We’re up to the 7^th film in the successful Jurassic Park franchise and, as expected, the filmmakers are low on ideas.  Ironically, the opening act of Jurassic World Rebirth tries to convince us that public interest in dinosaurs is waning.  The theme parks no longer exist (guess there were a few too many fatalities) and patronage of dinosaur exhibits in museums is at record lows.  It’s an odd plot point given reality is the exact opposite.

The characters in this instalment are all new but the storyline is not.  Once again, we have a loathsome pharmaceutical guy, Martin (Friend), who wants to make big bucks by using dinosaur DNA to cure human diseases.  He must travel to a remote island guarded by government agencies, take blood samples from the three largest categories of dinosaurs, put them in a silver briefcase, and escape without being killed.  It sounds like the premise of a video game where you collect points along the way.

Martin can’t do it alone and so he recruits a team headlined by three savvy individuals.  Henry (Bailey) is a struggling palaeontologist who can identify the dinosaurs they seek.  Zora (Johansson) is a jack-of-all-trades mercenary who orchestrates the dangerous mission in return for a $10 million pay cheque.  Duncan (Ali) is an experienced boat captain who can get them to the island undetected.  Also in the mix are a father (Garcia-Rulfo) and three youngsters who have weirdly decided to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a small sailboat despite limited skills.

You’ll know where Jurassic World Rebirth is heading after the first 30 minutes.  It’s a simplistic action piece with one-dimensional heroes and villains making head-scratching decisions.  David Koepp, who co-wrote the original Jurassic Park screenplay, makes it clear who we need to cheer for and who is dispensable.  Further, character arcs lack credibility.  The Zora we’re introduced to is a money hungry felon but considering she’s played by the likeable Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation), the film quickly transforms her into a “quality person” who cares deeply about the boat family and the world’s free access to medical research.  Go figure?

English director Gareth Edwards (Monsters, Godzilla) can’t make the film stand out from its predecessors.  It lacks genuine performances like we’ve seen in the past from a scene-stealing Jeff Goldblum or a crafty Sam Neill.  Alexandre Desplat (The Grand Budapest Hotel) is an accomplished composer, but he leans too heavily on riffs of John Williams’ iconic theme as opposed to creating something new.  There’s a splash of suspense in a several action pieces but not enough to hold one’s attention for a lengthy 133 minutes.

How many more Jurassic Park movies are we going to see using this predictable template?  The title refers to a “rebirth”, but this is best described as an underwhelming “rehash”.