After the scifi nonsense of the last two Jurassic World/Jurassic Park dino-versus-man adventure movies involving locusts and dino-whisperers in the form of little girls, it’s high time the series went back to its roots. That means getting people stuck on an island with big-ass dangerous dinosaurs. Part action, part horror, part wonder; that sort of blend that matches with the tone of a Steven Spielberg adventure film.

Sure, the mystique of dinosaurs is gone since 1993 and arguably the first Jurassic World, since it did expand upon the first film meaningfully before its sequels derailed it. But director Gareth Edwards and his team do their best in salvaging the mess from the last few films to make that u-turn back to how it was. And at least it’s done competently.

Cretaceous Chaos

Jurassic World: Rebirth starts simple: mercenary Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) gets hired by rich pharmaceutical corp CEO Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend) and a team of her merc friends to get samples of dinosaur blood from a lost island that used to make hybrid dinosaurs for the theme park back in Jurassic World. To aid them in newfound territory is dino-expert Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey). Complications happen when the merc group on a ship piloted by merc friend Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali) decided to rescue a stranded family led by Reuben Delgado (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) out of compassion, thus they all get stranded on an island full of dinosaurs big and very large, including the ones foreshadowed in the intro where a whole facility got wrecked by a Snicker’s bar wrapper. No, I am not kidding as this is the first 10 minutes of the film.

Yes, Jurassic World Rebirth still has some silly moments that lead to the dino action, like as if it’s tailored after a B-movie but with a bigger budget. However, the CGI stars of the show do make a big spectacle and make your ticket purchase for this film worthwhile. From the high seas battle with the Mosasaur-Spinosaur team-up to the debut of the Titanosaurus -a fitting tribute to the 1993 film’s first dinosaur reveal accompanied with the iconic John Williams theme- it’s clear as day that the centrepieces aren’t muddied by convoluted science plots and dumb decisions made by its leads for the sake of the story. Plus, one glance at the crew and you know who is going to end up as dinosaur chow; I do take sadistic pleasure in seeing how the dino fodder would meet their end, and it’s pretty well-done and does make use of its PG rating well. One look at an actor like Ed Skrein and you know he’s not going to be on the island anytime soon.

The narrative does feel organic, leading to the stranded island bits, with some choice acting from leads Johansson, Bailey, and Ali. Nobody’s breaking new ground here, but it’s serviceable enough to not offend anybody’s sensibilities. And for all the chattiness and lame jokes spouted off from Delgado’s kids and his daughter’s boyfriend, they do act well when under duress from actual saurian danger.

Triassic Trepedations

Another issue with the film is that it could stand to be a little shorter. 2 hours or so of this could have been trimmed down better. Perhaps if the film didn’t end up splicing two scripts together to form this hodge-podge of film genetics, we might have a more cohesive and focused film here. Though as it stands, it could have been worse. Jurassic World: Rebirth could use a bit more trimming and less borrowing, but the dinosaurs, setpieces, and attempt at making the humans likeable and earn your focus (and feels) at least warrant a one-and-done watching deal from you.

An important aside: Universal really needs to lay off the marketing blitz and not show off all their dino cards for their trailers. Part of the magic of the first film was only showing the dinosaurs in the film; the trailers for Jurassic World: Rebirth do ruin the spectacles of the film. So do your best to avoid all this film’s promotional material until you’re done watching the film.

Final Score: 60/100