Categories: Television

Can Jurassic World Rebirth Revive the Dinosaur Franchise? The Trailer Doesn’t Instill Much Hope

Jurassic World Rebirth is the next chapter in the sprawling dinosaur franchise, and I’m calling it now: It will battle with Jurassic World: Dominion for the title of which movie did more harm to the universe.

We’re living in strange times, where it is hard to get the green light for original concepts because executives only want to vote with their wallets when a big brand name is attached.

It’s understandable, especially regarding a CGI-heavy movie franchise, because those same media honchos stand to lose much more money.

(Universal Pictures/Screenshot)

Scarlett Johanson, Jonathan Bailey, Mahershala Ali, and Rupert Friend are A-list actors. However, getting them to sign on for Jurassic World Rebirth was probably easy because of the brand name alone.

At least, that’s what I’m telling myself after watching the official trailer. It looks more like Deep Blue Sea than Jurassic Park, which isn’t a good look.

It’s usually hard to get a feel for a movie after just one trailer, but this movie genuinely seems like it will be The Mummy (2017) of the Jurassic Park universe.

Should Jurassic World be Defunct?

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A reboot was necessary after Jurassic World: Dominion entirely and utterly destroyed the good of its predecessors.

That movie had zero redeeming qualities, and Universal Pictures’s rush to release this next entry into theaters highlights that they want to forget that movie existed.

The only good thing about Jurassic World Rebirth, based on the trailer, is that the story promises to harken back to the franchise’s early days as we learn more about the original dinosaurs.

The issue is that the humans at the story’s heart seek out the dinosaurs to extract DNA to craft a life-saving drug. Other big-budget disaster movies have tried this setup to varying results.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is the most successful. It’s also one of my favorite franchise relaunches because it strengthened that property and offered something new, paving the way for multiple sequels.

The Revamp Already Lacks Originality

The truth is that Jurassic World Rebirth seems more intent on borrowing from other properties than it does on originality, which doesn’t give much hope that the finished product will be worthwhile.

Imitation may be a form of flattery sometimes, but why give this the time of day when I could watch Planet of the Apes and Deep Blue Sea?

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If the promotional train intensifies and moves away from whatever the trailer was, I might be intrigued enough to check it out.

Usually, I’d say the cast alone is worth checking a lousy project for, but Jurassic World Rebirth may be the exception to that rule.

Maybe the flick will come out, and I’ll be left eating crow, but I’m not getting my hopes up after Jurassic Park: Dominion.

If anything, Jurassic Park Rebirth may survive on its directing alone because Gareth Edwards excels with this type of movie, as evidenced by his work on Godzilla (2014) and The Creator. The latter is one of the most underrated movies ever.

Over to you, Jurassic World Fanatics! What are your thoughts on the first footage? Are you on board, or do you think the movie would have benefited from a more original narrative direction? What’s your take on the cast?

Hit the comments below.

Jurassic World Rebirth roars into theaters on July 2, 2025.

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