol. And then him trying to "kill the daughter". His character might as well been Denis Nedry. He running away in a jeep with all the samples in a case. He's heading towards the docks and in the end gets eaten. I loved how when Zora gets the gun and she shoots the mutadon it DIES. The animals are not bullet proof unlike in JW and JW:FK they shoot at the Dino's and they seem invincible to bullets. When the D Rex shows up and eats the helicopter, it seems larger than life, but when we see it again on the dock, it does not seem that big.
LIKES
This movie felt like a breath of fresh air, especially compared to the last 2 movies. The movie stands on its own 2 feet. Other than hearing Allen Grants name mentioned once, and seeing Ingen on things. This movie stands alone. You didn't need to watch 6 previous films to understand what was happening. The director did a great job of giving every Dino screen time. Unlike other movies where the trex, raptors, Indominus and so on are the main show, the movie gives everyone a really solid piece of the pie. I thought the CGI looked solid considering how fast this movie was made and that they shot a lot on location. I loved the raft scene from start to finish.
DISLIKES
The plot of the movie. Even tho it is laid all out there clear as day I was like meh… the opening scene had me like really? These are all supposed to be scientists and a containment free zone and you let a SNICKERS wrapper screw everything up?! It was hard to believe that the team hired to do the work was who they were said to be. Like no one went in with guns? And the one guy that had a gun instantly gets killed by the spinos. They should have at minimum all had pistols strapped to their legs. Heck, in the lost world that whole second team that shows up is STRAPPED up from tranquilizers to full lethal ammunition. These guys in Rebirth had ONE pistol that they found in a dead guy. The boyfriend character, I wanted him to be taken out and it never happened, he was so annoying. And when he goes to pee he walks like a mile away. If I'm on Dino island, I'm turning my back and peeing where I stand. The same thing happens in the lost world when the guy goes to take a dump and the comps attack him. It walks like a mile away from the group. I did not like the whole let me befriend this little Dino and then she lives in my back pack nd eats my twizzlers. That felt like strictly toy gimmick. And one of the worst parts of the movie for me. Dr Loomis falls from an EXTREMELY high elevation through trees and into water… bounces up like there's no issues with him. In Houston over the weekend a guy jumps from the 2nd floor of the galleria on the the ice ring and broke both of his legs. Like come on now. There was a few other eye roll moments in the movie but I forgot them at this point after one viewing.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I don't know where we go from here. They make it clear that all the Dino's on earth are dead or dying with the exception of of the ones near the equator. I don't know why the movie is called REBIRTH. It felt more like a swan song in the series. If it were to continue, it needs to feel like REBOOT instead. This is a solid addition to the franchise and worth seeing with friends or family. It is movie 7, but felt like a stand alone Dino movie because of how they explained everything they do and why. If you made it this far, go see the movie, don't rely on a crit to sway your opinion. I wish the movie was rated R. When people get eaten, it should be horrific. In this movie, 2 of our friends get eaten right in front of us by the spinos and they were like well… we have a mission to do. Because it's PG13 there's like zero blood. I also wish these movies didn't always end on a happy note… tie our boat into the sun with dolphins swimming around us. End one of these movies like Avengers Infinity War. The band guy wins… imagine they are on the boat at the end of the movie and you think they are safe.. the mosasaurus and spinosaurus have one final attack, eats the small ship and kill everyone left. Their mission was supposed to be secret so no one knew they were there anyways, and no one ever will… credits roll… would be a refreshing way to end one of these movies, the dinosaurs win for a change.
TL;DR
A solid entry in the Jurassic Franchise. A summer blockbuster tho with flaws, still worth seeing on the big screen!
8.6/10
