Finally, after watching the previous borefests that were Fallen Kingdom and Dominon, I have reached Rebirth, directed by Gareth Edwards. This is what I was really interested in checking out this whole time, but I figured I'd watch the films before given they have some context leading up to this one. Gareth Edwards has a style that I quite enjoy, he's a director that has some really interesting, creative ideas but rarely gets a chance to execute them. A director that tends to throw something out every few years, though his style has certainly improved and shifted. A fan of science fiction, but also a fan of very technical filmmaking. The love he has for anamorphic lenses, and visual effects.
What was more interesting about this film specifically is how he opted for shooting on 35mm film. Something the previous films didn't. They lacked style and felt too flat, especially with the same cast that didn't really offer much. Not to say that this film was perfectly cast, but it was nice to see something a bit different. Something without Chris Pratt! Albeit instead we get Scarlett Johansson for some reason. Not so sure she suits the Jurassic Park franchise at all, though the studio likely insisted they needed at least one A-Lister to appear if they're to remove the previous cast and start more fresh off.
Rebirth does feel like something new to the franchise. It's not reliant on the park story nor so much on mega corporations aside from a slight aspect of narrative that has them going to the island in pursuit of blood samples that could help big pharma develop heart drugs that eliminates heart disease. Again, not the strongest narrative but it's something that distances itself from the usual and I can appreciate that. From a directing perspective this definitely felt more creative. It still had the big blockbuster feel to it but the sense of scale that Edwards loves to display worked well. The dinosaurs felt like dinosaurs again, big threatening things and not just these supposed cute and misunderstood giants. They're still seen by the characters with a sense of marvel but that's completely fair. This wasn't about the dinosaurs so much but more the characters finding themselves challenged in their environment, again as it should be with humans being so insignificant in comparison to these machines of destruction.
I'd say I enjoyed this one a lot more. It's still not the best, but it was a massive improvement. It had style to it, nice visual effects, and felt a bit more grounded in comparison the previous ones. It felt more Jurassic Park, but in a way that allowed it to be its own thing.
