A ChucksConnection Film Review

 

Luna Blaise wears well worn white high top Converse “Chuck Taylor” All Stars in the film.

Jurassic World: Rebirth

 

by Marcus Angulo

Teresa wears dirty, worn-out white high top chucks throughout this film.

 

The Jurassic Park franchise is, to put it mildly, a mixed bag of quality. The first film is a masterpiece that changed movies forever, while the two sequels that followed are fun but not nearly as good. The reboot Jurassic World films had some good ideas, but largely missed the mark due to some bad creative choices like focusing on genetic mutants and big locusts rather than the dinosaurs. Now, a second reboot of the franchise has come to fruition with a promise to bring it back to the promised land. Jurassic World: Rebirth stars Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Luna Blaise, David Iacono, Audrina Miranda, Ed Skrein, Bechir Sylvain, and Philippine Velge. It was released on July 2nd, 2025..

 

Teresa tries to get a raft into the river.

Back in 2008, InGen operated a dinosaur research laboratory on Île Saint-Hubert in the Atlantic Ocean, which is not one of the original sites from the previous films. The site is used for genetic experiments, including monstrous, mutated dinosaurs. One of these creations is a deformed six-limbed Tyrannosaur dubbed "Distortus Rex", or D-Rex. It kills an employee, wrecks the facility, and escapes. This forces InGen to abandon the island, leaving it to the dinosaurs. Now in 2025, most of Earth's climate is inhospitable to sustain the de-extinct dinosaurs that escaped back in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. The remaining animals survive in areas around the equator, which resemble the warmer Mesozoic climate, making them no-travel zones. Martin Krebs (Friend), an executive at pharmaceutical company ParkerGenix, recruits ex-covert operative Zora Bennett (Johansson) to lead paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis (Bailey) on a top-secret mission to the abandoned island. Dr. Loomis believes he can create a cure for heart disease using the biomaterial samples from the three largest remaining prehistoric specimens: the aquatic Mosasaurus, terrestrial Titanosaurus, and avian Quetzalcoatlus. Zora agrees to take the job and recruits her longtime friend Duncan Kincaid (Ali) to lead the expedition. He brings boat driver LeClerc (Sylvain), mercenary Nina (Velge), and security chief Bobby Atwater (Skrein).

 

The mosasaur tries to finish off the Delgado family.

 

Meanwhile, Reuben Delgado (Garcia-Rulfo) is sailing near the island with his daughters, Isabella (Miranda) and Teresa (Blaise), as a last trip before Teresa leaves for college. Traveling with them is Teresa's slacker boyfriend, Xavier Dobbs (Iacono), whom Reuben does not approve of. The family’s boat is soon attacked by the Mosasaurus, nearly capsizing. The call for help on the radio, and their message is picked up by Zora and Duncan. They save the family and bring them to the island with them on the expedition. The team soon encounters the Mosasaurus and extracts a sample from it, but the creature returns with a group of Spinosaurus and attacks the ship, killing Bobby. Teresa tries to use the radio to call for help from the mainland, but Martin panics and shoves her away to protect the mission's secrecy. Teresa falls overboard, and Xavier jumps in to save her. Reuben and Isabella also jump in, and they leave the expedition team behind. The mosasaur grounds the ship, and Nina is killed onshore by a Spinosaurus. Zora informs the survivors that she employed a rescue helicopter to circle the island in 24 hours, giving them a ticking clock to get the last two specimens. Elsewhere, on the island, the Delagdos wash up in a cave and resolve to find some sort of shelter to call for help.

 

The Delgados share a moment of rest before more danger finds them.

 

The general premise of this film is solid. The idea of collecting specimens from mega-fauna level dinosaurs while trying to survive a wild island makes for plenty of interesting scenarios. The film throws all that away, though, by creating more mutant monsters that are boring and lifeless. The D-Rex may be one of the worst “dinosaurs” in this whole franchise, both in appearance and relevance to the plot. It only shows up at the end of the film to give the reunited group something to run from in the finale, and never once does it look menacing or induce fear like the T. rex from Jurassic Park or the Spinosaurus from Jurassic Park III. The Jurassic World films also have this running theme of the general public losing interest in dinosaurs, which makes no sense. They’re dinosaurs, people love dinosaurs, and we know this because these movies keep making a billion dollars despite not being good. Stop telling us dinosaurs aren’t cool when all we want to see are humans interacting with dinosaurs. This was not the “rebirth” the franchise needed and that fans were hoping for. It is just more of the same lazy tropes from the previous three films.

Best Chucks Scene

 

“I’m sure there is nothing dangerous behind that raft.”

 

The best chucks scene in the film arrives at the midpoint of our adventure. The Delgado family is attempting to make their way to where they think the research facility is, and they are following electrical pipes to do so. They realize the pipes head upriver, and following it would be easier than hiking. Teresa sees a dock and swims to it, thinking that there must be something they can use there. When she steps onto the dock in her chucks, she sees a Dilophosaurus scavenging a Parasaurolophus carcass. This is soon overshadowed by what killed the Parasaurolophus in the first place, a nearby sleeping Tyrannosaurus Rex. Teresa tries to keep her cool as she attempts to get a life raft from the dock shed without waking the Rex. The tension is at its height in this scene as the Rex slowly starts stirring and the race to get the raft going before it fully wakes. The Delgados get on the raft, but the Rex awakens and gives chase, its curiosity piqued by the yellow raft. This is where Jurassic Park has always shone: real(ish) dinosaurs behaving naturally. The Rex isn’t hunting these people like a serial killer; it’s just an animal exploring something new, but its size and natural terror factor make the scene incredibly thrilling.

“Don’t move, it can’t see us if we don’t move.”

Support the film industry by purchasing genuine DVD, Blue Ray, or streaming copies of these films. Illegal copies only help profiteers. Make sure your money goes to the producers and artists who actually create these films. Still images from the film are used here as teasers to get you to view an authorized copy. If you have information about a film where a main character wears chucks, contact us at films@chucksconnection.com.

Purchase chucks, shoelaces, and books about chucks.
High Tops	Low Tops	Shoelaces Page	Books