By Molly Claire Goddard
10:18am PDT, Jul 1, 2025
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Jurassic World Rebirth has critics talking. The science fiction action-adventure film — set to hit theaters on Wednesday, July 2 — stars A-listers
Scarlett Johansson,
Jonathan Bailey,
Mahershala Ali and brings audiences on a wild ride. Despite being part of a blockbuster franchise, is the film worth the price of admission?
Keep reading to see what the critics are saying about the summer flick…MORE:
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According to
Amy Nicholson of the
Los Angeles Times,
Jurassic World Rebirth proves that the long-running movie franchise may have jumped the shark. "
Rebirth is a confounding title for a downbeat entry that's mostly preoccupied by death and neglect. Who knows whether we're at the head or tail of the Anthropocene, but the movie seems weary of our dominion," she writes in part. "With the franchise officially out of ideas, how about skipping to
Jurassic Park: One Million Years A.D. so a futuristic species can resurrect us for some malevolent fun and games?"
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IGN's
Clint Gage noted that
Jurassic World Rebirth leaves much to be desired for moviegoers seeking the magic of the other films in the franchise. "Rebirth is, when it comes down to it, just 'more teeth,' the mostly cheesy line from
Jurassic World poking fun at the absurdity of daring to ask 'How do we make bringing dinosaurs back to life interesting again?'" he wrote. "What
Jurassic World was trying to make fun of,
Rebirth ultimately became. It's a very okay, middling movie, with nothing egregiously wrong about it aside from the fact that it ignores one of the franchise's most iconic lines."
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On a more positive note,
Variety's
Peter Debruge felt
Jurassic World Rebirth recaptures some of the magic of the original 1993 film, though it doesn't necessarily give itself a unique edge. "The movie offers an updated version of the same basic ride
[Steven] Spielberg offered 32 years earlier and yet, it hardly feels essential to the series' overall mythology," he noted. "Nor does it signal where the franchise could be headed."
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The
New York Post's
Johnny Oleksinski was less than impressed with the creativity in the flick and questioned the need to continue the line of films by giving it one star. "Universal and Amblin [Entertainment] should have ended this franchise after 2022's appalling
Dominion, in which the well was so dry that the main conflict was prehistoric locusts gobbling up crops. The premise has become an overgrown weed and it's time to put it — and us — out of our misery," he wrote.
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Vulture's
Alison Willmore called
Jurassic World Rebirth "boring" even with its action-packed plot. "
Rebirth, despite referencing and revising beats from the [Steven]Spielberg original, including a chase that echoes the velociraptor kitchen scene and a remix of the first
T. rex attack, never generates energy with its dino encounters," she wrote. "Even its own big bad, the
Distortus rex, a massive mutant dino with a set of extra limbs and a bulbous forehead more suited to an extraterrestrial, is underwhelming."
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The Guardian's
Peter Bradshaw enjoyed the movie and credited
Scarlett Johansson's stand-out performance. Despite giving it four stars, the journalist emphasized how it's time for new concepts in Hollywood. "It feels relaxed and sure-footed in its [Steven] Spielberg pastiche, its big dino-jeopardy moments and its deployment of thrills and laughs. Maybe the series can't and shouldn't go on forever: we need new and original ideas. This one would be great to go out on," he wrote.
