Rebirth may be familiar, but it still has bite
Do we need another Jurassic Park movie? I think you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who’d reply in the affirmative to that question, other than the executives at Universal Pictures. While the studio has had their share of misses at the box office over the last year, one would think the success of Despicable Me 4, Twisters, The Wild Robot and Wicked would have left them in relatively good shape. But what do I know? They count their beans in a unique way in Tinsel Town, so if the suits at Universal feel dinosaurs must roam the Earth again, so be it.
I don’t think I’m alone in bringing low expectations to the seventh entry in the series. I mean, I like seeing people getting eaten by dinos as much as the next guy, but how many variations on that theme can there be? Yet, going in with a low bar can have its advantages and wouldn’t you know it, I ended up liking Jurassic World: Rebirth much more than I thought I would.
To be sure it covers familiar ground, so much so I swear I saw Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum’s footprints at one point. Yet despite that, director Gareth Edwards, the Godzilla director returning to familiar ground after his disastrous The Creator, manages to bring enough imagination and flair to do two things I no longer thought possible. The dinosaurs on parade are frightening, while they also inspire a sense of awe, both feelings missing from the last two entries.
As Ben Franklin once said, “Familiarity breeds contempt,” and that applies to the dinosaurs that have become commonplace in the world of Rebirth. What was once unique has become old hat. Hey, if you’ve seen one brontosaurus, you’ve seen them all. And while their popularity as a tourist attraction has faded, they do still serve a purpose. Seems their DNA can be used to help cure cancer, yet only the genetic material from the largest species proves effective.
Enter Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend), a rep from an evil pharmaceutical company (Is there any other kind?) who has a proposition for mercenaries Zora Bennett and Duncan Kincaid (Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali, respectively). Millions will be theirs if they escort expert paleontologist Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) to a remote island near the equator where the largest of the sea, land and flying dinosaurs exist. All they have to do is keep him alive while he gets samples from one of each variety and return him to the States, alive. A walk in the park if there ever was one.
Of course, it’s not, and after a mishap at sea, they end up on an island with a dark past. It’s the location of a lab where hybrid dinosaurs were being bred to lure back audiences. Things went sideways and the bigger and badder versions of the T-Rex and other maneaters were left to fend for themselves. You can almost hear the dinner bell ring when Bennett and her crew step ashore.
The hunters soon find themselves the hunted as their expedition quickly goes south. As soon as the action shifts to the island location, Edwards shows his hand. The dinosaurs are hiding in plain sight, the patterns of their skin serving as camouflage. A serene moment becomes a nightmare when what you thought was a rock is suddenly chomping on a character whose name you weren’t meant to remember. It’s an effective approach that, while used repeatedly, never loses its impact.
Yet, what does stall the film is its fractured plot. Before being stranded, Kincaid orders his ship to pick up a family from a crippled boat after hearing their SOS. The pleasure cruise Rueben (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), his daughters Teresa and Isabella (Luna Blaise and Audrina Miranda) and the elder girl’s boyfriend, Xavier (David Iacono), is ruined when their vessel is sideswiped by a whale-like dino. While all seems well when they’re rescued, the two groups are separated when they reach land.
The script by David Koepp then alternates between the travails of the mercenary group and that of the beleaguered family, which ultimately puts a strain on the story. As a result, the movie runs in fits and starts, threatening to stall during its prolonged third act.
Yet, Edwards manages to deliver the sort of thrills the franchise has become known for. A sequence in which Teresa must sneak an inflatable raft past a sleeping T-Rex is a hoot, while a scene in which Bennett and Loomis invade a pterodactyl nest steadily progresses to nail-biting status. Other jolts occur throughout and while this is all so familiar, there’s no question Edwards makes these moments effective.
For some, that will be enough. Others will complain that Rebirth offers up nothing new and is a simple cash grab. They’re not wrong, but when a movie makes me literally leap out of my seat (so embarrassing) one moment and leaves me awestruck the next, it must be doing something right. In Theaters.
Ridiculous Heads adequate couch fare
In the new film Heads of State, John Cena plays Will Derringer, an action movie star who winds up getting elected President of the United States, voters unable to distinguish the difference between his big screen exploits and the reality of governing. What would have once been thought improbable would now likely be welcomed by many.
I suppose if we can have Harrison Ford as a butt-kicking commander-in-chief in Air Force One, seeing Cena in the Oval Office isn’t that much of a leap. And to be fair, the actor continues to impress as Derringer, a well-meaning blowhard who believes his own press, quite sure that any diplomatic problem can be solved using force or by turning on the charm. He’s joined by Idris Elba as British Prime Minister Sam Clarke, a by-the-books statesman who resents his counterpart’s easy climb to power and lack of political experience.
Though they loath one another, they’re forced to work together when, while traveling together on Air Force One, it’s shot down over Belarus. On their own in Russian territory, they must rely on their brawn and wits to reach Italy where a NATO conference is being held. Shenanigans instituted by terrorist Viktor Gradof (Paddy Considine) threaten to destroy the institution and only the two presumed-dead world leaders can hold it together.
Director Ilya Naishuller leans into the film’s B-movie premise, delivering a series of convincing, and at times, exciting action sequences, finding laughs where he can. No one is taking any of this too seriously, though real world politics do creep in, especially when a key character espouses the notion that the United States would be better off taking an isolationist stance where international conflicts are concerned.
However, this is done in passing, Naishuller fully aware the audience for Heads could care less about world politics and are more interested in seeing things blow up real good. The scene in which Air Force One is taken down will likely satisfy action junkies while a third-act car chase through the narrow streets of Trieste, Italy, is a showstopper, quick cutting and well-timed pyrotechnics effectively used to thrill.
Of course, none of this would hold together if it weren’t for Elba and Cena, their antagonistic chemistry generating not simply laughs, but a sense of growing respect and camaraderie between the characters. Priyanka Chopra Jonas is also on hand as covert agent Noel Bisset, the actress quite convincing when kicking butt and taking names, while Carla Gugino is also on board as Vice-President Elizabeth Kirk. Rounding out the impressive supporting cast is Jack Quaid as Marty Comer, a field agent who worships Derringer and goes to great lengths to save his hide.
And while Heads is reasonably executed, in a world in which the Mission: Impossible and John Wick films break the action movie mold with each new entry, this is small potatoes. As such, it wasn’t given a big-screen release and can only be seen on Amazon Prime. But in a sense, that’s a win-win proposition. You don’t have to buy a $10 ticket and a $15 bucket of popcorn to take in a movie that will fade from your memory as soon as the credits start to roll. You have to take small victories like these where you can find them. Streaming on Amazon Prime.
M3GAN 2.0 a surprising reboot
If nothing else, you have to give Gerard Johnstone credit for not just doing the same old thing in the sequel M3GAN 2.0. While most follow-ups simply follow the same pattern and story of their predecessors, doing it louder and longer than the original, this follow-up goes down a decidedly different path. Using James Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgement Day as its template, we get a kinder killer robot who strives to understand human emotions, going so far as to achieving a sense of empathy for her flesh-and-blood counterparts.
Granted, in going that route, Johnstone won’t earn any points for originality, but credit for him for using his pop culture platform to issue a plea for restraint and common sense where the use and development of Artificial Intelligence is concerned. If the film gets anything right, it’s that this warning will fall on deaf ears, but at least he can say he tried.
A lot has happened to Gemma (Allison Williams), the tech genius from the first film. She was tried for unleashing the killer robot M3GAN (Amie Donald), gotten custody of her niece, Cady (Violet McGraw) and seen her company grow. However, she and her two partners, Cole (Brian Jordan Alvarez) and Tess (Jen Van Epps) have hit a wall. While their robotic inventions are cutting edge, they lack the funds to develop them. Enter slimy tech billionaire, Alton Appleton (Jemaine Clement) who offers to buy the rights to their gizmos, promising they will be used benevolently. Yeah, right…
Meanwhile, the U.S. Army comes knocking on Gemma’s door in the person on Col. Tim Sattler (Timm Sharp.) Seems a robot using the tech she invented has been stolen and used for nefarious purposes. A robot dubbed AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno) has gone rogue and is threatening all sorts of international cyber-shenanigans. They need Gemma’s help to bring her in and the only way to do that is to fight fire with fire. She needs to reactivate M3GAN.
There are a great many moving parts, including a subplot involving Christian (Aristotle Athari), Gemma’s love interest and fellow genius, who is lobbying Congress for greater AI regulations. Needless to say, those expecting another techno-horror film will be thrown with the opening sequence. More akin to something found in a James Bond movie, we see AMELIA infiltrating and dispatching a bunker-full of terrorists. Also requiring an adjustment is this feature’s tone, which leans far more towards comedy rather than suspense.
This proves to be a welcome change as Johnstone supplies his cast with more than a few pithy lines while the sarcasm employed where responsible use of technology is concerned is more effective than preaching. Williams, who serves as one of the film’s producers, seems more at home with this approach, while the rest of the cast is also in line with the movie’s satirical tone.
While Johnstone strives to bring a bit of humanity to his titular mechanical murderer, it doesn’t quite land. There’s little warmth to the character, as it seems her operating system is the Bugs Bunny 2.0. Dispatching one smart alecky line after another, her character remains too abrasive to be embraced, though, McGraw does her best to convince us otherwise during her conversations with her cyborg savior.
The action, and there’s plenty of it in the last hour, is effectively staged, but the film ultimately overstays its welcome, its dire warning of the dangers of technology driven home again and again. Still, give Johnstone a bit of credit. He could have made M3GAN 2.0 a clone of its former self, instead of making a mostly entertaining cautionary tale for the Tik Tok generation. In Theaters.