Photography: courtesy of Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment


IT FEELS ODD TO introduce the Jurassic films but we are into the wilds of this franchise, so here goes (feel free to play the much-loved, and rightly so, theme song by John Williams as you read).

The series, which turned 30 in 2023, is an adaptation of Michael Crichton’s science fiction novel of the same name. The first two were directed by Steven Spielberg. Later Chris Pratt-led films each made over $1 billion though it is hard to imagine anyone truly treasures those versions. This shiny addition, Jurassic World Rebirth, is, of course, another way to resuscitate the box office. But thanks to some inventive touches from British director Gareth Edwards and a screenplay from David Koepp, there are some initial signs of life.

The film opens with a funny, almost-daring presence: everyone is bored of dinosaurs. And dinosaurs are bored of living, on Earth anyway. The ones that can survive our world’s hostile conditions stagger around New York, holding up traffic but not people’s attention. Still, this film’s slippery dude-in-a-suit Martin (Rupert Friend) has a plan for ’em. He wants to head to the equator, to an off-limits zone where rare types of dinosaur still flourish thanks to the tropical climate. Martin thinks that they hold a cure for heart disease. Or something. The details don’t matter as much as the who and where of it all. He assembles a crack team of mercenaries Zora (Scarlett Johansson) and Duncan (Mahershala Ali) as well as academic Henry (Jonathan Bailey) in an attempt to secure some dino-DNA. This ragtag group head to Ile Saint-Hubert, an island that used to be a research facility and where a terrible incident once occurred, and… from this point onwards, I do not really need to tell you what happens next.

The plot of Jurassic World Rebirth is both predictable and prehistoric, pick your derogatory comment. The opening conceit proves a little too on-the-nose: these dinosaurs, no matter what mutations they may be, are wearing awfully thin. The scares are limited, the thrills non-existent. There is an entire subplot dedicated to a family that, despite the actors’ best efforts, is so forgettable that I forgot about them until I recently rewatched the trailer. Somehow all this clocks in at over two hours.

A few saving graces. Edwards has a good eye for staging, using props like a lifeboat and an inflatable dinghy – someone clearly took a sailing course as a child – to create a few memorable moments with our dinosaur pals (okay, the only memorable moments). And the final set-piece, which comes with a good musical moment, has a certain pleasing dilapidation to it.

The second comes in the form of British actor Jonathan Bailey, who imbues this film with a childlike enthusiasm that may remind audiences of their initial awe in this franchise. Every franchise could use some of his boyish wonder, as blockbuster musical adaptation Wicked handily realised.

The third, and weightiest, is Johansson. For a certain generation, those of us who grew up with her in Ghost World and millennial touchstone Lost in Translation, Scarlett Johansson has an appeal that could survive an asteroid. It’s something to do with her middle-distance stare, both piercing and soft, and the way she pronounces words as though she is saying them for the first time (her voice, it should be noted, is one of the past decade’s most celebrated performances in Spike Jonze’s Her). You never quite know what she is thinking. Johansson has recently been lost in the Marvel universe, but she’s been busy of late: premiering her directorial debut, Eleanor the Great, at Cannes and making a memorable cameo in Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme.

I cannot lay claim to the academic rigour of a paleontologist but every intriguing moment – and sometimes, when we’re lucky, an entire scene! – in Jurassic World Rebirth comes from Johansson. She wisely plays to her strengths with Zora: a character that is initially both cold and attractive, and more than a little provocative. And then, as the hopes for an intriguing blockbuster crumble around her, the Oscar-nominated actor somehow becomes even better: emerging as the single vehicle for warmth and humour and, dare I say it, nuance in the entire movie. Johansson vs. dinosaurs? No competition. Our heroine escapes unscathed.

‘Jurassic World Rebirth’ is in cinemas now.

This story originally appeared on Esquire UK.

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