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    How to Escape a T-Rex in ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’

    The director Gareth Edwards narrates a harrowing sequence from his film.In “Anatomy of a Scene,” we ask directors to reveal the secrets that go into making key scenes in their movies. See new episodes in the series on Fridays. You can also watch our collection of more than 150 videos on YouTube and subscribe to our YouTube channel.Don’t you hate it when you’re trying to escape by raft from an island riddled with dinosaurs and you manage to wake up a sleeping T-Rex in the process?That scenario becomes one of the signature moments in “Jurassic World Rebirth,” the latest in the long-running dino thriller franchise.In the scene, a family becomes trapped on an island where the setting is lush and the creature threats are plentiful. One family member, Teresa (Luna Blaise), finds a raft but also encounters a certain snoozing theropod nearby. The raft, per the instructions written on the side of it (seen in a close-up shot), must be opened on land.“This was something we added in the edit,” Edwards said, narrating the scene and discussing the close-up, “because we did a test screening and the audience was just like, why would you inflate it in front of a T-Rex?”Next, the filmmakers used the opportunity to make a dino disappear before the viewers’ eyes. The T-Rex is in the background of the shot, but then is hidden from view once the raft inflates on its side. When the raft gets turned flat in the water, the dinosaur has disappeared. “You sort of get this David Copperfield moment,” Edwards said.In discussing where the sequence was shot, Edwards said, “What you’re looking at is two main locations. One is in Thailand and it’s really actually a lake. We use it as a river, but it’s this big lake within a quarry. And then, once the rafting begins proper, it becomes this location in the U.K. called Lee Valley, which was essentially built for the London Olympics in 2012.”Only one of these locations was warm.“In London, in the rapid section,” Edwards said, “it’s freezing cold. And the actors, they were very tolerant, but we had to do take after take after take as you can imagine. And slowly through the day, I could see the look in their eyes. They wanted to kill me.”Read the “Jurassic World Rebirth” review.Sign up for the Movies Update newsletter and get a roundup of reviews, news, Critics’ Picks and more. More

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    ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’ Review: Wonder, Gone Extinct

    With its seventh entry, the popular dinosaur franchise is starting to show signs of wear.In the 32 years since dinosaurs started roaming the earth again — that is, since “Jurassic Park” opened in theaters — a list of required ingredients for entries in the franchise has evolved. They always center on scientists and adventurers, usually bickering with one another. There’s always some shadowy billionaire, or billion-dollar corporation, lurking in the background. Kids are always in peril. And of course, there are always dinos.Save for the dinosaurs, this could describe pretty much any summer Hollywood blockbuster. But the “Jurassic” movies — of which the new film, “Jurassic World Rebirth,” is the seventh — have a particularly distinctive quality, something I rarely encounter in big-budget cinema. They’re action-packed and filled with peril, yes. But each movie also gives way, however briefly, to a sense of quiet awe.Cinema is well-suited to provoking wonder. In the art form’s early days, just seeing moving images left viewers astonished (and, in some cases, panicked). It has always felt a little like magic, the experience of watching another world emerge, drawn with lights, through a frame hung on a wall. Adding sound to the experience made it even more amazing, and most cinematic innovations over the past century — everything from Smell-o-Vision to 3-D to 4DX — try to wow the audience even more.Jonathan Bailey and Scarlett Johansson in “Jurassic World Rebirth.”Jasin Boland/Universal Pictures and Amblin EntertainmentBut mainstream movies have often leaned more on spectacle (a shark chomping in the water, superheroes zooming through the air, Tom Cruise hanging off the side of a plane) than awe, which is a quieter thing. Awe makes us feel small, and it feels good. The first “Jurassic Park” movie introduces the dinosaurs in a way that makes the characters, and the audience, stop talking and thinking about anything else and just stare. These giant, stately creatures — the franchise is especially fond of the sort with long, curving necks — are tremendous to behold, and John Williams’s score swells to symphonic heights. Yeah, you know that’s not a real dinosaur. But who cares? You feel small and hushed in the presence of something great, and ancient, and achingly beautiful.Every “Jurassic” movie has repeated this moment, trying to re-evoke in the audience that feeling of awe, with somewhat diminishing returns. But sometimes they still manage it. For instance, the 2022 installment, “Jurassic World: Dominion,” is not a very good movie. But it succeeds on this one specific front by moving the big dinosaur moment to a wintry landscape. Two Brachiosauruses have wandered into a place where loggers are working. They’re being slowly led away from the spot, and the burly men are silently watching. These animals can’t move quickly, but they’re not in a hurry either. Their ancestors were here long before ours, and their bodies carry the memory of a land before time.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More