"Perhaps the worst of the series": the BBC's harsh criticism of Jurassic World Rebirth

The latest installment in the Jurassic Park saga strives to offer a fresh take on a multi-billion-dollar escape-from-the-dinosaurs formula that clearly can't be messed with, but the filmmakers should have played with it a little more. That's the BBC's conclusion about one of the season's most anticipated films.

According to the review, Jurassic World Rebirth "boasts big stars like Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey, as well as creatures better designed than ever, but offers so few thrills that it may be the weakest of the series."

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"This seventh installment is essentially a reboot of a reboot and follows the model created by Steven Spielberg with the first Jurassic Park film, starring Sam Neill and Laura Dern 32 years ago. A Jurassic World trilogy followed, starring Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard," he says.

And this one from 2025 seemed promising. Johansson, as vibrant as the action star in Black Widow, plays a mercenary, Zora Bennett, hired by a major pharmaceutical company to recover dinosaur DNA.

The same goes for Bailey, who is perfectly suited to the role of Dr. Henry Loomis, a brainy paleontologist who joins the dangerous mission. He can identify the dinosaurs, which roam freely on an abandoned tropical island where experiments to create hybrids went awry. But it's a problem when the main story of a star-studded film is overshadowed by the subplot, which is the unlikely outcome in Jurassic World Rebirth, the review article explains.

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The film's opening text explains that in the years since the dinosaurs' return, they have been threatened by environmental changes and also by "public disinterest."

The phrase sounds like a pretext for the director to create bigger and more terrifying monsters. Zora and Henry must sedate and obtain DNA from a titanosaur, the largest carnivore that ever existed, and from the quetzalcoatlus, a ferocious, beaked, flying bird, as well as the mosasaur, an aquatic reptile.

Like many other creatures, they're not as terrifying or impressive, and are sometimes beautiful to behold due to their gigantic size. At one point, we see dozens of long-necked dinosaurs peacefully grazing.

John Williams' majestic original music, elegantly integrated by composer Alexandre Desplat into his new score, soars, and we can feel Loomis's awe as he gazes upon creatures he has never seen before.

But that scene, which deliberately evokes the sense of wonder Neill and Dern's characters—and the moviegoing audience—experienced upon seeing herds of peaceful dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, is a reminder of how well Spielberg's original holds up.

Of the seven films, the BBC says, it 's unsurpassed at building tension and keeping the audience captivated. The sequels have had their ups and downs, never quite matching the original in sheer excitement.

Edwards has said that Spielberg advised him on the story and that he was "very involved" in the making of Jurassic Park Rebirth, but that's obviously not the same as directing it.

If Spielberg can't be bettered—and, really, when it comes to these kinds of films, who can?—it 's better to try something daring to prevent the dinosaur buzz from fading.