Jurassic World Rebirth: A Competently Crafted but Predictably Safe Return to Form

Five years after the events of Jurassic World Dominion (2022), dinosaurs are extinct everywhere except for a narrow band around the tropics, because the zone most closely resembles the prehistoric Earth in which they once flourished.

- John Lui

JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH (PG13) 133 minutes, now showing ★★★★☆

The story: Mercenary Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) leads a team that includes fellow former soldier Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali) and palaeontologist Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey). They have been hired to raid an island to collect biological samples from three of the largest dinosaurs. Their mission is interrupted by a distress call from a family whose sailboat has strayed too close to the danger zone.

If the synopsis sounds familiar, that is because it was meant to be—the seventh movie in the franchise—a deliberate return to roots. And this is a welcome return, not because Jurassic World Rebirth itself is good—as nostalgia trips go, it is merely okay. But it was time for the series to shed its bloat.