Jurassic World: Rebirth (2025)

We're at the stage now when a new Jurassic Park movie no longer inspires the awe and excitement it used to. That started when it became Jurassic World, but each subsequent instalment since the first movie has felt like diminishing returns as various directors have tried to recapture the magic of the original. I actually enjoyed Jurassic World Dominion, which many disliked, so I was someone especially miffed by the idea of them attempting to reboot the series yet again.

Anyway, let's cut to the chase. You don't need too many plot details. A group of people head to an island full of dinosaurs to collect some stuff. Things don't go well. There's also a family caught up in the dino crisis, and viewers will know that everything will lead to a finale that makes use of the biggest and baddest beasties around. All accompanied by a score from Alexandre Desplat that knows it needs to work with the familiar motif established by John Williams.

Starring Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Jurassic World: Rebirth is a strange mess of a film, unable to give us anyone to truly root for while also under-delivering on the expected dinosaur spectacle. Director Gareth Edwards does well behind the camera, quite rightly avoiding the coy approach to big monsters that he has used in previous movies, but he's saddled with a David Koepp script that doesn't quite do enough to fill out the 133-minute runtime. It doesn't help that the plot is perfunctory videogame stuff, with people having to collect samples of creatures from land, sea, and air, and one big set-piece completely works as well as intended . . . thanks to our old friend, the tyrannosaurus rex. 

Johansson seems to go through the motions with minimal effort, Friend is quite shiny and smug, and Bailey tries to exude charm throughout, but it's only Ali who feels like an actual star happy to have fun in a silly blockbuster. Which makes it a great shame that he feels relatively underused. Manuel Garcia-Rulfo is locked in to his "concerned father" role, with nothing else to define him, and Luna Blaise, David Iacono, and Audrina Miranda do okay with what they're given, even if they're not given the greatest material to work with.

I guess it's difficult, at this stage, to deliver something truly unique and fresh in the Jurassic movies. So maybe they should stop making them.  If I'm feeling generous, I'll give credit to two exciting sequences here, both set on water. Again, as mentioned earlier, that's not enough for something with this runtime. Maybe newcomers will get more from it, but they would still get even more from first checking out the earlier films in the franchise. 

5/10

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Companion (2025)

It can be very frustrating when a film comes along that a lot of people start praising, but also advising everyone to see before finding out anything about it. They tell you that there are some good twists and turns, and one or two are even given away in a trailer that should be avoided at all costs. So you end up trusting people you generally tend to share movie opinions with. That worked out well for me with Companion, but it could have been a different story.

Sophie Thatcher is Iris, the titular companion, accompanying Josh (Jack Quaid) for some time away with his friends. There's Kat (Megan Suri), Eli and Patrick (played by Harvey Guillén), and a gregarious Russian named Sergey (Rupert Friend) who made his fortune by getting his hands dirty. This isn't just a cheery get together for some friends though. There's a plan to make themselves quite wealthy. Iris is a very important part of the plan, but she doesn't know that yet.

The first feature written and directed by Drew Hancock, the important thing to clarify about Companion is that, contrary to how some people might have you believe, it's not a horror movie. I know that genre labels are flexible things anyway, and various individuals can have various interpretations, but I wouldn't like people to come away from a viewing of this feeling disappointed just because it ends up being something it never intended to be anyway. This is a subversive neo-noir with a fine vein of dark humour running all the way through it and some sci-fi touches to help it feel a step away from the many other movies it comes closest to. Hancock makes use of some cool tech to move the plot along, and the construction of the screenplay allows him to deftly hop around a number of interesting and timely thematic strands.

All of the cast do great work, but it's worth highlighting Thatcher, Quaid, and Gage, all excelling in different ways. All of them get to present more range than expected, and they all add to the fun and escalating craziness in different ways. And, yes, to say any more than that might spoil things for anyone yet to see the film, which means I have to join the ranks of people being frustratingly vague about the whole thing. Suffice it to say that Thatcher moves from passive to very non-passive, Gage likewise, and Quaid knows how to twist his sweet nature and megawatt smile into the all-too-familiar "nice guy" who genuinely believes that he is a nice guy, even as his actions start to contradict that description.

A film more about the dialogue and ideas than any gorgeous visuals or major set-pieces, although there are a number of shots that are impressively composed, Companion is smart and witty throughout, and it makes great use of some potential near-future tech to put a new coat of paint on some refurbished classic furniture. As long as you're not too squeamish when it comes to the occasional moments of bloodshed, this is fun, fun, fun. And, yes, you should see it before you find out too much about it.

8/10

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