I checked out of the Jurassic World series after the mediocre first film. Chris Pratt didn’t do it for me as a leading man, while its modern recreation of the iconic theme park appeared more interested in taking advantage of our nostalgia and rehashing set pieces instead of telling an interesting story. From what I’ve heard, the two sequels aren’t much better despite being big hits at the box office. So I haven’t watched them, but I’ll be first in line for Rebirth this July.
Why? It’s directed by Gareth Edwards, a filmmaker who, over the years, has established himself as a major talent when it comes to bringing vast and imaginative worlds to life through amazing special effects and surprisingly poignant storytelling. For those who aren’t aware of Edwards’ past work, he’s responsible for Monsters, Godzilla (2014), Star Wars: Rogue One, and The Creator. He’s done some great work, and giving him the reins on Jurassic World is such a brilliant decision by Universal.
Gareth Edwards Is The Perfect Director For Jurassic World
When I first heard of the narrative concept for Jurassic World Rebirth, I couldn’t help rolling my eyes. Five years after the events of Dominion, the world has become a harder place for dinosaurs to inhabit, thanks to the rapidly changing climate, meaning most of them perished or retreated to more tropical locations.
In order to get to the bottom of things, Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) is tasked by a pharmaceutical corporation to travel to a forbidden island populated by dinosaurs to gather samples from the three biggest creatures across land, sea, and air. It sounds like the plot of a bad video game, so why should you be excited about it?
Looking past the generic plot and seemingly uninteresting characters, Edwards has already put his visual mark on Rebirth with a stunningly surreal rendition of familiar island vibes and giant dinosaurs that feel both true to the original films and entirely distinct. Glimpsed are brachiosaurus-esque dinosaurs with vine-like tails, your usual assortment of T-Rexes and raptors, and an all-new dinosaur known as the Distortus Rex. Similar to World’s Indominous Rex, this will act as the film’s main antagonist once it inevitably escapes the lab responsible for its creation. Humanity will never learn…
It looks visually spectacular, even if the narrative being teased is undeniably generic. But so long as the core drive of these characters is enough to accompany Edward’s own vision, it will be enough for me. I’ve felt this way about his work ever since the release of Monsters in 2010, which followed two young people travelling across a quarantine zone now occupied by mysterious creatures. Not dinosaurs, they were something stranger and far more alien.
Because He Understands The Appeal Of Larger-Than-Life Monsters
Produced on a budget of just $500,000, Monsters released to critical and box office success, and was evidently what put Edwards on the map to eventually helm entries in massive franchises like Star Wars, Godzilla, and Jurassic World. Despite having to film Monsters on a shoestring budget with relatively unknown actors and not nearly as many resources for a big creature feature, it was a roaring success. Mostly because it didn’t focus on the presence of monsters, but rather their notable absence.
The movie instead focuses on the political ramifications of these monsters appearing within our world, and how entire populations are displaced as governments rush to set up messy quarantine zones in fear of something they don’t understand. There is a foreboding sense of fear and unseen menace throughout the entire runtime that is lifted once the monsters show up in the final act and have little interest in harming people, but rather interacting with each other in a sequence that evokes equal parts terror and awe. It’s well worth a watch.
Edwards would follow Monsters up with Godzilla, the first entry in the MonsterVerse, which would inevitably devolve into the ridiculous schlock we know and love today. Once upon a time, though, the franchise was significantly more serious. This film depicts the kaiju as a major force of nature capable of destroying cities with a swipe of his tail, appearing sparingly across the entire narrative and often only glimpsed on television screens. The skydiving sequence is a tour de force, and moments of similar scale can be found across both Rogue One and The Creator.
Part of me wishes Gareth Edwards didn’t immediately transition to a franchise director and had more time to explore his own ideas in films like The Creator, but the fact he is still given relative freedom to leave his mark in films like Jurassic World Rebirth is reason enough to be excited. Even if the finished product falls short, I know Edwards’ eye for scale, awe, and style will make it more than worth the watch.
Jurassic Park: Survival
- Developer(s)
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Saber Interactive
- Publisher(s)
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Saber Interactive
- Number of Players
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Single Player
