Only three years since the second-trilogy closer Dominion, the new (seventh) Jurassic movie moves the timeline along five years in a fairly stand-alone chapter that for the most part frees itself from its overburdened immediate predecessor, but still containing playful nods to the franchise's past. After a pulpy prologue and a lengthy (and wordy) first act that assembles a group of hire-for-pay mercenaries along with a scientist, a local sailor and an Aliens/Burke-like shady company suit that does a good job of establishing the main characters, the film then sets itself - story and structure - on three missions to collect live DNA from sea/land/air creatures for world-changing medical research and then escape from Ile Saint-Hubert, another long-abandoned Ingen R&D site. Gareth Edwards wrangles the giant-creature elements with the expected aplomb, with true blockbusterly-spectacular action set-pieces (the highlight being the surprisingly Jaws-like extended seabound section), alongside more interestingly-drawn characters than perhaps usual for this franchise, with an excellent top-line cast of Jonathan Bailey, Mahershala Ali and especially Scarlett Johannson, all of whom bring a brisk but grounded and very watchable humanity to their roles. Just when you think the film has evaded the franchise's seeming demand for a cute child every time, up pops a random and dull shipwrecked family, whose B-plot journey offers the most uninteresting parts of the movie, bar a tense river escapade. Although Rebirth looks and feels quite fresh, ultimately it delivers more of the same that has been shown before in the series but bigger or with a slight twist on previously-used scenarios and locations, such as the classic 'kitchen stalking' scene here taking place in a similarly-aisled gas-station shop, as the series at this point can do little but cannibalise itself. Nevertheless, Rebirth is certainly one of the better entries in the series so far in spite of the lacklustre family strand, with main characters that do not irritate and some genuinely sweeping big-screen visuals.
