A Few Feelings on Failed Franchise Momentum (Jurassic World: Rebirth and Ironheart)
No SPOILERS on either as always friends !!
With Jurassic World: Rebirth being the seventh film in it’s franchise, and Ironheart being the final release of Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I find it really interesting that two releases can come out at virtually the same time that sum up how important momentum is for a franchise in order to successfully achieve sustained emotional investment for audiences. Whilst both franchises have had different levels of success over the years, they’ve both always been fairly deep rooted in mainstream culture. Yet, both have got to the point where the fans satisfaction in the product has really been challenged. There’s a variety of reasons of this but the one that I find most interesting is the idea of how much momentum really helps in the eyes of audiences.
Having watched both, I can confidently say that I think they’re really well made in their own outright which is almost what’s so frustrating about the inevitable fan views and the situation we’re in with these franchises. Jurassic World: Rebirth is undeniably a really good looking film with some incredible visuals of Dinosaurs throughout and Ironheart really stands it’s own ground as a unique story within the wider Marvel universe but does this even matter if fans aren’t as invested anymore?
I would almost go as far as saying they feel like two pieces of media that are failed by their franchises previous releases. They both should be more popular based on production and story quality alone but when you place them in context with other releases in the franchise, investment naturally isn’t going to be that high anymore. I went into watching both as open minded as possible because I wanted to like them but with Ironheart being quite subtly released by Marvel in comparison to other releases and with Jurassic World: Rebirth feeling a little bit like a rinse and repeat of previous films in the franchise, I think it’s hard for audiences to push past that in order to objectively focus on the story/production quality without the bias of what they’ve seen previously impacting their views. At least, I felt that way anyway.
Jurassic World: Rebirth follows Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) and her team (along with a shipwrecked civilian family) as they head to an island research facility for the original Jurassic Park in order to try secure some genetic materials from living dinosaurs. It’s got a really strong cast including Maharshala Ali, Jonathan Bailey and Rupert Friend who all give good believable performances in their roles. Jonathan Bailey in particular is a delight to watch as Dr. Henry Loomis. It takes place about 5 years after the Chris Pratt set of Jurassic World films, with minimal reference to those films outside of the idea around Dinosaurs only being native to various parts of the in universe Earth. It’s directed by Gareth Edwards who directed Godzilla (2014), Rogue One (2016) and more recently, The Creator (2023) and it’s written by David Koepp, who co-wrote the original.
With all this in mind, all the foundations were in place for it to be a really good film and as I said previously, that was the case but where it really struggles is the film feeling too similar to the previous iterations which isn’t helped by the weight of the loss of franchise momentum. I couldn’t help but feel throughout that the humans of this universe should have learnt their lessons by now not to interfere with nature of this kind, especially the civilians. I get that there’s always going to be rich people trying to get more money (which seems to be every Jurassic plot ever annoyingly) but at the beginning of the film, there’s a lot of talk about how Dinosaurs only live in one area of the planet (near the Equator) and for some reason, a civilian family decides to go boating near it anyway?! Shock, they then end up in trouble!
I honestly think that the film would have felt more exciting and engaging for audiences if the less critically beloved Jurassic World sequel trilogy had achieved some of the originals magic in the same way this one tried too. The more I think about it, the more I would say this film actually manages to feel less like a cash grab sequel than the original sequel trilogy did. I don’t even dislike the Jurassic World films but Rebirth felt at least like it was trying to be more meaningful in what it wanted to achieve then the previous few even if we have seen several versions of people going to islands filled with Dinosaurs and it back firing at this point in the franchise. This is what I mean by failed franchise momentum because this film is not let down by the quality of the film itself but by the weight of the previous releases in the franchise.
Unfortunately, it’s a similar story with Ironheart. There’s a lot to really like about the 6 part TV series (released in two three episode batches) but with Marvel releasing so many projects/moments that have had minimal pay off in recent years, it’s hard not to watch this and feel uncertain of whether it’s going to happen again, and therefore it’s hard to truly care about what’s actually going on. The story follows Riri Williams (Dominque Thorne, who previously appeared in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) as she becomes entangled with Parker Robbins/The Hood (Anthony Ramos) whilst trying to deal with her own personal mental journey through grief and also try to build the latest version of her Ironheart suit.
I think at this point, I’ve watched just about all of the Marvel TV releases (apart from maybe Echo) and it’s definitely been harder with each one to feel invested enough to watch them when they first come out. This is something that Marvel has acknowledged themselves with this release being the last one of a brief model they had where they were releasing a lot of Film and TV content over the calendar year so I think like me, a lot of people are hoping it’s different going forward. However for now, Ironheart definitely feels like another victim of failed franchise momentum. It’s a show with a lot of heart, it tells a good neatly wrapped story and has an interesting set up for future stories, but because it’s been harder to feel invested in recent releases, it all feels less impactful than it should have been. This should have been a more exciting TV show for audiences to enjoy but then again, so should have Secret Invasion, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, She Hulk etc.
Obviously there will be a lot of people out there that will be able to watch both without feeling like the weight of the franchises will impact their views and if you’re reading this trying to determine whether to watch either then I would say they’re definitely both worth watching. Jurassic World: Rebirth has the potential to be viewed as simply a fun summer blockbuster film depending on your interests and although it didn’t necessarily land for me, there are still some stand out set pieces in the film that continue to make the Jurassic franchise stand out. It’s a similar position for Ironheart. A lot of people who have given it a go have really enjoyed it, and I am in the same boat. I wasn’t sure whether it would work for me or whether to even watch it but having done so, there’s a lot to really like about the strong performances and good CGI (for once) throughout.
Let’s just hope that these franchises regain some momentum because I have a pretty good feeling that they are going to be around for a few more years yet..
Jurassic World: Rebirth - 3 STARS
Ironheart - 3 STARS