Film Review of the Week

Action

Jurassic World Rebirth (12A)

Review: In the original Jurassic Park, InGen’s deluded CEO John Hammond assures palaeobotanist Ellie Satler that he has learnt the myriad mistakes of his malfunctioning theme park. “Creation is an act of sheer will. Next time, it’ll be flawless,” he growls defiantly between mouthfuls of rapidly melting ice cream. Jurassic World Rebirth marks the sixth “next time” and like so many of the sequels, falls short of the jaw-dropping spectacle and wonder of the 1993 adventure that started it all, shattered box office records and deservedly won three Academy Awards.

Screenwriter David Koepp, who scripted the original film, finally realises the Isla Nublar river raft sequence from Michael Crichton’s book. Homages to Steven Spielberg’s Raiders Of The Lost Ark, ET: The Extra-Terrestrial and Jaws abut visual nods to Jurassic Park: a car mirror declaring reflected objects are closer than they appear, snorted hot breath from a rampaging raptor/pterosaur hybrid on cool glass, and a frantic drive down to the docks to smuggle samples off an island. Digital effects vary wildly in quality. An open water boat chase involving two voracious species is stunningly realised but a wide shot of characters abseiling down a cliff face is glaringly absent of realistic physical movement.

Dinosaurs are slowly dying in polluted and overcrowded parts of the world and the majestic beasts that remain are consigned to environments near the equator where the climate and local ecosystems support their growth and humans are strictly forbidden from visiting. Profit-hungry pharmaceutical representative Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend) contracts covert operations specialist Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) to assemble a crack team to infiltrate Ile Saint-Hubert. The island is home to three large dinosaurs: aquatic carnivore Mosasaurus, airborne Quetzalcoatlus and hulking herbivore Titanosaurus, which hold the key to a miracle drug that can benefit the whole of mankind.

Zora enrols good friend Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali) in the expedition and bookish palaeontologist Dr Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) provides technical expertise and an unwavering moral compass when corporate greed rears its ugly head. As they travel to the island, Zora and co rescue widower Reuben Delgado (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) and his shipwrecked family comprising daughters Teresa (Luna Blaise) and Isabella (Audrina Miranda) and Teresa’s lazy boyfriend, Xavier (David Iacono). These unplanned additions to the crew witness a titanic battle between man and genetically altered beast and become a walking buffet for a rampaging T-rex.

Jurassic World Rebirth does not deliver the creative reinvigoration promised by the title but Edwards orchestrates effects-laden mayhem on a grand scale to match his assured monster-mashing work behind the camera of the 2014 Godzilla. An adorable Aquilops sidekick, christened Dolores, feels like a genius merchandising opportunity forcefully inserted into the story without tangible purpose. Johansson kicks dino-butt with aplomb as an all-action hero nursing deep psychological scars and she kindles simmering screen chemistry with Bailey’s morally upstanding nerd. Koepp’s dialogue is sharp in these early scenes, compelling us to care for characters who stand the best odds of survival.

Horror

The Shrouds (15)

Review: Canadian body horror maestro David Cronenberg has never been shy about disfiguring the human form for stomach-churning shocks on screen. Targeted telepathic energy causes a head to explode in Scanners, Jeff Goldblum falls apart, quite literally, as he mutates into The Fly, road accident victims fetishise their physical scars in Crash and surgical operations achieve orgasmic highs in Crimes Of The Future. This provocative meditation on mortality is tame by comparison to his earlier work, which frequently earns an 18 certificate for scenes of strong gore.

The most eye-catching interludes in The Shrouds are the artfully staged sex scenes between Vincent Cassel’s husband and his terminally ill wife (Diane Kruger), whose bones have been critically weakened by cancer and its aggressive treatment. During one tender attempt at coitus, he unintentionally breaks her hip by pressing against her too hard. The sickening snap of the bone induces the only wince in a meandering, two-hour, murder mystery initiated by the grief-stricken widower, who pores over a live video feed of his dead spouse’s decomposition below ground. “I’m involved with her body the way I was in life, only even more,” he coos to a gob-smacked blind date. Bare bones is an apt summation.

Money can buy prominent 50-something businessman Karsh Relikh (Cassel) anything his broken heart desires, except for a miracle cure to the cancer that slowly robbed his late wife Becca (Kruger) of her strength and dignity. The disease ravaged her body, resulting in various amputations and disfigurements, performed by her physician and former paramour, Dr Jerry Eckler (Steve Switzman). Haunted by Becca’s passing and his inability to save her, Karsh joins forces with his security expert brother-in-law, Maury (Guy Pearce), to create GraveTech.

The company opens cemeteries filled with interactive 3D gravestones that allow the living to view encrypted footage of the dearly departed slowly decaying under their feet, swaddled in the company’s state-of-the-art shrouds, which one character likens to “ominous metallic ninja things”. Hackers breach GraveTech’s security defences and wilfully desecrate several gravestones including Becca’s resting place. Karsh resolves to track down the perpetrators and he enlists the help of his wife’s “catastrophically neurotic” identical twin Terry (Kruger again), wealthy client Soo-Min (Sandrine Holt), GraveTech right-hand woman Gray (Elizabeth Saunders) and artificially intelligent personal assistant, Honey (voiced by Kruger).

Written by Cronenberg in response to the death of his wife from cancer after more than 40 years together, The Shrouds is a deeply personal vision of loss and yearning that did not fully connect with me. The filmmaker extends his fascination with the darker facets of human desire and the psychological traumas inflicted when sex and violence collide. Three Krugers are better than one but the script does not fully nourish each iteration and it is notable that digital avatar Honey lingers longest in the memory.