Jurassic World Rebirth (2025) SPOILER FREE Review

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We’ve made it! 

In 2 days time the film will be released and we will officially have a new film to explore. 

I was lucky enough to see it early and today I’m bringing you my spoiler free first impressions. 

If you don’t want to listen yet that’s fine I won’t be offended. 

All I will say is make sure you see this on the biggest screen you possibly can! 

Let me know your thoughts about the film on instagram or via email. 

roadtorebirthpod@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Hello and welcome back to Rome to Rebirth on the Squad. Well, here we are. Last Wednesday, I was very lucky to go to the multimedia screening of Jurassic World Rebirth. My first time at an event like this, so I was amazingly excited. Today's episode will be my non-spoiler first reactions about seeing it. On the train home, I was braindumping into my notebook all my thoughts and feelings, alongside messaging with uh Stephen Ray Morris, so thanks for that, Stephen. I thought I'd go through those seven questions that I had before going in and seeing whether this film answers any of them. Again, I'm going to attempt to be as spoiler-light as possible. But if you don't want to know anything, turn back now. I'll still be here once you've seen it up, I promise. My first question that I had was around the canon of the film. It's a big one to start off with. I think this film is on the lore light side of the spectrum, and I can see why that would be coming from someone like David Kepp. Canon and Lore is really great fun for all of us to dig into and expand the world outside of the film that we see. However, Lore for Lore's sake is not very interesting to me, and I'm glad after seeing this that it doesn't really tie to anything before. It presents things in a way that we can go away and join the dots. But on the surface, all we really need to know is that dinosaurs were made by John Hammond 32 years ago. It does deal with a fallout from the last film and dinosaurs being global, but this film is much more interested in presenting an adventure story with lots of mysteries, and it doesn't want to cloud that with trying to take on six films worth of information. I think I've read that Spielberg and Kepp decided that after six films, those two trilogies are sort of done. So this is trying to go back to that original film and spin off something from that feeling and tone and story of that first film. It's not a reboot. It's very much not a reboot, but it is not interested in being Jurassic World 4. I think it's more interested in trying to be Jurassic Park 2, if that makes sense. Now there are some mystery moments in there that I really wish were more fleshed out, and I don't know whether stuff was taken out in the edit, but for now, I'm I'm really happy that it didn't muddy the waters too much, having so many callbacks and so many tie-ins to the world films and Lost World and Jurassic Park 3. This is just my initial thoughts as well from a first viewing. There is so much going on in terms of setup in the first half an hour of this film, and I am sure I have missed multiple moments where this film does actually tie into Jurassic World. So I will report back when I've seen it again, and I can get into more of the spoilery detail in another episode. For now, aside from the films, if you haven't read or reread The Lost World, please make sure you do. I'd really suggest that you listen to The Lost World and Jurassic Park before watching this film. You will get so much fun tie-ins to those books and Easter eggs from those books just by, you know, reading them and then going to see it. And also, if you have James Motram's two visual histories for Jurassic Park and World, go in there, have a little flick-through, because you might see some other stuff that they're reusing or taking. I'm gonna stop. Anyway. Let's move on to the characters. My second question was all about whether the characters were interesting, whether we got to spend some time with them beforehand and conflict. And I think they've really struck gold with the four, the core four that we get here, which is Jonathan Bailey, Mahersha Arlie, Scarlett Johansson, and Rupert Friend. These characters feel like real people, and we do get to spend a nice bit of time with them before they start getting chased by dinosaurs. There's humour and there's connections between characters, there's dynamics, there's really fun little character moments that don't do anything really to further the plot, but are just there to flesh them out a little bit more. I just think it comes across as if they had an amazing time making this film. Scarlett Johansson's Zora is really enjoyable to watch, with a manic energy that feels very unhinged at times. And both Mahersh Larley and uh Jonathan Bailey, and Jonathan Bailey is probably the standout like breakaway star of this film, they feel very grounded and they're not superheroes. Nobody in this film is a superhero. They do amazing things, probably Zora's might be on the edge of superhero territory, but and there are some fun, spectacular stunts. I don't know, they just feel more grounded. And the family as well, the Delgado family. I was worried at the start that they might be a little bit annoying, but actually they really grew on me, and I think the film would be much worse off if they weren't there. It's really nice to switch between the two stories, and they both have different looks and feels, and we'll appeal to different people in the audience. I think if we just had one or the other, it would have been really dull and stale. But actually, I think the Delgado family brings a lot of life to this film, and there are there are transport through this film, really. Plus, I think kids are going to get a real kick out of connecting with Isabella and Dolores the Aqualops. Jurassic films sometimes have a real trouble with kids and kids being super smart or just a little bit on the edge of annoying, but actually, I think Isabella is one of the best kid actors that we've had in these films. She feels so natural, she there's a lot of nuance in her performance and in her character. Yeah, I I really did enjoy the Delgado family. I'm glad that they're there. Now the downside is that we do get additional members of the boat crew that don't get much to do and aren't really fleshed out. They're all different from each other, so they're not completely like voids, but a lot of them just slow down the dinosaurs long enough for our core four to get away. But again, if you're looking to try and trim something from this film, I can see that possibly backstory of these characters is would be the first to go. I pretty much forgot about them, really. And now let's move on to the set pieces and the the action scenes. And for me, it's all about that River Ralph sequence. Seeing it in its full glory is amazing, and it is a standout moment of the film that this film just stops and allows us to have that scene in full without cutting away, and it keeps piling on the pressure and it gets worse. There's funny moments in it as well. It is it's tense, it's brilliant, it's everything that I wanted that scene to be when I first read the book, and I hope it does the same thing for people who love the book as well. The ending of the film, as well, is full of like sort of mad energy that is some real peril involved. And it has a great use of space for the action scenes. They all start in one location and drift through, or you know, get moved into another space, and we get loads of different environments for these action scenes to happen, and it feels like we are actually traveling through this island. There is a motion to this film, and each location is distinct enough, and we do get sunsets, we do get sunrises, so we understand this ticking clock element of the story is playing out, and that's something you don't get in a lot of modern action films, I don't think. The passage of time, the actual sense that they are in a real world that is moving and they're traveling from one location to another on foot. You know, it's it's it was interesting thinking about that coming out is all those little visual cues that Gareth Edwards puts in that are there just to let us know that time has moved on. Now, the ending actually, just as a whole, did feel a little anticlimactic compared to the bombass that we kind of expect from summer blockbusters in the past 15 years or so. And I was sort of missing a bit of heft in the story department at the end. But I listened to an interview with Gareth yesterday, and he said in that interview that he wanted this film to be like a lost 90s movie. You know, someone had just gone down into the vaults of Universal and dusted off an old film canister and gone, oh, I didn't realise we'd made Jurassic World Rebirth back in the 90s. Well, we better we better release it. And having listened to that after seeing the film, I'm like, that's exactly what this is. This is a callback to 90s cinema. This is rewinding the clock before Marvel took over, before all of that happened, where the ends of films didn't have to be the world ending. It didn't have to level a city for it to mean anything. Now, there are things in this film like I I feel like I still wanted a little bit more, but it felt real and grounded to the world that the characters and everything that they're in. And the more I think about it, the more I'm on board with the ending of the film, and I'm glad that they went down that route. I think a second viewing will really cement how I feel about this film. And also, on a side note about the the film canister quote from Gareth Edwards, this was shot on film, and it really does show. This isn't a shiny mess of a film that's dull. Like again, some recent blockbusters just feel so shiny. This film has real pop to it, it has depth to the jungle, the colours are fantastic, and it really does feel 3D. There's a texture to the film, even if it's projected digitally and there's a lot of digital effects going on. I think having it on that film stock makes a huge difference to the feeling and believability of the island. Now let's talk about the script. And I wanted to have a film that didn't have a lot of exposition. There are quite a few clunky moments, I will say, of exposition that we get up top where we have the same bits of information given to us in multiple ways, but a lot of it feels like a studio play. There are some bits that you could just cut out and it wouldn't make any difference to the story whatsoever. Like, please, please people, trust us. We you don't have to say it again. We we got you the first time. I think the dialogue is as good and as fresh as The Lost World. Maybe not quite up there with Jurassic Park, but there are some really great lines, and the audience had some amazing reactions to the lines. It's nice having a joke that is funny in a film, it is a dry sense of humour that Kepp has, and it is on full display in this film. I I loved all those moments, and so did the audience that I was with. Now the plot is very streamlined. You know, Kepp knows how to write a Jurassic film, and he doesn't stray from that formula, particularly when you compare this to Dominion or Fallen Kingdom or Jurassic World, there was just so much going on in those films. They sort of tied themselves up in knots, and that is what Kepp is trying to do throughout this film is to go, no, whenever things become extraneous, he stops it. It is just a mission film. It is an adventure film. That is what this film is. And I just kept thinking about my chat with Daniel Stephen from the Stuck on Sauna podcast and his hope that this would be what JP3 could have been. And I don't think he's wrong. I I think a lot of ties to that film are here in terms of the story, in terms of that barebone nature of it. But this is Kepp's solo vision for what that story is. He doesn't have to really compromise on it. And, you know, it's much better than the revolving door aspect that poor JP3 had to deal with in, you know, 2001. Now, if we shift over and talk about the music, because this was a big I love music. I love film music. It it helps me so much to enjoy a film just thinking about the music and listening to the music afterwards. And actually, the worst thing about Sega film early is the fact that I don't have the score. I can't just listen to that the second I come out the the cinema. But I'm not going to say too much about it because I was so happy listening to the music of the film. It's big and grand, and it just occupied my entire body. When there's moments of the Jurassic Park theme, when they hit, they hit in a way that I really hoped that they would. I was regressed back to a six-year-old, and I was just a little blubbering mess in the cinema. And it's glorious. It's what I wanted from this film. I wanted to have that reaction to it. That mixture of music and visuals. Alexander de Splat, he knows it. He doesn't just call back to Jurassic Park. It feels like a John Williams original score. There's so many motifs from Jaws, E.T., Close Encounters. It's all in there. It's a it's a love letter to John Williams and Spielberg and Amblin. All of it is amazing. Plus, the film music does actually stop. Not for long, I'll give you, but it's not constantly there. It has bursts and then it'll just settle down again and disappear. So sometimes when people are talking, they don't have a score that's running underneath them. Isn't that nice? And I should really talk about the sound design as well. When that D Rex roars, you feel it in your nightmares. And that is another reason to go and see this in a cinema. And another reason to go and see it in a cinema is the visual effects. And I wondered whether going in I'd miss the animatronics, but the animals feel real. I do miss them, but I'll always miss the animatronics from Stan Winston. However, the VFX in the film are stunning, I think. And alongside the fantastic acting and reacting, again what that original cast from Jurassic Park had to do, we believe that they are actually seeing these dinosaurs. They aren't just seeing CGI blobs or nothing, or tennis balls, you know, when they're on set. Jonathan Bailey particular, my god, he really just leans into it and emotes everything that you want from a character in a Jurassic Park film seeing a dinosaur. And that's what this film is about as well. It's a human story first and foremost. And they just happen to be in a dinosaur-infested island. And so every interaction with the dinosaurs feels organic. And I just love that the film is not everything has to be turned up to 11 and 100 million of miles an hour. We can have interactions that are exciting or emotional without those interactions always turning bitey bitey or anything like that. Not quite why I said bitey bitey, but anyway, enjoy it. I'm not sure whether they 100% work for me. I get it that for a story point of view and a reason why this film is happening, you kind of have to have something like this in there. Because I I think without them, it would just be a retread of Jurassic Park and The Lost Worlds mixed together. That's not a bad thing. You could have found new dinosaurs to do, but I think they're underutilized, particularly the D-Rex. I really like the design of it and I love what it does in the film. I just wish we'd had pockets of it more in the film, maybe. And that leads me to my last question, which is what's next? And what is next? I'm not going to answer that question today. Annoyingly for you all. I don't think I think if you are listening to this and you haven't seen it, I think the takeaway from everything that I'm saying should be that as I came out of that screening, I'd massively enjoyed myself seeing the film. And I couldn't wait to see it again. This is a film that deserves to be seen on the biggest screen that you can find. And it feels like a 90s blockbuster. This feels like an exciting 90s blockbuster. This good witty dialogue with a scope that feels grounded. And I'm really interested to go and see it with other people and talk to them about it after they've seen it and just see where our differences lie and what they enjoyed, what they didn't. But I think if you weren't a fan of the world films, I think you're going to be a fan of this one. I don't think it gets you all the way back to Jurassic Park. And as Brad said in the episode that um that I did with him when we had that conversation, he said, no matter how good Rebirth will be, it'll never be Jurassic Park. And that's true, but I think we've got as close as maybe we're ever gonna get with Rebirth. And I'm just gonna leave it there. I I really hope that you've enjoyed my initial thoughts on the film, and I will have lots to bring you more in the future, including my interview on Wednesday, day of release, with James Motram. We did this a little while ago when I hadn't seen the film yet, and he literally just came out of a screening of it. So that episode will be spoiler-free too. We don't just talk about rebirth though, we have a great conversation about the whole series and his experience of writing those amazing books that for me have been invaluable during the series. And I'd just like to say thank you so much to everybody who's listened so far to Road to Rebirth. The interactions I've had has just been amazing and meeting so many new brilliant people. We might have reached rebirth, but I just wanted to assure you that we're not at the end of the road. If you do want to follow the show, please do so on Instagram at road to rebirthpod. Email the show, your thoughts about rebirth, send me a review, and let me know if you want me to read it out in the future once you've seen it. Email at road to rebirthpod at gmail.com. But until next time, I'll just say thank you very much for listening and goodbye.