Jurassic Park Rebirth [2025] review

I was actually pleasantly surprised by this film. Based off of the horrible experiences of "Fallen Kingdom" and "Dominion", I was not expecting much which is why I waited to rent it.

Was there bad campy dialogue? Yes.

Were there questionable plot choices and logic? Of course.

Did the movie make me care about the characters? Surprisingly yes, for the most part.

Firstly, I liked that the writers got through the simple premise fairly quickly and by the 25 minute mark, we were on the boat ready for the adventure on the way to the island. The movie took a beat to have a scene with Scarlett Johansson's character and Mahershala Ali's character which I think was important in making us care about the characters. I would have preferred more show than tell, but I think people want to see the dinosaurs ASAP so any potential flashbacks would have gotten in the way.

Then they shifted to this random family who were also at sea, and it was interesting how they were pulled into the plot and then once they got to the island, the writers gave us two different branching stories. I got some "Kong Skull Island" vibes from the one crew and I think the writers used the other crew to mirror Alan Grant's journey across the island from the first "Jurassic Park" film. Alan Grant does get a quick name drop by the scientist character played by Jonathan Bailey who I didn't know until my wife mentioned was the same actor in Wicked. I think he did a great job and I was impressed by his handling of those two very different roles.

I think this movie had a good mix of dread, action, and decent pacing. With the baby Triceratops, I was semi expecting for the mom to pop in at some point and save the day, but that didn't happen so good for the movie to keep the audience on their toes for a little bit.

Without spoiling, there was a character that did something that made me well up a bit, so good job to the writers for pulling that off. I was surprised that I would care about any of these new characters that much.

In the end, it's definitely worth a rent / watch. I'd give it a 6.5/10.

Karate Kid Legends [2025] spoiler review

The movie wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great either.  In simplest terms, this movie felt forced and formulaic.  I can picture the writers sitting in a room and reverse engineering what they wanted to do to tell the story they wanted to tell.

Step 1:  We want to combine Karate Kid (1984) with Karate Kid (2010).  We got it!  Establish the connection of Miyagi's sensei / great grandfather and his connection to China so we can connect what we established in Karate Kid II to Jackie Chan's Han character.  Perfect!  Fits nice!  Now that we've done that we can bring together Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Han!    

NOPE!  Not yet!  

Step 2:  Now that we established that, we need to focus on the new character- the titular Karate Kid:  Li Fong.  What's his story?

Well first, he wears headphones while training when no one else is?  Why?  Never explained.

His mom moves him from China to New York.  Why?  Because that's Karate Kid 101 - it's a fish out of water story - check.

Next, we need him to meet a girl that has been in a prior relationship and that prior relationship cause problems - check.

Step 3:  Now for the curve ball - the girl has a DAD and he's got problems.  So let's focus on him, and boxing, and bookies, and have Li save him from the bookies Miyagi style but with a little Jackie Chan flair.  Then let's focus on the boxing match and get some flashbacks regarding Li's dead brother.  Oh and Li needs a dorky best friend for no reason.

Step 4 - Time to address step 1 and complete the film:  Now that Li is at his lowest, it's time to bring in Jackie Chan.  How does he know he needs to visit?  Who is running his giant dojo while he's gone?  Unknown.

But wait, now that Jackie/Mr. Han is in New York, he needs to visit someone first.  He travels to California and we finally get Daniel LaRusso in the movie.

Mr. Han:  I need your help.

Daniel:  I can't.

Mr. Han:  K bye.

Back in New York - Mr. Han trains Li for the upcoming "All Valley" I mean "5 Boroughs Tournament".  How do we make it more exciting?  Add some Street Fighter/Mortal Kombat-eque type of animation before each fight.  Also, we won't explain it, but you can get more than 1 point per bout and to win you can knock out or get 8 points.  Is the tournament televised?  Who is choosing the random fighting places?  Where are these random fighting places?  Unknown.

Oh, also, Daniel shows up just as Mr. Han had predicted in the next scene.  He magically knows where to show up to help train Li.

Li is trained.  Li wins.  All conflicts are resolved.  Happy ending.  Don't forget William Zabka cameo and out.

With that said, I thought Ben Wang did a great job as Li Fong. I don't think any of the other side characters were needed. It would have been nice if we got more development of the Conor character. I'd give it a 4/10.