---
title: "Review of Jurassic World Rebirth (2025)"
slug: review-of-jurassic-world-rebirth-2025
type: evergreen
stime: 2025-01-15 @ 12:00AM
status: growing
certainty: possible
importance: 3
tags: [film, review]
---

I've been a staunch fan of the franchise for a while, which has slowly
been going downhill with each installment. So I went into this film
expecting nothing---and still somehow managed to leave wanting a refund
of my $10.50 ticket.

The premise set at the beginning of the film was actually quite
interesting. Martin Krebs recruits Zora Bennett (a mercenary) to lead a
high-stakes, off-limits mission to an abandoned equatorial island where
dinosaurs still live. The goal is to extract biomaterial from the three
largest prehistoric specimens---while alive (yehh, hell no): Mosasaurus
(aquatic), Titanosaurus (land-based), and Quetzalcoatlus (flying). This
would help in the development of an experimental heart disease
treatment, potentially extending the lives of those with heart disease
by decades. So although the theme still revolves around corporate greed,
at least there is some stake in this for the common folk?

Despite the early developments and discussion around this miracle heart
drug, and foreshadowing how it would affect the world, we got literally
no follow-up. We are to assume that Zora Bennett and Dr. Henry Loomis
(paleontologist) "gave it back to the people"---whatever the hell that
means---considering you would need a substantial amount of money to
develop such a drug, probably get assassinated trying to bring something
like this to market, and make it past the FDA and NIH.

In the beginning, Reuben, Teresa, and Isabella Delgado, along with
Teresa's boyfriend Xavier Dobbs, are located on waters near the equator
when their boat is capsized by a Mosasaurus. I feel this was a fairly
irresponsible early showing of the creature, as stakes were set quite
low due to a death toll of zero after this scene. Some of this was
mitigated by the over-the-shoulder shot of the massive Mosasaur behind
Xavier.

To top off the maddeningly drawn-out Mosasaur scene, Nina dies from a
Spinosaurus on the beach that she somehow did not hear get up, shift,
and traverse the beach to get to her.

What's more unbearable than this is what comes next with the Spinosaurus
pack. They are all 12--15m (39--50ft), which is relative to the size of
the one displayed in JP3, but I don't think they managed to give off
nearly the same screen presence. This is for several reasons. First, the
fact that they were shown in the same scene as the Mosasaur lent nothing
to the terrifying nature of Spinosaurus, due to what is known as the
Contrast Effect---stating that when two comparable things are in close
proximity to each other, you will judge them by comparison rather than
assess them individually. This leads to a drastic reduction in perceived
threat from these creatures.

This was made no better by the fact that they appeared in a pack,
which---due to Deindividuation---caused each individual creature to have
a reduced sense of individual identity and appear somewhat less
threatening.

The concept of hybrid dinosaurs, although lazily implemented, was at
least an interesting idea. Given more thought, they could have easily
done better with this specific aspect---rather than introducing this
colossal creature only for its sole on-screen feats to be killing two
humans and a helicopter. It makes it fairly hard for it to create the
sense of dread that was established with Spinosaurus, Mosasaur, and even
Indominus Rex in earlier films.

1/5: Don't waste your time, unless your mindset is "I don't care how bad
it is, I just want to see it". Then lose money at your own risk.

## Related

- [2025 Obsession Hansel and Gretel Monologue](2025-obsession-hansel-and-gretel-monologue.md)
- [Aesthetics](aesthetics.md)