2025's summer movie season roars into prehistoric territory with the arrival of the Jurassic World Rebirth trailer. This seventh installment, the first of a "new era" following the Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard trilogy, boasts a fresh cast including Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, and Mahershala Ali, and the return of original Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp. However, the trailer's premise feels like a step back for the franchise. Where's the globally dispersed dinosaur world promised by Fallen Kingdom and teased again in Dominion?
Let's dissect the trailer and explore why Jurassic World seems to be missing a massive opportunity.
**A Return to the Cretaceous?**The Jurassic World trilogy received mixed reviews, yet remains a consistently lucrative blockbuster franchise. Global audiences love dinosaurs, and despite Universal's initial plan to retire the original World cast, more dinosaur-centric films were inevitable. The studio quickly assembled a new cast and crew, with director Gareth Edwards (known for Godzilla and Rogue One) being a particularly exciting addition. Edwards excels at conveying scale in VFX-heavy films, offering a significant advantage for a four-quadrant blockbuster.
The dinosaurs look stunning in motion; Edwards' visual expertise is evident in the trailer's attention to detail in proportions and lighting, surpassing many recent visually underwhelming blockbusters. His achievement is even more impressive considering the compressed production schedule (hired February 2024, in production by June). While the trailer doesn't fully reveal the new characters, the action sequences are promising, and there's ample dinosaur screen time—a welcome reassurance. (Remember the locusts from Dominion? No? We don't blame you.)
Despite cautious optimism, the trailer's failure to utilize the "world of dinosaurs" concept, teased since Fallen Kingdom, looms large.
AnswerSee Results**Another Island? Really?!**The premise: another dinosaur-infested island. Not Isla Nublar or Isla Sorna, but a purported "research facility for the original Jurassic Park." Ignoring canon inconsistencies, this retreat to a tropical island setting isolates the dinosaurs from civilization. Why revisit this tired trope when the previous trilogy ended with dinosaurs globally dispersed? Universal's synopsis explains that five years post-Dominion, the planet's ecology proves largely inhospitable to dinosaurs, confining them to isolated equatorial environments.
This feels like an unnecessary course correction. Why build a "Jurassic World" only to abandon it? Similar to *Dominion*'s retconning of *Fallen Kingdom*'s ending, *Rebirth* discards the series' best recent idea: a world overrun by dinosaurs. This creative choice undermines the film's intended relaunch with new characters and concepts.The established lore also suffers. Dominion depicted dinosaurs thriving in diverse environments, from snowy regions to urban settings. If the world was so inhospitable, why did they fare so well in the previous film? The Malta chase sequence in Dominion—carnivores rampaging through a city—was arguably the film's best and most creative scene. The Jurassic franchise is a Hollywood safe bet, yet why not embrace risk and explore truly innovative directions?
The Jurassic franchise is a Hollywood safe bet; why not take a chance and do something truly different? Jurassic World Rebirth might have hidden surprises beyond this initial trailer. (The rumored original title, Jurassic City, suggests a setting potentially concealed in the marketing.) Regardless, the franchise needs to move beyond the tropical island motif. While not advocating a full Planet of the Apes dinosaur adaptation, a middle ground is needed to showcase dinosaurs in novel environments. We await Jurassic World Rebirth's release, hoping the franchise finally values innovation over repetition.
Jurassic World Rebirth - Trailer 1 Stills
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