ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — “JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH” (2025, 134 min., directed by Gareth Edwards)

It has been over 30 years since “Jurassic Park” brought dinosaurs to life on the big screen. Six terrible sequels later, those dinosaurs have finally been beaten to death.

“Jurassic World: Rebirth” has been advertised as a return to form for the franchise, moving away from the nonsense of “Jurassic World: Dominion” with new stars, new dinosaurs and a new island. This time around, a team of mercenaries and scientists led by Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali and Jonathan Bailey must capture DNA from a water dinosaur, a land dinosaur and a sky dinosaur for a ne’er-do-well pharmaceutical executive played by Rupert Friend. Additionally, a random family unit – comprised of a single father, his college-aged daughter, her slacker boyfriend and her precocious younger sister – is added into the mix a third of the way through for bonus subplot peril. Unfortunately for this motley cast of characters, the dinosaurs in question inhabit an island which served as the original park’s research facility, where scientists were cooking up all manner of mutant, monstrous ‘saurs.

In “Rebirth,” Johansson continues her cold streak of performances this summer from “The Phoenician Scheme,” turning in a hollow emulation of a roguish, Indiana Jones-type adventurer with next to no chemistry with an equally lacking Ali. Bailey, meanwhile, is the saving grace of the “Rebirth” cast. His geeky, earnest paleontologist, Dr. Henry Loomis, is a convincing swing away from the charming machismo Bailey oozed in “Wicked,” proof that even if “Rebirth” hasn’t revitalized the dinosaur movie, Bailey should be a rising star. Bailey is the only truly fun player in “Rebirth,” though Friend is clearly having a blast in his role as heartless corporate villain.

(Courtesy: Universal Pictures) Scarlett Johansson disappoints in her starring turn in “Jurassic World: Rebirth.”

Though it would be nice if these films had better scripts and performances, much of the appeal of the “Jurassic” franchise is the promise of seeing dinosaurs come to life. This is the only place “Rebirth” really excels. The film is directed by Gareth Edwards of “The Creator” and “Godzilla” (2014), both of which feature stunning visual effects with lackluster story execution. Edwards repeats that pattern here. His dinos look great and his sets look real, even if everything else feels as lab-grown as the mutant dinos themselves.

Those mutants, particularly the six-limbed, dome-headed Distortus rex, are touted in the film as a terror unlike anything the heroes – and we, the audience – have ever seen before. They are the mascots of the meta-narrative in “Rebirth,” which is about the only interesting thing about it. In the movie, several characters speak reflexively about the events of previous films, all but directly addressing the audience in their anxiety about crafting the gnarliest, scariest, most intense “Jurassic” experience yet. Despite screenwriter David Koepp’s deliberations, especially ironic considering he also penned the original “Jurassic Park” with novelist Michael Crichton, “Rebirth” is more of a rehash than anything else. The movie resembles a mutated hodge-podge of elements from previous “Jurassic” installments smushed together, as though “Jurassic Park,” “The Lost Word,” “Jurassic Park III,” “Jurassic World,” “Fallen Kingdom” and “Dominion” were the six limbs of “Rebirth” flailing around on its deformed D. rex body.

(Courtesy: Universal Pictures) One of the sea-dwelling dinosaurs in “Jurassic World: Rebirth.”

“Jurassic World: Rebirth” is a boring, uninspired, lifeless slog of a movie about giant dinosaurs. As unbelievable as it may be for studio executives that the “Jurassic” formula has only succeeded once, at this point, “Jurassic Park” feels like 65 million years ago, and each subsequent installment has been another meteor driving the franchise into the ground. If these films are so laser-focused on reviving their progenitor, the least they could do is to take heed of its message: dinosaurs went extinct for a reason. Let this series die too.

Rating: 2/5