If dinosaurs weren’t enough, the new addition to the franchise remains mutant transgeneric dinosaurs that make their presence felt in the cold open sequence of Jurassic World Rebirth. There is a meta-reference to the franchise right there, that is insipidly genetically-coded to provide you scares, that in 2025 just feel like a slog. I mean it is like watching the show Heeramandi (2024) and admiring the production design comprising of its imageries and the background art, but for how long? And to give you a sense of how generic the basic premise of the film is, listen to this – a covert operation expert Zora (Scarlett Johansson) is recruited by Martin (Rupert Friend), a wealthy executive of a pharmaceutical company to extract three biomaterial samples from three different species of the dinosaurs (one each on water, land and air to complete the Captain Planet trilogy) as a cure for heart disease treatments. Yes, the inherent theme of capitalism is directly induced in the drama by accompanying money-hungry characters, but that isn’t one of the issues.

The issue remains on its setting, of an ecosystem in 2027 that isn’t suitable for the survival of dinosaurs. The climate is inhospitable, thereby restricting the dino-species to areas near the equator. Clearly, humans in 2027 (or 2025, just saying) would care more for food deliveries, or being stuck in a traffic jam rather than worrying about dinos roaming in zoos…..errr streets! The point that I wish to highlight is the heavily manipulated screenplay in going from Point A to Point B, without naturally integrating the conflict in the narrative. When everything is calm and settled, why ruin it? Because the producers further need to milk the cash cow, silly!

The humans in the fray range from sane heads to absolutely laughable jugheads that are destined to resemble deaths like in the Final Destination franchise. So whilst Zora’s interactions with fellow ‘veteran’ peer Duncan (Mahershala Ali) has a natural flow to them, almost symbolizing the comfort shared between characters minus the flashback, her interactions with a hunky paleontologist Dr Henry (Jonathan Bailey) remains uninspiring. The latter though remains a righteous character through and through, but ‘money’ conflict here is almost used as a tool for realisation later on in the film (yep, manipulative once again). In a scene when Henry and Zora witness the dinosaurs mating, the ‘money’ factor completely evaporates into thin air. It may have been written well on paper, but it hardly translates onscreen even as the viewers are expected to buy into this sentiment through its imageries! Just plain manipulative and lazy writing at its very best, I must say!

The drama is essentially divided into the ‘Jaws’ world on water and ‘Kong : Skull Island’ on land. It is so heavily-coded between these two factions, that the writers almost don’t realise that the screenplay lacks a strong emotional core. Just the human integration alone, wouldn’t necessarily account for it, something that just felt like a checklist for representation. So when you are introduced to a random family bonding in the middle of ‘dangerous waters’, I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. Hence, even the personal bonds that Reuben (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) shares with his daughters Teresa (Luna Blaise) and Isabella (Audrina Miranda), particularly towards the former given how he has recently been divorced and she is involved with another guy accompanying them on their journey, just doesn’t hit home.

Once the drama shifts to land, the predictability of the writing is woefully exposed. Even as the group is divided into two factions (almost as an algorithm-driven data that would suggest a variety of adventures), the writing gets blander by the minute. It remains a survival-coded mission even as characters are daftly bumped off along the way, whilst the central goal of extracting biomaterial samples takes almost two-thirds of the time in the second hour to get going. A parallel plot-point of a potential extraction just doesn’t have the grip to invest in the characters, that are also not emotionally driven in the first place. It remains bleak with a Godzilla-coded finale with the use of flares, that eventually aides in the extraction.

But a fundamental mistake of Isabella carrying a pet dino to the city, remained a heavy distraction given how the franchise has shaped up from being psychological to plain silly. No one stops her because how else would there be a sequel? You are only allowed to have these many rebirths right? Right?? And that summerizes the screenplay that is plain silly and unintentionally laughable after a point, whilst epitomizing the franchise that is now caught in the time-loop of the past.