Jurassic World Rebirth

Director: Gareth Edwards

Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Ed Skrein

Jurassic Park is literally about clones — dinosaurs brought back to life by DNA extracted from mosquitoes preserved in amber — and the many sequels in the franchise are the same thing: iterations upon iterations of the same ideas, genetic mutations either monstrous or awe-inspiring or both, as different filmmakers have tried to capture the magic that Steven Spielberg brought forth with the 1993 original.

None have successfully achieved that nearly impossible task, and the Jurassic World films especially have seen diminishing returns.

But along comes Jurassic World Rebirth, which hones in on some of the key characteristics that made the original work.

We're going to need a bigger boat. MUCH bigger.

Director Gareth Edwards now steps into the lab, bringing his own pedigree, which includes epic sci-fi films featuring skyscraper-scale creatures, Monsters and Godzilla, and an emotional, dystopian family story in The Creator.

He also has a not-so-secret weapon in screenwriter David Koepp, who wrote the first two Jurassic Park movies, and brings Rebirth back to the basics, while weaving in DNA strands from such classic monster movies as Aliens and The Island of Doctor Moreau.

Coupled with Edwards’ excellent cinematic craft, and a complete cast overhaul, Rebirth turns out to be one of the best Jurassic Park sequels.

It still has its issues, as any genetically modified clone might. The first act is a rocky one, as the world and new cast of characters is hastily introduced.

Hey, wasn't this a scene from 'Rebel Moon'?

It’s been 32 years since Jurassic Park in our world, and in their world, too. Dinosaurs have become mundane to the viewing public, and due to climate change, can only survive near the Earth’s equator, where travel is expressly forbidden.

Our tough mercenary heroine, Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) is contracted by a slimy corporate pharma type, Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend), for a dangerous retrieval and extraction mission to obtain blood and tissue samples from the most colossal dinosaurs living in the wild, in order to develop a drug to combat heart disease.

Krebs wants to rake in trillions of dollars, Zora wants to make enough to get her out of this line of work and have a personal life again, while their third recruit, Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey), who did his post-doc under Dr. Alan Grant, just wants to see a dinosaur.

This is going to make one heck of am omelette!

They assemble their crew, including captain Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali) and a few obviously disposable soldiers for hire (Ed Skrein, Phillipine Velge, Bechir Sylvain), and set out to get that dino blood.

The establishment of this setup is a tonal mess. Johansson’s performance is strange, swinging from oddly perky to grief-stricken by both the loss of her mother and a colleague in a car bombing.

The whole thing feels ungrounded, the world-building thin.

But the film locks into place with the introduction of the Delgado family, who happen to be on a long-distance sailing trip when they run into an underwater mosasaur and have to call for help.

They’re picked up by Kincaid’s boat and soon find themselves under attack from more aquatic monsters, then stranded on the abandoned island where genetic experiments with dino DNA once took place.

I'm surprised no river dino has tried to eat us yet.

The family embarks on a journey to find rescue, in a parallel but intersecting story with the professionals who remain hellbent on gathering their specimens, despite their dwindling numbers.

The Delgado family – dad Reuben (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), teen daughter Teresa (Luna Blaise), her boyfriend Xavier (David Iacono), and little sister Isabella (Audrina Miranda) are an immediate correcting force on the story, because their motivation is clear and palpable.

They want to survive together. It also introduces that awe and wonder element that is best seen through the eyes of children in these films.

Hey kids! No swimming in the dino pool without a lifeguard (or a stun gun)!

Much in the way that composer Alexandre Desplat interpolates John Williams’ Jurassic Park theme, Rebirth interpolates many of the iconic moments and scenes from the original.

Dr. Loomis is moved to tears seeing dinosaurs in the wild for the first time the way his mentor Dr. Grant was. There are intense suspense sequences involving the Delgado children escaping dinosaurs that call to mind the glass of water vibrating with each T. rex stomp in the first film.

In these moments, we see that Rebirth really can be a second coming of what made us fall in love with Jurassic Park in the first place.

Park purists may nitpick, but fundamentally, Rebirth is a gorgeously rendered all-ages adventure film.

Edwards and cinematographer John Mathieson shot on 35mm on location in Thailand, and the extra effort to shoot on film makes for a stunning spectacle, the perfect kind of summer escapism.

If there are moments that don’t quite hit right, the ones that do are impossible to forget. Remember, this is about having fun, and Rebirth is a blast. – By KATIE WALSH/Tribune News Service