Knee-jerk review: "Jurassic World Rebirth"

1. So look, this movie knew what it needed to do and it delivered it exceedingly well.  Polished, competent, efficient.
2. We weren't really looking forward to seeing this, but the family decided watching dinosaurs eat people was the perfect way to spend July 4th.
3. All in all, a pleasant surprise.  It's pretty dang good, people.
4. We weren't huge fans of the last three Chris Pratt/Bryce Dallas Howard Jurassic movies and can't even remember the storylines, but this one introduces a whole new (if familiar) set of characters and quickly strands them on a dinosaur island.  Back to basics.
5. Jonathan Bailey looks like Guy Pearce's younger brother.  Seems like he could be a real movie star.
6. No self-respecting Jurassic movie would ever miss the chance to put a tween character in harm's way.
7. Most of the movie is a string of exciting impossibly-close-call, escape-the-hungry-dinosaur set pieces.  Good enough.
8. Shout out to the guy sitting next to us who had to keep explaining everything to his daughter.  You made our experience so much better as a result.  
9. Mahershala Ali is probably slumming here, but that's okay.  He brings welcome gravitas.  And he likely got a good paycheck.
10. We should talk about the sailboat family.  It's good that the movie took time to develop their characters before the dinosaurs attack so we feel more of an investment in their safety, but their little cruise seems incredibly reckless given the exposition audiences were provided about the world of the movie.  We also noted that without the family's side adventure, the run time would probably only 90 minutes.
11. When it comes to concocting a reason to undertake yet another dangerous mission to an off-limits dinosaur island, the one the filmmakers come up with (gathering samples from three live dinosaurs) is pretty good.
12. The D-Rex is a bit much perhaps.
13. Even after all of that, we're still skeptical of Xavier.
14. Sci-fi research facilities always have huge vent systems to allow for convenient hero escapes, don't they?  They must all use the same architectural firm.
15. Scarlett Johannson, pony-tailed action hero?  More please.
16. We appreciated the Jaws homage.
17. Ending is probably a little long, but the plot pieces all come together nicely.  Ticking clocks are always welcome.
18. Honestly, it may be the best one since Spielberg's 1993 original.

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