‘F1’ and ‘Jurassic World: Rebirth’ do what they say on the box

Entertaining programmers powered my 4th of July.

I recently took some time off work to give myself a long holiday weekend. We’d gotten the kids tickets to see Weird Al in concert last Wednesday¹ which was great fun; you really haven’t lived unless you’ve sung “Yoda” with as old-out crowd and a stage full of Storm Troopers and Darth Vader. We also spent a few days sitting in the sun at random lakes, eating burgers, snacking on ice cream, and drinking beer and bourbon (the kids did not get to enjoy this last part). A truly American Independence Day weekend.

I also made sure I got out to the movies a few times, taking an afternoon to myself to see F1: The Movie and then bringing the kids along with me for Jurassic World: Rebirth the next day. The movies don’t have too much in common, narratively – although if someone wants to make a movie about dinosaurs racing cars, I’ll show up. But from a quality standpoint, I think both were commendable, if not exceptional, summer programmers – just good enough to get us from the excitement of early summer’s films and tide us over until the July superhero onslaught starts this weekend².

F1 could have very likely started its life as a Days of Thunder legacy sequel that shifted when Tom Cruise decided not to wear the Mello Yello jacket again; it’s got the pedigree of that film’s producer, Jerry Bruckheimer, and Top Gun: Maverick’s director Joseph Kosinski³. And, like Thunder, it has a plug-and-play plot: Old F1 racer Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) was disgraced in his youth and spends his days as a driver for hire, until his rich old buddy (Javier Bardem) enlists him to join his F1 team and give his talented but cocky rookie driver (Damson Idris) some mentorship. Layer in a bit of past trauma, give the old dude a love interest (Kerry Condon) and add some classic rock to the soundtrack, and you know exactly what this movie is and where it’s going.

Likewise, David Koepp’s script for Jurassic World: Rebirth keeps it simple and avoids the weird digressions that made the previous three films some of the worst blockbusters of the 21st century. He understands that people simply want the basest of pleasures from this franchise: characters on an island with hungry, hungry dinos. He places a mercenary (Scarlett Johansson), a paleontologist (Jonathan Bailey) and a smuggler (Mahershala Ali) aboard a boat with a shady pharmaceutical exec (Rupert Friend), tosses in a family who ventures into the adventure by mistake, and lets the animals eat their way up the call sheet. It’s not Shakespeare, but there are also no military raptors.

Let’s get this out of the way: neither Kosinski Rebirth director Gareth Edwards are known for their deep character work or insightful themes, and that doesn’t change. Kosinski is a director who leans heavily on formula and star performances, which he complements with amazing visuals and set pieces. When it works, as it did with Top Gun: Maverick, it results in thrilling entertainment. When it doesn’t, you get Tron Legacy, which felt like an amusement park stunt show set at a nightclub. F1 leans heavily on Pitt’s charm and swagger, the love-hate relationship between him and the cocky rookie, and the dependable beats of the sports formula. And the result is closer to Maverick than Tron; Pitt is in peak movie star form, and the dramatic beats might be predictable, but Ehren Kruger’s script steers through them ably. I don’t know that the love story between Pitt and Condon quite works, but I liked watching them together, and Bardem brings his own energy.

Likewise, to call Edwards’ characters paper thin is an insult to paper. Godzilla is a monster movie that seems annoyed by its human characters, and while Rogue One is a fantastic Star Wars adventure, that’s largely due to Tony Gilroy coming in to rework the script. Jurassic World: Rebirth hints at some deeper trauma and back story for its characters but never delves deep; it largely coasts on the likability of its stars (Johansson’s character might be the perkiest merc to ever have PTSD). But having three highly talented actors at the center in Johansson, Ali and Bailey helps immensely, and I enjoyed the subplot about the family that gets dragged in by mistake; I’ve seen some critics carp about the film placing mercenaries at its center when they’ve traditionally been the bad guys in these movies, but there’s enough of an attempt made to give them a moral arc that I’ll let it slide. At the very least, it’s a major improvement from the charisma vacuum between Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard in the previous trilogy, and if it’s only a dino food delivery system, well…that’s why we’re showing up, isn’t it?

Despite their flaws in the more narrative aspects – and let’s be clear, F1 has a solid, if familiar, script – both Kosinski and Edwards are consummate craftsmen, and their technical prowess elevates both films. Kosinski has proven before that his name should on a short list with Chris Nolan, James Cameron and perhaps Ryan Coogler when it comes to directors who best understand how to use IMAX to its full advantage⁴. The racing scenes in F1 are tremendous and visceral. As he did with the jets in Maverick, Kosinski puts us up close with Pitt and the rest of the cast to show us they’re actually in those seats going 200 mph. The camera pans, swoops and shakes, and the sound rattles the theater walls, especially as Hans Zimmer’s score thunders or the classic rock soundtrack blasts. The story might be familiar, but the racing sequences feel like nothing I’ve experienced before, and the movie ratchets into a higher gear whenever those engines rev. It’s a thrilling big screen experience, and even those who aren’t racing fans – I am not one – will find themselves on an adrenaline high.

And while Edwards seems disinterested in humans, few blockbuster directors understand their skillset as well as him. Edwards is a storyteller of scale, never better than when he has puny people dwarfed by giant beasts. And Rebirth’s frequent dinosaur set pieces are thrilling, scary and inventive. The movie starts off with an intense cold open teasing its mutated beastie and then keeps finding new ways to put its heroes in danger. There’s a great sequence involving a transport ship and a Mosasaurus, a knuckle-clenching escape from a pterodactyl’s nest, and a moment of wonder that harkens back to the first film when the characters find themselves in the middle of date night with a herd of titanosaurs. The film’s highlight is a river escape from a T-Rex pulled from Michael Crichton’s original novel and it’s a tense and thrilling moment that is one of the best in the franchise. The film’s showdown with the mutated D Rex might be a bit too familiar, but for the first time since 1993, a Jurassic Park film feels scary, fun and primal. It’s not great – and in no way does it come close to the quality of Spielberg’s original – but it’s worth remembering that everything from The Lost World on has been strictly B-level and below; this is a dumb, fun entry in a series that’s too often been dumb but no fun.

Listen, neither F1 nor Jurassic World: Rebirth will sit on my top 10 list at the end of the year. I’ll forget about them by the time the autumn leaves fall and school’s back in session. But they’re not meant to be Great Movies; they’re meant to be entertaining diversions people can enjoy in a cool theater on a hot day. They promise thrills and fun, and they deliver. They may be calculated bits of product – F1 is attempting to be Maverick on the ground and Jurassic World: Rebirth is rebooting a series that just “ended” three years ago – but they’re quality products, with actual technical skill behind them. They do exactly what you ask, nothing more. Sometimes, that’s all you need from a summer movie.

1. This might have also been a treat for Dad, who’s had a Weird Al concert on his bucket list for decades.

2. I was hoping to have a review for Superman up by Friday, but Warner Brothers has decided the Detroit market is not big enough to merit a critics’ screening for the film. So, I’ll be seeing it with the family over the weekend; look for something next week.

3. I would not be surprised at all if an F1/Days of Thunder crossover were announced in the near future, bringing together Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise for the first time since Interview with a Vampire (maybe they could cross that one over, too!)

4. Let’s be very clear that I’m talking about their skill with the IMAX format only; Nolan, Coogler and Cameron are all better at finding things to say with their films than Kosinski, who still seems to be searching for his voice.