Movies Jurassic World Rebirth

[Ben]

It should be no surprise, I'm a huge Jurassic Park fan. Have been since I was 6 and saw the first movie in the cinema.

I was generally disappointed with the Jurassic World reboot of the franchise. Jurassic World was OK but it was just a redo of the original movie, so not really groundbreaking. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom started to get a bit ridiculous and action-movie instead of basically horror, and Jurassic World: Dominion stopped even focusing on the dinosaurs as the biggest problem (locusts).

I've been pretty reserved in my hopes for their second reboot which will be Jurassic World Rebirth, but the trailer finally released yesterday and I'm kind of stoked again...










Even with the huge red flag that could go very badly if not done right. And by that, I mean the apparent villain of the movie is a mutant dinosaur, with design inspiration from H.R. Geiger's Alien xenomorphs and the Rancor from Star Wars.

Spoiler

There's also talk that they're including scenes from the novel that weren't in the first movie, more than likely where they try to float past a sleeping T. Rex on a river raft and it starts chasing them.

Well, I think we're definitely back to horror!

 

[Jon]

I haven't had time to go through all this... but how is this one supposed to be different? You legit could have cut screenshots from any of the other movies based on what I see here.

 

[Ben]

I haven't had time to go through all this... but how is this one supposed to be different? You legit could have cut screenshots from any of the other movies based on what I see here.

Well if I'm honest, that remains to be seen.

But it has a different director, Gareth Edwards, who did Godzilla (2014) and Rogue One. I'd like to think he's got a better sense of scale and the ability to make things feel huge and scary.

David Koepp, who wrote the original Jurassic Park movie with Michael Crichton, is back for this. That alone makes me feel it's going to be more in line with the originals and the books, instead of some fan of the franchise doing their own thing with the universe. This is more likely to feel like a continuation of the original plot, not just using the "dinosaurs escape" premise.

Spielberg seems to have his hand in this more this time, too. I think he gave too much control to Trevorrow for the last ones.

And from a dinosaur nerd standpoint, the designs of the dinosaurs are actually a lot closer to what they should have been. The Spinosaurs they show look much closer to modern reconstructions of the fossil than they would to Jurassic Park 3's Spino, with a more accurate skull and squatter non-bipedal posture. They gave the T. Rex some more interesting coloration so it's not just a flat brown, it's got stripes which a large ambush predator perhaps would, etc.

They also don't seem to be trying to shoehorn the old cast into these and instead letting them stand on their own, no Goldblum just to pull in the old folks, etc. Although apparently Henry Loomis (the paleontologist) seems to have some connection to Alan Grant, from rumor. Might just be a "he was my teacher" kind of thing though, I doubt they'll reveal that he's the "6-foot turkey" kid from the start of JP1 or anything.

 

[Jon]

You've at least given me hope lol

 

[Ben]

I believe there should be more use of animatronics and not purely CGI this time, too. Another return to the original vibe of the film.

Although if I don't see a prop guy touch a raptor's butt in the movie, I'll be disappointed.

 

[Ben]

It's kind of weirding me out that the actor who's playing Henry Loomis, Jonathan Bailey, looks a lot like I'd expect Tim Murphy (kid from the first movie) to look like all grown up.





Like, I don't think that's something they're going to try to pull, because this character obviously has a different name, and Joseph Mazello who played Tim is still acting so why wouldn't they have just used him?



Still, trying to work out what the cryptic "ties to Alan Grant" would mean has me speculating.

 

[shortkut]

“They’re rape-ters”

 

[Jon]

It's kind of weirding me out that the actor who's playing Henry Loomis, Jonathan Bailey, looks a lot like I'd expect Tim Murphy (kid from the first movie) to look like all grown up.

View attachment 26903

View attachment 26904

Like, I don't think that's something they're going to try to pull, because this character obviously has a different name, and Joseph Mazello who played Tim is still acting so why wouldn't they have just used him?

View attachment 26905

Still, trying to work out what the cryptic "ties to Alan Grant" would mean has me speculating.

I read this and heard the "TIMMY!" scream.

 

[Jon]

Also, the more grown up kids were in JP2? One of those. They were briefly with Attenborough when he was talking to Malcom in his house.

 

[Ben]

Also, the more grown up kids were in JP2? One of those. They were briefly with Attenborough when he was talking to Malcom in his house.

They were.

Although "More grown up" meaning 4 years later, between 1993 and 1997, so they went from kids to teenagers. They switched the ages of Lex and Tim from the novel for the movie, so Tim was likely 8 years old in the first movie, and Lex about 12. So Tim was 12 and Lex about 16 by the time of The Lost World.

That'd put them around their 40s now.

 

[Ben]

The setting seems to be "the first InGen research facility island, in the Caribbean, where they started making dinosaurs" and obviously mutants are the vibe here.

There's a two headed raptor in one of the tanks, and the "D. Rex" being the big four armed monster. I think they're going for the early experimentation with cloning and the mistakes they'd inevitably have made while learning.

The first movie said they used frog DNA to fill in the gaps in the DNA sequence. So what did they try before frogs? Not hard to assume they might have tried to use some other animals DNA first and got a bunch of rejects. But if they cost millions to make one animal, they might be reticent to destroy them. Even the failed clones might have use.

I really don't have an issue with mutants being the focus, because realistically that's the far more likely outcome of someone trying this. They're going to fail a lot first.

I do hope they don't go with human-dino mutants, because that would go a bit far. Even mad 80s scientists would have more morales than to fuck with that... I hope...

 

[Nae'blis]

I'm carefully hopeful for this!

 

[Fool's Requiem]

they had me as Scarlett Johansson

 

[Ben]

they had me as Scarlett Johansson

I was trying to work out what the giant turtle moving behind her was.

It's an umbrella.

 

[Fool's Requiem]

 

[Ben]

In my defense, I had to get up at 5:50am to meet with Australians. I am tired.

 

[Crazy Jamie]

I think my relationship with this franchise is similar to yours, @Ben. I saw the original in the cinema, and had to leave when Dennis Nedry got his comeuppance. But the first film is still in my top 5 favourite films of all time. The next two weren't as good, but much like the second Ghostbusters compared to the first, they're perfectly enjoyable films. I think I liked Jurassic World a bit more than you. I thought it was the best film in the franchise after the first one. Yes, elements of the story were recycled, but I thought the action was brought up to date enough and enough care was taken over it that it felt like a really good reboot. I thought Fallen Kingdom was almost irredeemably terrible. Completely soulless action followed by an awful "check out this terrifying dinosaur that we spend two hours telling you is invincible but then just gets beaten by one of the standard dinosaurs" plot that you could see coming a mile away. Dominion was also, objectively, a bad film. But I think the fan service was done well enough that it was enjoyable. Still the second worst film of the six, though.

As for this trailer, I'm going to remain hopeful. I watch all films to enjoy them, and I enjoy Jurassic Park a lot generally speaking. I see the warning signs and I see the reasons for optimism with this. I do like the cast choices. Scarlett Johansson is just great generally, but I think Mahershala Ali is a really clever casting choice as well. I'll watch it, hopefully in the cinema, and initially at least I don't want to over analyse it.

 

[Fool's Requiem]

Jurassic World is a fun romp. Fallen Kingdom was a total mess once it left the island. Didn't watch Dominion because it was a post COVID film that got poor reviews.

I'm hoping Rebirth gives me more of what I liked so much about JP3, the abandoned facility taken back by nature and dinosaurs. Just hoping for a better script and acting than what was in JP3. Not having Téa Leoni will certainly help almost any movie.

 

[dimmerwit]

After losing my Jurassic Park virginity last year and watching the original trilogy I'll have to get to Jurassic World this year. That said I can't help but feel that skipping the latest two would be fine

 

[The Eye in the Sky!]

I've never actually seen any of the 3 newer ones in full. I've seen like 75% of World and almost none of two newest. I don't even know what happens or who is in them. I gave up hope on the franchise after World. It was fine... but I don't really care anymore.

it's in the same tier as the Jaws series. The first ones are two of the best movies ever made. The rest mean nothing to me and I'd be happier with the original sitting as a lone project.

That said, Lost World and JP3 were at least fun/stupid movies. If I stop thinking, the characters are solid enough to carry them.

 

[Ben]

I think my relationship with this franchise is similar to yours, @Ben. I saw the original in the cinema, and had to leave when Dennis Nedry got his comeuppance. But the first film is still in my top 5 favourite films of all time. The next two weren't as good, but much like the second Ghostbusters compared to the first, they're perfectly enjoyable films. I think I liked Jurassic World a bit more than you. I thought it was the best film in the franchise after the first one. Yes, elements of the story were recycled, but I thought the action was brought up to date enough and enough care was taken over it that it felt like a really good reboot. I thought Fallen Kingdom was almost irredeemably terrible. Completely soulless action followed by an awful "check out this terrifying dinosaur that we spend two hours telling you is invincible but then just gets beaten by one of the standard dinosaurs" plot that you could see coming a mile away. Dominion was also, objectively, a bad film. But I think the fan service was done well enough that it was enjoyable. Still the second worst film of the six, though.

As for this trailer, I'm going to remain hopeful. I watch all films to enjoy them, and I enjoy Jurassic Park a lot generally speaking. I see the warning signs and I see the reasons for optimism with this. I do like the cast choices. Scarlett Johansson is just great generally, but I think Mahershala Ali is a really clever casting choice as well. I'll watch it, hopefully in the cinema, and initially at least I don't want to over analyse it.

I think the primary difference between us would be that I never wanted to leave the cinema. I was glued to it the whole time, watching people get eaten, literally like Tim eager for the goat to get devoured all "...excellent".

I also certainly didn't dislike Jurassic World. I might even put it as my third favorite of the 6, being;

1. Jurassic Park
2. The Lost World
3. Jurassic World
4. Jurassic Park 3
5. Fallen Kingdom
6. Dominion

I don't think it repeating the same general premise of the first park makes Jurassic World intrinsically bad by any means. As you said, they did a good job of extrapolating "what if they got the park operational" through to current day with updated technology. Even the premise of this huge genetics company not being happy with real dinosaurs and wanting to make something more exciting in the Indominus Rex makes perfect sense, those dumb bastards would totally do that.

I will be pleasantly happy if Rebirth lands as a new 3 or 4 for me. I have no delusions that it's going to knock the original two out of place, because there's just so much nostalgia there.

After losing my Jurassic Park virginity last year and watching the original trilogy I'll have to get to Jurassic World this year. That said I can't help but feel that skipping the latest two would be fine

I mean... They're fine, but I think you'd have to go into them with the mindset that they're not really in the same ballpark as the Jurassic Park movies. Those two just became a vehicle for Chris Pratt to push his "I'm an action hero now!" rebranding. There are scenes that just have no real purpose.

I will say, the opening scene for Fallen Kingdom was fucking amazing and I wish the entire movie had kept that vibe instead of pivoting to the "super scary hybrid-dino" again with a side-plot of "cloned human".



Like, that opening hits close to the feel of the originals and I was down.

It was honestly good up until they left the island and it shifted to the Lockwood Manor. Maybe that's why I'm salty about it, because they essentially replaced Richard Attenborough's character of John Hammond with "his secret business partner". Bullshit. Don't water down the actor/character's legacy. Shoehorning the whole Maisey thing in there did not feel like it worked. Also the dumb fucking military guy who tried to take a tooth from the Indoraptor, so they could pull "lol it's pretending to sleep" was cringe. Oh and the I-Raptor being controlled by a laser pointer was also a dumb trope to employ, in my opinion.

Dominion was just... Bad. They did barely anything with the "dinosaurs on the mainland" and they don't really seem to be causing a ton of a trouble... People just adapt to having them out there and it's whatever... Not like, devastation of raptors taking people's cattle, or the famous Procompsygnathus in the nursery scene. The particularly egregiously wtf scenes were the pyroraptor unnecessarily diving into ice cold water when it could have just chased the fuckers or Chris Pratt punching a Dilophosaurus... I would also say that they so obviously were trying to fuck with people's attachment to the original films, because at the very start we see the T. Rex get killed by a "better dino" 65 million years ago. Even though the Rex that we know was the cloned one, it was still just a cheap way to make everyone resent he Giganotosaurus from the beginning. Inclusion of Therizinosaurus was very cool because it's one of my favorite dinosaurs, but the concluding fight felt awkward. Also locusts were a dumb choice.

 

[Nae'blis]

I fell asleep partway through Jurassic World, and never really bothered to continue watching it, I think I felt I'd seen enough. Haven't seen Fallen Kingdom or Dominion either, probably won't.

 

[Ben]

I fell asleep partway through Jurassic World, and never really bothered to continue watching it, I think I felt I'd seen enough. Haven't seen Fallen Kingdom or Dominion either, probably won't.

Jurassic World has a better "big dinosaurs fight each other" at it's finale battle than the one mid-way through Jurassic Park 3, between the Rex and Spino. It's pretty hype, especially the first time watching. The only thing I could super accuse Jurassic World of is leaning in to the 'hero dinosaurs' concept.

That's probably my gripe with Fallen Kingdom and Dominion. They pivoted onto that 'action hero' path both with Chris Pratt's Owen Grady character, and Blue the raptor. Honestly even my beloved T. Rex got plot armor and it made everything so predictable.

Though that being said, don't you dare hurt my precious T. Rex, Scarlett.

 

[The Eye in the Sky!]

I think the best part about the first movie was it felt like it had stakes that the others didn't. It was a much more intimate viewing than the big explosive sequels. The first one had a small cast (including background extras) so there was more care in the depiction of each character, and any deaths felt more impactful. You also felt so helpless once the power went down, like they did.

I think JP3 did that part right, too. The feeling of helplessness. It's just that set of characters was less likable, so I didn't care what happened.

Lost World is a funny one, because it makes you care about some of the characters, so there is some impact in what happens, but the cast is far too big - and the whole ending sequence is just stupid.

 

[shortkut]

I didn’t like lost world

 

[Ben]

I of course put it out at my #2, but if I think about it critically, Lost World definitely had some whack moments.

First one that comes to mind being the gymnast vs. raptor. In the moment as a 10 year old, pretty hype. In retrospect, eh.

The logic of taking the baby Rex and everything is also questionable.

But it led to the scene with the trailers going over the edge, which was pretty cool. Also, Eddie Carr TLW goat... I guess literally...

And "don't go into the long grass!" was something I have definitely repeated over the years...

It's no JP3, though.

 

[Ben]

Someone noticed, which I feel is now pretty obvious given that they're back to back in the trailer, but this is the same scene. You can see the T. Rex sleeping behind her when the Dilophosaur shows up.




I am starting to wish they'd keep some of this shit a secret and not blow their entire load on the trailer...

 

[Jon]

Someone noticed, which I feel is now pretty obvious given that they're back to back in the trailer, but this is the same scene. You can see the T. Rex sleeping behind her when the Dilophosaur shows up.

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I am starting to wish they'd keep some of this shit a secret and not blow their entire load on the trailer...

I feel like this has become the issue with the JP franchise honestly. There is no secret to what these things look like. When the original came out, they did a great job hiding the dinos for the most part. The T-Rex was the big bad, and you see its tail and its eye, a brief glimpse of the tail... the most reveal is a brief moment with the "must go faster scene" of the Rex hitting the tree.

They saved the whole Rex for the movie. Now they are just stroking their CGI dicks and saying "look what we can do!"

I'll eventually watch this, but I haven't truly ENJOYED a JP movie since the original.

 

[The Eye in the Sky!]

Those screenshots look more like a video game than a movie.

 

[Ben]

Those screenshots look more like a video game than a movie.

There's honestly probably not a lot of difference between the two, at this point. Every movie is done on a bluescreen now, and the "real people" are just comp'ed in on top of entirely digital backgrounds. I think half of the studios literally use Unreal Engine to render these out. I get it, there's infinite possibilities when using cgi, but it does start to feel disingenuous at some point.

Greenscreens make Gandalf cry.

Although thinking about it, I do recall reading an article about how the director was somewhat untruthful with the Rebirth cast while shooting on location, in that they didn't tell them how dangerous it was. It stated they'd have to go through a filming location trying to remove all of the poisonous spiders and snakes, which you're never sure you got everything. The cast wasn't privy to that information. There was also something about them shooting out on the actual ocean, and that being dangerous in and of itself.

Pseudo-edit: Found the article

Jurassic World Rebirth's Filming Was So Dangerous, The Director Had To Hide It From His Cast: "We Kept It Quiet"

The 7th Jurassic Park movie arrives next summer.

screenrant.com

It stands to be seen how the actual dinosaurs look, but I'm holding out hope that they're truthful about using more animatronics and less CG.

I'll just be glad when I don't have to see reddit losing their fucking minds because they changed the Spinosaur design from what it was in JP3. Even though there's an entirely reasonable explanation as to why that wouldn't be the case, they're still so fucking "wah" about everything.

 

[Fool's Requiem]

Ok, I rewatched the trailer.

Two things:

Based on the trailer alone, this isn't a recycling of the "use dinosaurs to create controllable soldiers" storyline. This is an extraction story with involving getting some samples that might lead to a medical breakthrough. They're not trying to take the dinosaurs, they're not trying to do something with them. It definitely feels like they're trying to do JP3 but better.

I saw lots of comments complaining about the "No one is dumb enough to go where we're going" line and then immediately points out the kid. 10 to 1, the kid is the son of the boat operator and can't go anywhere else because single dad life. Either that or they find the kid there just surviving... like in JP3, too.

If they give me a GOOD JP3, I'm so fucking down. JP3 was the definition of missed potential for me when it comes to the JP series.

Edit: Also, I like that Scarlett isn't super prettied up. I expect them to keep her face clean of shit, though.

Even though there's an entirely reasonable explanation as to why that wouldn't be the case, they're still so fucking "wah" about everything.

I've learned that there are just somethings Reddit communities like to harp on over, and the biases some communities have in regards to media. For instance, r/anime has a heavily leaning towars yuri anime (lesbian) to a point where they don't see any of the negatives of the show. They also seems to hold strong feelings towards stories that involve bullying and depression, also ignoring the issues with the shows. It took a complete collapse of the shows for the community to realize that shows like Wonder Egg Priority and Sing Me a Love Song are heavily flawed shows, but they only see them as heavily flawed because the final product ended up as a complete disaster due to major production issues, and not because the stories were just generic and uninteresting from the start.

 

[Ben]

Based on the trailer alone, this isn't a recycling of the "use dinosaurs to create controllable soldiers" storyline. This is an extraction story with involving getting some samples that might lead to a medical breakthrough. They're not trying to take the dinosaurs, they're not trying to do something with them. It definitely feels like they're trying to do JP3 but better.

I have no disillusion that the guy sending them to the island actually has altruistic intentions. There's something on that island that they want for a reason, and it's not medical research.

I saw lots of comments complaining about the "No one is dumb enough to go where we're going" line and then immediately points out the kid. 10 to 1, the kid is the son of the boat operator and can't go anywhere else because single dad life. Either that or they find the kid there just surviving... like in JP3, too.

The dialog is a little wooden, but that line wasn't the most egregious of them.

My assumption is that the ship we see belongs to Mahershala Ali's team. For the first half of the trailer we only see the "team" with mercenaries. My guess is they'll start getting picked off like the mercenaries at the beginning of Jurassic Park 3 ("That's Cooper!")

I'm pretty sure it's mentioned that the family weren't there on the island, but had their own ship capsized (perhaps by the Mosasaur) and Zora's team rescues them. That may be right after we see the ship getting surrounded, although none of these people look wet, so perhaps not. They weren't likely just plucked out of the ocean, but the kid with a life jacket makes me wonder.



I was thinking the boat in The Lost World was a lot smaller, but the Mar Del Plata was a pretty big barge carrying the vehicles. Maybe even a little bigger than the ship Zora's team has.

If they give me a GOOD JP3, I'm so fucking down. JP3 was the definition of missed potential for me when it comes to the JP series.

JP3 made me salty just because they shit on the T. Rex to make the Spino look meaner. I get that it clearly worked to establish the villain and make you immediately dislike it, but still. Always felt like a cheap and disrespectful way to do it. But I am very much Team Rex so I get I'm biased.

Still a good movie though. I used the Kirby Paint and Tile ringtone on my phone for years.

My real real worry for Rebirth is... Why didn't they show us any raptors, except the two-headed one in the tube? They showed us feet, but that just makes me speculate and worry they did something weird with them, more so than the deformed T. Rex... I'm just really hoping the "surprise" they're saving isn't the cursed Jurassic Park 4 idea of human-raptor hybrids.