What a revival. The Jurassic World series seemed all but finished after a string of underwhelming installments: Fallen Kingdom in 2018 and Dominion in 2022. Yet now, against expectations, this franchise has been revitalized with a livelier, wittier film, featuring stronger performances and sharper writing, while paying homage to classic summer blockbusters. The action sequences feel earned and purposeful.
Screenwriter David Koepp and director Gareth Edwards strip back the excess, starting fresh with a "17 years earlier" flashback that entirely dismisses the tangled narrative of recent entries. The story then shifts to the present day, where wild dinosaurs are all but extinct—except on the fictional Caribbean island of Île Saint Hubert.
A shady corporation has found that dinosaur blood possesses medicinal properties, prompting the ruthless Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend) to assemble a team to extract samples from three dinosaur groups: land, sea, and air. Scarlett Johansson plays Zora Bennett, the mission’s no-nonsense leader; Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) is the dedicated paleontologist; and Mahershala Ali brings laid-back charm as Duncan Kincaid, the boat captain. Along the way, they cross paths with a family led by Reuben Delgado (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), who become part of their own side-story, delivering the expected emotional beats.
Familiar Jurassic tropes return, including the slow, tense turns when someone suddenly realizes a dinosaur looms behind them—a moment always punctuated by a perfectly timed reaction shot. There’s also an overconfident mercenary (Ed Skrein) who underestimates the creatures, meeting a fitting end.
The film thrives on the chemistry between Johansson and Bailey. Zora’s quiet fondness for Loomis recalls past roles, like her dynamic with Mark Ruffalo in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Bailey, while different from his performance in Wicked, nearly steals the show with his endearing idealism. His character, Loomis, dreams of fossilizing in shallow water—because, as he explains, intelligence isn’t always an advantage in survival; after all, dinosaurs lasted millions of years longer than humans have so far.
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