Scarlett Johansson’s Jurassic World Sequel Will Have To Solve A Problem That None Of Chris Pratt’s Jurassic Movies Could Fix

Scarlett Johansson’s upcoming Jurassic World sequel, Jurassic World Rebirth, has the opportunity to fix a problem that has plagued the Jurassic Park franchise for nearly a decade, but it won’t be an easy solution. Despite less than stellar reviews, the Jurassic World expansion on the comparatively self-contained Jurassic Park franchise has been a box office juggernaut, as the three movies have combined for well over $3 billion. There aren’t many details available about Jurassic World Rebirth yet, but based on its heavyweight cast, it will likely continue that box office trend.

While profitability shouldn’t be a problem, there is significantly less certainty surrounding the quality of the movie. Jurassic Park Rebirth hasn’t cast any legacy characters so far, and seems unlikely to do so as the franchise seeks a soft reboot after the disappointing reviews of its predecessors. With that clean slate in mind, the newest entry in the franchise needs to fix a problem that has been present in each Jurassic World movie, and it all comes down to whether it can recapture some of the magic of Steven Spielberg’s original adaptation of Michael Crichton’s iconic novel.

Jurassic World Rebirth Will Have To Make Dinosaurs Feel Scary And Larger-Than-Life Again

CGI And Creature Spectacle Have Become Commonplace

One of the defining traits of the original Jurassic Park was the legitimate scariness of its dinosaurs. Thanks to the outstanding practical effects work on the creatures, especially the Tyrannosaurus Rex, the dinosaurs felt very real, and as a result they felt genuinely frightening. That scariness continued in Jurassic Park: The Lost World, and may have even been perfected in the final scene with the spinosaurus in Jurassic Park III, which featured callbacks to Jaws among other horror movies. Each movie treated the dinosaurs as true larger-than-life terrors, which has been sorely missing since Jurassic Park III.

That’s the challenge facing Jurassic World Rebirth: how to make dinosaurs feel like they actually could exist in the world, and how to make that a terrifying notion again. There is no easy way to fix that problem, even with some of the most talented VFX artists in the world behind the movie. The unfortunate (for Jurassic World Rebirth) reality is that movies in general have changed since the T-Rex first broke out of his paddock, horror movies perhaps most of all.

Movies Changed Drastically Between Spielberg’s Jurassic Park And Jurassic World

The Bar For Genuine Scariness Is Much Higher

By the time Jurassic World was released, 22 years after the original Jurassic Park, audiences had become accustomed to seeing over-the-top CGI spectacles and massive monsters. The Marvel Cinematic Universe was well underway and Legendary had just kicked off the Monsterverse with Godzilla the year before, so even the biggest and baddest of dinosaurs felt underwhelming. While Jurassic World admirably tried to up the ante with hybrid dinosaurs, they lacked the originality of design and gravitas of practical effects needed to actually inspire fear.

Generally speaking, what actually scares movie audiences is far different in 2024 than it was in 1992. Monsters and jump scares don’t quite do it for the average moviegoer, who has been desensitized to that surface-level horror. As a result, the Jurassic World movies remained entertaining, but didn’t have anywhere near the impact that Jurassic Park had from a horror standpoint. The heavily-CGI’d dinosaurs placed Jurassic World more on par with Transformers than with Jaws or Aliens; the movies are fun, but certainly not scary.

Jurassic World Rebirth Doesn’t Have To Reinvent The Wheel To Be A Good Jurassic Park Film

It Should Play Closer To Horror Than Adventure Or Action

Jurassic World Rebirth can still return the franchise to its horror roots without completely altering the formula that has made the Jurassic World movies so financially successful. There is legitimate star power leading the cast in the form of Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali, and the recently-revealed Jurassic World Rebirth plot synopsis indicates that the story will be free of the shackles of its predecessors, and free to explore new ground. The key to making dinosaurs scary again and reinvigorating the franchise lies in how the dinosaurs are presented.

The plot synopsis reveals that Scarlett Johansson’s lead character will be focused on the three most massive dinosaurs loose in the world, meaning there is already a setup for grand dinosaur spectacles and scenes. A return to the practical effects of the original Jurassic Park trilogy could yield more real-feeling dinosaurs, especially given how far practical effects have come in the last 30 years. No matter how the dinosaurs are brought to life in Jurassic Park Rebirth, the focus needs to be on making them feel legitimately scary again, like the larger-than-life behemoths they actually were 65 million years ago.

Five years after Jurassic World Dominion, Earth’s ecology confines dinosaurs to equatorial zones. Zora Bennett, a covert ops expert, leads a team to secure genetic material from massive dinosaurs for a life-saving drug.  However, stranded on their mission, they discover a devastating secret hidden for decades.

Director

Gareth Edwards

Release Date

July 2, 2025

Distributor(s)

Universal Pictures

Writers

David Koepp , Michael Crichton

Main Genre

Adventure

Expand