Director Gareth Edwards has been trusted with beloved film franchises before with Godzilla and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, crafting original stories that expand the world in which they dwell while also remaining true to what has gone before. And he does the same thing here with Jurassic World: Rebirth crafting a superb popcorn flick which also captures this childlike awe and equally a horror of dinosaurs once more. Returning to what made the franchise so great, Jurassic World: Rebirth is a summer blockbuster of the best kind stacked with great characters, heart in your mouth action set pieces and the fury and utter wonder of dinosaurs.

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Zora Bennett leads a team of skilled operatives to the most dangerous place on Earth, an island research facility for the original Jurassic Park. Their mission is to secure genetic material from dinosaurs whose DNA can provide life-saving benefits to mankind. As the top-secret expedition becomes more and more risky, they soon make a sinister, shocking discovery that's been hidden from the world for decades.

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Jurassic World: Rebirth spares us extended exposition and breezily introduces the new dino crew of 2025, a set of colourful characters hellbent on retrieving dinosaur DNA for a big payday from a pharmaceutical company as well as a family very much lost at sea. But while they waste no time, there is enough here in the character development as well as in the performances for the audience to be attached to these characters and their fate. I reckon that the best kinda gauge of this, as strange as it may seem, is if the audience laughs at the characters' jokes. The whole cinema roared with laughter, multiple times, and I really can’t remember the last time I’ve been at the movies when that’s happened. 

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Gareth Edwards has abandoned the more ridiculous aspects of the last Jurassic World film and has gone back to basics: humans playing god with the very real consequences of that. Also, which is the beating heart of the film itself, Edwards returns dinosaurs to the centre of the story. And it’s not just a few dinosaurs here and there, this film is stacked with a wide array of dinos from the old favorites in the velociraptors and T-Rex but some new ones in the titanosaurus and the hybrid Distortus rex. There’s a scene where Dr. Henry Loomis, played wonderfully by Jonathan Bailey, stumbles upon a herd of titanosaurus’ and reaches out his hand to gently touch one of them. Its pure cinematic magic, one of the best scenes in the franchise, as he is completely awestruck by his experience. 

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As well as the wonder, Jurassic World: Rebirth brings back the terror of dinosaurs in some furious, tense, and bloodied scenes. From the opening sequence in a Bond villain like laboratory to a river chase which includes an inflatable raft and a T-Rex to the blood-curdling cat and mouse finale, Jurassic World: Rebirth is stacked full of action. I also have to mention that Jurassic World: Rebirth has a great production design and VFX and a soulful soundtrack from Oscar winner Alexandre Desplat, it really makes the movie. In a world filled with trouble, Jurassic World: Rebirth is a salve, an opportunity to switch off while nibbling on your favorite snacks and be transported to a far off place filled with rip roaring adventure and thrills, spills, and of course, dinosaurs. You can’t ask for a better summer blockbuster than that. 

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Returning to what made the franchise so great, Jurassic World: Rebirth is a summer blockbuster of the best kind stacked with great characters, heart in your mouth action set pieces and the fury and utter wonder of dinosaurs.