Monday new releases: 7 July 2025

Jurassic World Rebirth, The Count of Monte Cristo and The Great Lillian Hall are in cinemas and Heads of State is streaming on Prime Video.

As a kind of thought experiment – and because I haven’t bothered to watch either of the last two Jurassic World films – I decided to approach Jurassic World Rebirth as if it was a stand alone film. Regardless of its heritage, does this film engage me? Do I care about its characters? Are the set-pieces exciting and well made? The answer, dear reader, may surprise you.

My answer is yes! Rebirth is one of the most entertaining afternoons I’ve spent in front of a big screen so far this year. It looks like a film for start – shot on Kodak celluloid – and it’s written by David Koepp who wrote (or co-wrote) Spielberg’s first two. And the director is Gareth Edwards, whose approach to big special effects is to eschew the green screen – or the Volume – and actually go outside and photograph the world and then composite his monsters, or spacecraft in the case of The Creator a couple of years ago, in afterwards. This gives his films atmosphere and texture, making him the perfect director for a film that asks you to believe that prehistoric animals have been brought back to life.

(Edwards has been doing this successfully for years. Monsters (2010) was brilliant low budget sci-fi and, after being criminally hard to find for too long, is now available to rent at AroVision.)

Back to my thought experiment – what if this was the first and only Jurassic Park film you saw? Luckily, there’s enough explanation for you to appreciate why there are dinosaurs roaming around, but not so much that it gets loaded down with references and fan service. The dinosaurs that were reintroduced to the world as a theme park attraction are mostly dying out as our climate has evolved beyond the capacity to sustain them. Except that they are thriving in equatorial zones that – because of the danger they present – are now off limits.

A shady Big Pharma executive (Rupert Friend) employs a jaded mercenary (Scarlett Johansson) to lead a team into one of the forbidden zones in order to extract some potent dinosaur DNA that will fuel a breakthrough heart disease prevention drug, potentially extending millions of lives. Along with a nerdy dinosaur expert (the excellent Jonathan Bailey) and boat captain Mahershala Ali, they make their way to an abandoned secret laboratory on a remote island, trying unsuccessfully to steer clear of all the pissed-off creatures wanting to do them in.

Also dragged into this adventure are an innocent Latino family, sailing from Florida to Cape Town, who are rescued after their boat is capsized by one of the giant seagoing beasties. I really liked these characters (played by Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Luna Blaise, David Iacono and Audrina Miranda) and their adventures after they become separated from the main characters were lots of fun.

In fact, I’d watch all of this team again which I couldn’t – and didn’t – say for Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard in the last three. But there I go, making comparisons when I said I wouldn’t.

It’s been a big weekend for Malta at the movies. The Mediterranean island joined Thailand to play equatorial Caribbean in Jurassic World Rebirth and it did its more usual job of portraying 19th century Marseilles in The Count of Monte Cristo, the latest epic Dumas adaptation from Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière who brought us two Three Musketeers films last year. Rather than split the story into two films, this one just runs for three hours but the time goes flying by.