Jurassic World Rebirthwas fun enough, but its story should have been split into two completely different movies. Despite not being overwhelmingly acclaimed,Jurassic World Rebirth’s reviewssolidified the installment as somewhat of a return to form after a few blunders.Jurassic World Rebirth’s accurate dinosaurs, and even inaccurate ones like the D-Rex, allowed for compelling action amid intriguing characters.
However, by the time ofJurassic World Rebirth’s ending, it became clear that the film’s narrative was fractured. Thecast ofJurassic World Rebirthwas billed to be led by Scarlett Johansson as Zora, Jonathan Bailey as Dr. Henry Loomis, and Mahershala Ali as Duncan; however, more characters beyond these received significant focus.
This is not an inherently bad decision, but it does raise the question of whetherJurassic World Rebirthshould have been two different movies entirely. In doing so, each side of the film’s story could have benefited.
Jurassic World Rebirth Smashes Two Compelling Story Ideas Together
The first of the stories told inJurassic World Rebirthcenters around the aforementioned characters of Zora, Henry, and Duncan. The trio, hired by Rupert Friend’s Martin Krebs, traveled to a dinosaur-inhabited island. There, they needed to obtain DNA samples from the three largest dinosaurs still in existence to formulate a new treatment for heart disease.
These characters were the most intriguing ofJurassic World Rebirth,given the stars attached to them and the chemistry between each one. Moreover, this storyline attempted to delve into the moral complexities of handing a cure for heart disease over to a major corporation that could charge extortionate prices for it. Beyond all that, this storyline had the strongest action sequences.
On the other side of the film is the Delgado family. The Delgado family is shown sailing together before being attacked by a Mosasaurus, leading Zora and her team to their rescue. After this rescue, however, the Delgado family abandons Zora, Henry, and Duncan, opting to find their own way through the dinosaur-infested island on which they shipwrecked.
Jurassic World Rebirth’s box officeproves that this overall story is working for audiences across the world. After all, both stories in concept are compelling, with the former taking a deeper route into theJurassicfranchise’s potential and the latter emulating the classic survival-based story of the original.
That said, the movie becomes slightly messy by jumping back and forth between these two plotlines.The two sides of the film coincide, are split apart, and then briefly come back together againby the end. This provides some connectivity between them, but it feels likeJurassic World Rebirthsimply smashed two disparate storylines together.
The Jurassic Franchise Would’ve Been Better Off Giving Each Story Its Own Movie
With all of this in mind, there is an argument that both stories inJurassic World Rebirthwould have been better as their own individual movies. As already alluded to, the storyline involving Zora, Henry, and Duncan involved a moral conflict and interesting character dynamics while focusing on more action-adventure set pieces.
The Delgado family storyline was much more survival horror. Therefore, both could have worked as their own movie with distinct styles and tones that equally apply to theJurassicfranchise. Beyond that, each storyline would have benefited from a deeper focus, rather than the split in runtime thatJurassic World Rebirthhad to include.
Zora and Henry’s moral dilemma of whether to give the cure to Martin or leak it to the world was one of the more intriguing plot points of the film, yetJurassic World Rebirth’s split stories meant it was not explored in enough detail to make it meaningful. The same goes for Zora’s PTSD-like story of losing friends on missions.
This was not explored with enough depth, nor was Duncan’s subplot involving his family life. If these characters were the only focus of the movie, however,Jurassic World Rebirthcould have provided each character with a compelling arc. This would then benefit the overall story, too, yetJurassic World Rebirthwas too focused on jumping back to the Delgado family.
Speaking of the Delgado family, their subplot would likely also have worked as its own movie. In exploring the straight-up horror vibes of a regular family trapped on an island of dinosaurs, the franchise could have had a unique movie in the vein of the original. For decades, theJurassicfranchise has focused on people with the knowledge or training needed to deal with the de-extinct animals.
Focusing a movie entirely on a family with none of this knowledge or training could have been endlessly interesting. As it was,Jurassic World Rebirthdid not delve deeply enough into this for it to be as effective as it could have been, much like with Zora’s storyline. All of this supports the idea thatJurassic World Rebirthshould have been two separate movies.
One, focusing on Zora, could have been an action-adventure with a deeper moral subplot that explored the next era of theJurassicfranchise. The other, focusing on the Delgados, could have been a standalone survival horror film about a regular family of citizens trying to survive an island full of deadly dinosaurs.
This way, the true potential of both halves ofJurassic World Rebirthcould have been unearthed.
