32 years ago, Steven Spielberg created one of the greatest movies of all time with Jurᴀssic Park. It’s a feat of cinematic perfection that Universal has spent the decades since chasing but, through six sequels and a shift from Park to World, it has very much not found a way.

Jurᴀssic World Rebirth is the latest attempt, and a decidedly mixed one. It’s certainly better than most Jurᴀssic World movies, and a huge improvement on its immediate predecessor, Dominion. At the same time, Spielberg this is not.

That’s, admittedly, a very high bar. And, to be fair, Rebirth does more or less what it needs to: it’s a flawed, sometimes silly, but absolutely entertaining summer blockbuster. Still, the legacy of Spielberg looms large, and is frequently called back to as well, and only one scene comes close to that magic.

Jurᴀssic World Rebirth’s тιтanosaurus Scene Is Pure Jurᴀssic Park Magic

This Is Jurᴀssic World At Its Very Best

It takes a while for Jurᴀssic World Rebirth to reach its new island but, once it does, it really begins to play the hits – and there’s one that it completely nails: the тιтanosaurus sequence.

Ever since Jurᴀssic Park‘s characters – and audience – got to see the Brachiosaurus in a moment of hat-and-sunglᴀsses-removing awe, seeing dinosaurs with a sense of reverence and majesty has been a core part of the franchise. That’s what Rebirth‘s тιтanosaurus scene captures.

Of course, part of its success is using John Williams’ iconic score, which can elevate any movie moment (and hey, if it works, it works). But the scene also earns that score with its stunning visuals and how emotionally important it is to Henry Loomis, with Jonathan Bailey playing it beautifully. It’s a profound, spiritual experience for him, and so it feels like one for us as well.

It’s the one moment in the entire movie that I think truly shows how special these creatures can be, and why Spielberg’s original movie remains a timeless classic. It’s also the only one that fully transported me back to that movie, and gave me the same sense of wonder that Jurᴀssic Park has for most of my life.

Jurᴀssic World Rebirth’s Other Major Scenes Don’t Quite Land

Some Are Good, But Not Quite Spielberg-Level Great

There’s so much that makes Jurᴀssic Park incredible, but two of its biggest pillars are its balance of wonder and horror. Its magic lies in the dinosaurs being such astonishing sights to behold that you want to see them up close, but also face the terrifying reality that some of them are utterly f**king terrifying.

The тιтanosaurus scene nails the awe, but there are other moments that aim for the same horror Spielberg’s original conveyed, without quite as much success. The T. rex raft scene is a fun ride (and not just because the book scene it adapts literally inspired a theme park ride), but it lacks any real tension or sense of danger. Even the inflatable raft survives!

That lack of suspense and fear, which was so prominent in Spielberg’s movie that all it took was a glᴀss of water to showcase it, pervades through much of the movie. It’s not so much that the main “good” characters all survive – that’s nothing new for Jurᴀssic – but that it never made me believe it’d be any other way.

I also don’t think the mutant dinosaurs help in this regard. The D-Rex’s design is so obviously a mix of rancor and Xenomorph that it becomes a distraction, and felt a little more silly than scary. When watching the Mutadons, I just wished they were Velociraptors.

Hopefully, that’s something the franchise moves on from – dinosaurs don’t need mutations to be interesting, no matter what InGen thinks.

Still, while most of Jurᴀssic World Rebirth doesn’t come close to the original, I didn’t expect it to. It’s still an enjoyable time at the movies, and that we even got one scene that came close to Spielberg’s movie is itself an impressive feat, and it’s the scene I’ll remember longest from the movie.