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Samsung’s summer Galaxy Unpacked event has come to a close. As expected, the company unveiled next-generation Galaxy Z Flip and Fold smartphones, as well as three new additions to its smartwatch lineup.

If you didn’t get a chance to watch the event yourself, you can catch up with all of Samsung’s major announcements below.

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is super slim, but say goodbye to the S Pen

Samsung has revealed the Galaxy Z Fold 7, which is even thinner and lighter than its predecessor at 4.2mm thick when unfolded and 8.9mm when folded. It also has a larger 6.5-inch outer display and an 8-inch display on the inside (up from 6.3 inches and 7.6 inches, respectively).

The Fold 7 comes with some other spec bumps, including a Snapdragon 8 Elite processor and up to 16GB of RAM. Its storage still maxes out at 1TB, but Samsung gave the rear camera setup a small boost by pairing an upgraded 200-megapixel, wide-angle sensor with a 12MP ultrawide lens and a 10MP telephoto camera. But unlike previous generations, the Fold 7 doesn’t support the S Pen.

The Fold 7 starts at $1,999.99 and comes in silver, black, blue, and mint (for online orders only). It’s available for preorder starting today and will start shipping on July 25th.

The Galaxy Z Flip 7 gets a larger cover display

The Galaxy Z Flip 7 has a larger 4.1-inch cover screen that extends beyond the two cameras on the display. Samsung increased the size of the inner display, too, going from 6.7 inches on the Flip 6 to 6.9 inches on the Flip 7.

Like the Fold 7, the clamshell-style foldable is also thinner than its predecessor, measuring just 6.5mm thick when unfolded. Additionally, the Flip 7 features a Samsung Exynos 2500 processor, 12GB of RAM, up to 512GB of storage, and a larger 4,300mAh battery. It comes with the same 50MP wide-angle lens, 12MP ultra-wide sensor, and 10MP front-facing camera.

The Flip 7 is priced at $1,099.99 and comes in blue, black, coral red, and mint (online only). It’s available for preorder starting today and will start shipping on July 25th.

Samsung’s first Flip FE has arrived

During Unpacked, Samsung showed off the FE — or “Fan Edition” — version of the Galaxy Z Flip 7. Similar to its other FE devices, the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE is cheaper than the flagship model, starting at $899.99.

The Flip 7 FE sports a similar design to the Flip 6, featuring a 3.4-inch cover display that borders the camera bar rather than extending beyond it, along with a 6.7-inch inner screen. Its specs also mimic that of the Flip 6, as it comes with 8GB of RAM, up to 256GB of storage, a 4,000 mA battery, and a rear camera setup that includes a 50MP wide-angle camera and 12MP ultrawide lens.

The Flip 7 FE comes in black and white. It’s available for preorder starting today and will start shipping on July 25th.

Samsung doubles the Galaxy Watch Ultra’s storage

Samsung also revealed its second-gen Galaxy Watch Ultra, which comes with many of the same features as its predecessor but with 64GB of storage instead of 32GB. The device still comes with a 47mm display, titanium casing, and a 590mAh battery that offers up to 100 hours of use in power-saving mode.

It will also support the latest One UI 8 features, including the ability to measure antioxidant levels, suggest ideal bedtimes, and a running coach for “motivation and real-time guidance.” The Watch Ultra starts at $649.99, and you can preorder it today before it starts shipping on July 25th.

Galaxy Watch 8 goes full squircle

Samsung brought the Galaxy Watch Ultra’s squircle case design and round watchface to the Galaxy Watch 8 and Watch 8 Classic. The company says the Watch 8 is its “thinnest” yet. It’s 11 percent thinner than the Watch 7.

The new midrange watch is available in 40mm and 44mm display sizes, with an Exynos W1000 processor, 2GB of RAM, and up to 32GB of storage. The Watch 8 starts at $349.99 for the Bluetooth model and $399.99 for the LTE version. It’s available in graphite and silver, and you can preorder it today before it starts shipping on July 25th.

Galaxy Watch 8 Classic is back with just one size

Following a gap year, Samsung has also reintroduced the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic, with a silver rotating bezel and a single 46mm display. Samsung upgraded it with a larger 445mAh battery, 64GB of storage, and the Ultra’s Quick Button.

The Watch 8 Classic starts at $499.99 for the Bluetooth model and $549.99 for the LTE one. It’s available in black or white, and you can preorder it today before it starts shipping on July 25th.

Google puts AI Mode in Circle to Search

Rick Osterloh, Google’s senior vice president of devices and services, made an appearance at Unpacked to announce that Google is putting AI Mode into Circle to Search, allowing you to ask follow-up questions about a visual search. Additionally, Samsung apps like Calendar, Notes, and Reminders now support integrations with Gemini, while the Galaxy Z Flip 7 is getting a Gemini Live update that enables camera-sharing on the cover screen.

Samsung’s new phones will ship with these features — along with Android 16 and One UI 8 — out of the box.

Photography by Allison Johnson / The Verge

From The Verge via this RSS feed

Samsung’s latest clamshell-style foldable is officially here, and it brought a new, more affordable sibling to the party. The Z Flip 7 was announced at Samsung’s summer Unpacked event this morning, and it’s been updated with an edge-to-edge cover screen. Alongside it, Samsung is also launching a new model: the Z Flip 7 FE, which maintains the older folder-shaped cutout for the cover screen.

The Z Flip 7 FE is the first foldable that Samsung has introduced in its “Fan Edition” line, which provides budget-friendly alternatives to the company’s flagship Galaxy phones. At $899, it’s not quite affordable enough to compete with Motorola’s Razr, which starts at $699, but it’s a lot cheaper than the standard $1,099 Z Flip 7 model.

Both versions are available for preorder in the US starting today, with general availability beginning July 25th. The Z Flip 7 comes in a few color options, including black, blue, red, and green, while its FE counterpart is only available in a choice of black or white.

The new Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE closely mirrors the Z Flip 6. It has a similar 3.4-inch cover screen with a 720p resolution and a 6.7-inch internal display, a 10-megapixel front camera, a 12-megapixel ultrawide, and a 50-megapixel wide-angle camera. It also has a 4,000mAh battery and a choice between 256GB or 512GB of storage. Some aspects are a downgrade, however — while the Z Flip 6 has 12GB of RAM, the Z Flip 7 FE is only offered with 8GB, and it sports a slower Exynos 2400 chipset instead of the 4 nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.

The Z Flip 7 has a few other upgrades by comparison. It features an almost borderless 4.1-inch AMOLED cover display that wraps around the camera, alongside a slimmer hinge design than its predecessor. The 6.9-inch internal display is a smidge bigger, and both the internal screen and cover display support a 120Hz refresh rate and 2,600 nits of peak brightness, while the previous-gen cover screen capped out at 60Hz and 1,600 nits.

The Z Flip 7 also supports Samsung’s DeX desktop mode and comes with a larger 4,300mAh battery despite being slightly slimmer overall, measuring 13.7mm thick when folded. Most other features remain consistent with the previous generation.

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2K Games is back again with another reveal: WNBA star Angel Reese and NBA Hall of Famer Carmelo Anthony are the cover athletes for NBA 2K26‘s special editions. The Chicago Sky forward will grace the cover of NBA 2K26: WNBA Edition, while Melo is featured on the Superstar Edition.

Angel Reese is only in her second year in the WNBA, but has quickly made a name for herself; the “Chi-Town Barbie” has become the fastest player to reach 500 points and 500 rebounds, reaching the milestone in only 38 games played ( a full WNBA season is 44 games). Furthermore, Reese currently holds the rookie record for the most consecutive double-doubles, with 15, surpassing the previous record of 12 held by the legendary Candace Parker.

“Being on the cover of NBA 2K26 and debuting my first-ever signature shoe with Reebok on that cover, the Angel Reese 1, is more than a milestone—it’s a statement,” said Reese in a press release. “It’s about representation and showing young girls they can be confident, bold, and take up space unapologetically. To be cemented in NBA 2K history is a special honor that reflects not only my journey, but also all the veteran WNBA players who have paved the way before me and the growing impact of the league as a whole. I’m proud to be part of a game that continues to elevate.”

Carmelo Anthony, on the other hand, was recently named to the 2025 Basketball Hall of Fame class, capping off a 19-year NBA career. During his time on the court, Melo managed to set the NCAA Tournament record for most points scored by a freshman player with 778. His iconic one-and-done college career also saw him become the leading scorer in the 2003 NCAA tournament with 121 points.

As a New York Knick, Anthony established the single-game scoring record, scoring 62 points against the Charlotte Bobcats in 2014. Additionally, Melo holds the record for most points scored in an Olympic game, putting up 37 against Nigeria back in 2012.

And now players will have the chance to once again put their opponents on ice with Melo’s talents at their disposal.

“For more than 20 years, 2K fans have been a part of my journey,” said Anthony. “Being honored on the cover of NBA 2K26 and inducted into the Hall of Fame in the same year is surreal. It’s a celebration of every chapter, every city that embraced me, every team that believed in me, and every person who’s been part of this ride with me.”

The WNBA Edition will be a GameStop exclusive and will retail for $69.99 on PS5 and Xbox Series X. The Superstar Edition, on the other hand, will retail for $99.99 and will be available on PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC. The WNBA Edition will only be available in the United States in physical copy.

2K Games also announced that the NBA 2K26: Leave No Doubt Edition will feature both Angel and Melo, along with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, on a special edition cover. The Leave No Doubt Edition will be available for purchase through Sept. 7 for $149.99 on PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC.

2K Games will release NBA 2K26 Standard Edition, WNBA Edition, and Superstar Edition on Sept. 5, with the standard version being available on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch 2, retailing for $69.99 and $59.99 on Nintendo Switch.

From Polygon via this RSS feed

Linda Yaccarino is stepping down as CEO of X after two years running the company, she announced today. She was appointed its CEO in the year after Elon Musk bought and renamed the company previously known as Twitter — so far, there is no word on who will replace her.

“When @elonmusk and I first spoke of his vision for X, I knew it would be the opportunity of a lifetime to carry out the extraordinary mission of this company,” Yaccarino said. “I’m immensely grateful to him for entrusting me with the responsibility of protecting free speech, turning the company around, and transforming X into the Everything App.”

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Yaccarino’s departure comes just after xAI, which owns X, updated its Grok chatbot to be more “politically incorrect,” resulting in a flood of antisemitism and Hitler praise.

Yaccarino, a former NBC Universal executive, was named Twitter’s CEO in May 2023. At the time, Musk said that Yaccarino would focus “primarily on business operations” while he focused on “product design” and “new technology.”

Developing…

From The Verge via this RSS feed

Just look at these beauts.

Samsung just announced its seventh-generation folding phones, and it finally retired the long and narrow Z Fold design that it had stuck with for far too long. The Z Flip is also getting an overdue upgrade to a full-size cover screen rather than the file folder shape of the past couple generations. After years of incremental upgrades and barely warmed-over designs, Samsung's foldables are finally taking a leap forward with some bold choices - just be prepared to pay up for them.

We knew the Fold 7 would be thinner. Rumors told us. Samsung told us. But like with the Galaxy S25 Edge, seeing is believing. Or, holding the phone in your hand is, …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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Here’s the new Galaxy Watch 8 lineup. From left to right: 40mm Galaxy Watch 8, 44mm Watch 8, Classic, and the Ultra.

One thing is immediately noticeable as I try on the new Galaxy Watch 8 and Galaxy Watch 8 Classic just ahead of Samsung Unpacked. The squircle has taken over.

The circle-face-in-a-square-case design was introduced last year with the Galaxy Watch Ultra, and it has now made its way to the rest of the lineup. At a glance, it's the most noticeable change about this year's Galaxy watches. And I can't lie, I was resistant. The initial photos and renders that Samsung shared with the press had me bracing. The circular design was iconic! The Ultra was square and squat! But to my surprise, when I slipped on the regular 40mm and 44mm Galaxy Watch 8, t …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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Google is bringing some AI support updates to Samsung’s latest generation of Galaxy foldables and watches.

Google is adding new AI features to Android’s Circle to Search and Gemini Live tools. The update was announced today, alongside the launch of the next-generation Galaxy foldables, and it includes new Gemini Live capabilities for Samsung devices and integrates Google’s search-centric AI Mode chatbot right into Circle to Search.

AI Mode made its debut in Google Search earlier this year, allowing users to find information and web links via a Gemini-style chatbot instead of the traditional search engine experience. It isn’t widely available yet — it just launched outside the US to users in India — but Google said that it can now be accessed using the Circle to Search tool on Pixel and Samsung phones, allowing users to search the web for something on their screen without switching apps.

“Simply long press the home button or navigation bar, then circle, tap, or gesture on what you want to search. When an AI response seems most helpful, an AI Overview will appear in your results,” Google said in a blog post. “From there, scroll to the bottom and tap ‘dive deeper with AI Mode’ to ask follow-up questions and explore more about your visual search.”

Circle to Search can now also provide in-game help for mobile gamers, a feature that Google was testing back in January. The feature can be used to find character and strategy information without closing the game, as well as find articles and videos that are timestamped to the same moment of the game where assistance is needed. Google said it’s also working on bringing AI Mode to Lens via the Google app for both Android and iOS devices.

The new Galaxy Z Fold 7, Galaxy Z Flip 7, and Watch 8 series launched at Samsung’s Unpacked event today are the first devices to come with Android 16 and Wear OS 6 installed out of the box. Building on that relationship, Google has also announced a Gemini Live update for the Flip 7 that brings camera-sharing support to the external cover screen display, allowing the AI assistant to answer questions about what it can “see” without opening the phone.

Gemini Live integrations are now supported in Samsung apps like Samsung Calendar, Notes, and Reminders, with Google saying that support for apps made by other device makers will follow. Lastly, Gemini is starting to roll out to smartwatches running Wear OS 6, including Pixel, OnePlus, OPPO, and Xiaomi devices, and Samsung’s new Watch 8, Watch 8 Classic, and Watch Ultra (2025) models.

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Every year, for 2K Games’ annual NBA basketball game, a new player is chosen as its cover star. The process for exactly how the athletes are selected isn’t public knowledge, so for the most part, it’s often a guessing game on the fan’s part.

But, as the dust settled on NBA 2K26’sgrand reveal of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as this year’s coveted cover star, Zak Armitage, NBA 2K’s SVP and GM, was able to share some trade secrets about the cover athlete selection process — one which he describes as more of “a partnership.”

“People often think that it’s a last-minute decision when the [NBA Finals] are being played,” Armitage told Polygon in an exclusive interview. “However, cover stars are worked on months, if not years, in advance. Sometimes, they are things that we’re building relationships with and partnerships with a lot of the players in the league — players that we know are current or future superstars. And the key thing for us is that it’s not just putting someone’s image on a cover. It’s a partnership; it’s a year-long partnership that we’re entering into together.”

“So [the NBA 2K cover] has got to be something that makes sense for them, and makes sense for us in part of what this year’s game is going to be about, and where our focus is, and where they’re at as well, and what they’re trying to achieve in cementing their legacy. Regarding [Shai Gilgeous-Alexander], we’ve been working with him for years now, and he has been featured in many of our marketing efforts across our previous seasons. He’s been a big focus in the game’s life over the past couple years, and being able to play with him for years now has been great for fans. So it’s really cool to be able to bring him on at the perfect moment in his career — especially with his on-court skills.”

However, it’s not just the on-court skills that SGA was able to transfer to NBA 2K26; Gilgeous-Alexander, known for his ability to serve looks and face, was able to work closely with 2K Games to bring his tunnel outfits and aura to the game as well. SGA provided a bit of insight into the behind-the-scenes of the selection process and what his time with 2K was like.

“Every kid who grows up playing basketball pictures themselves on the cover of NBA 2K — it’s a dream come true moment, especially following an NBA Championship,” Gilgeous-Alexander tells Polygon. “Being on the cover is iconic, but working with 2K and Visual Concepts to set the tone in-game from curating the tunnel fits to the playlist that players will ball to is what makes this truly special.”

NBA 2K26 Standard Edition, featuring SGA as the cover star, will be released on Sept. 5. The base version of the game will retail for $69.99 on Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. A version of NBA 2K26 for the original Nintendo Switch will cost $59.99.

From Polygon via this RSS feed

While, yes, Warner Bros. and DC Studios’ Superman is all about the super and man elements of the iconic hero, the movie is also about Supes’ bond with his best friend Krypto, the super-powered canine set to make his DC Universe debut. However, Krypto’s first big-screen outing wasn’t without some challenges.

In an exclusive excerpt from the forthcoming Superman: The Art and Making of the Film book, visual effects supervisor Stephane Ceretti detailed how the moviemaking team drew inspiration from director James Gunn’s rescue dog Ozu, who Gunn affectionately calls “the world’s worst dog,” for Krypto.

But the real hurdle was trying to figure out whether or not the Superman’s lovable pet would don a cape like his comic book iteration, and, if so, how would it look in motion?

“We really harnessed the look of the cape from the costume of Superman, the type of fabric that Judianna (Makovsky, Costume Designer) used,” said Ceretti. “We worked with them to figure out how to translate the cape from a human body to a dog. Obviously it’s very different as a human is standing so the cape kind of rolls down the shoulders and then becomes a free-flowing thing. When it’s on the dog it’s laying on the back of it, so it’s a different vibe in terms of the way it looks.”

“But we still tried to kind of really work on our simulation and how to control it to keep that same feel of the kind of folds and quality of the cape that we have on the back of David, to try and translate it on the back of the dog which is very different. The gravity is in a different direction in that case, so it was a little tricky to keep them consistent with the two, but they have to feel like they come from the same idea.”

Writer Otto Binder and artists Sy Barry and Curt Swan created Krypto the Superdog, with his first appearance — alongside Superboy — being in 1955’s Adventure Comics #210. Much like Gunn’s dog, Krypto has managed to find himself in various shenanigans over the years, teaming up with Superman, Superboy, Streaky the Supercat, Ace the Bat-Hound, Jun Kent, Supergirl, and more.

But Krypto’s biggest adventure will find him fighting alongside the Man of Steel in theaters when DC Studios releases Superman on July 11.

The book Superman: The Art and Making of the Film is scheduled to be released on Nov. 18.

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When celebrities, actors, and filmmakers visit Japan, there’s a chance they’ll get a summons from Hideo Kojima, the game director and Metal Gear Solid creator, to come to his studio and have their likenesses scanned and added to his collection. Kojima is never above using his fame in the non-gaming world to meet famous people and post about it, but I always wondered what this process was like from the scannee’s perspective.

Now we know, thanks to S.S. Rajamouli, the Indian director best known for Baahubali and the mighty RRR, Polygon’s favorite film of 2022. Rajamouli is one of many filmmakers, actors, game creators, musicians, and other notable people who make cameo appearances in Kojima’s latest game, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. Polygon contributor Rajamouli appears as a character called The Adventurer, who needs to be rescued from a snowy mountain.

“When we were in Japan for RRR promotions, I visited Kojima-san’s office. He scanned me there, and honestly, I had no idea how or where he’d use it,” Rajamouli said in a statement provided exclusively to Polygon. “I just sensed something magical was in the making. To now see myself featured in Death Stranding 2 is a true honour. Kojima-san is a visionary, and I’m humbled to be even a small part of his extraordinary world.”

Director S.S. Rajamouli visited KJP!!! We have scanned him. RRR🔥🔥🔥🚀🚀🚀👍🐯 pic.twitter.com/rcyatlnXnS

— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) October 20, 2022

It seems Kojima likes to preserve a sense of mystery, even with his famous collaborators. But Rajamouli, for one, wasn’t worried — like many in the film world, he holds a high regard for video gaming’s most famous auteur.

Rajamouli is currently working on his next film, which has the working title SSMB29. It’s a globe-trotting, James Bond and Indiana Jones-style action-adventure featuring Indian megastars Mahesh Babu and Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and according to Rajamouli’s reps, it has the biggest budget in the history of Indian cinema — a record previously held by RRR.

From Polygon via this RSS feed

A federal appeals court just threw out a new government regulation that would have required subscription services to give consumers an easy way to cancel.

The Federal Trade Commission’s click-to-cancel rule was set to take effect next week, and would have required everything from your gym membership to Amazon Prime subscription to let customers cancel their recurring payments as easily as they signed up, and through the same method.

Last fall, industry groups representing companies that benefit from subscription revenue — including cable providers, entertainment studios, advertising companies, and home security firms — sought to block the rule in court, arguing the FTC aimed to “regulate consumer contracts for all companies in all industries and across all sectors of the economy.”

But in a unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel for the Eighth Circuit, the court found that the FTC under former Democratic Chair Lina Khan erred so gravely in its roll-out of the rule that it needs to be thrown out altogether. “While we certainly do not endorse the use of unfair and deceptive practices in negative option marketing, the procedural deficiencies of the Commission’s rulemaking process are fatal here,” the court wrote. Even though parts of the rule were technically salvageable, the court continued, vacating the entire rule is appropriate “because of the prejudice suffered by Petitioners as a result of the Commission’s procedural error.”

The Eighth Circuit found that the agency skipped steps to issue the rule, including depriving stakeholders of “a notable opportunity to dissuade the FTC from adopting the Rule as proposed.” Even though the court said the FTC’s decision to skip some analysis “was certainly not made in bad faith,” it found that the petitioners “have raised ‘enough uncertainty whether [their] comments would have had some effect if they had been considered,’ especially in the context of a closely divided Commission vote that elicited a lengthy dissenting statement.”

The court referenced those dissents by now-Chair Andrew Ferguson and Commissioner Melissa Holyoak, both Republicans, in its opinion. Holyoak had questioned the “race to cross the finish line,” among the Democratic majority that voted for the rule at the time, and called it “a missed opportunity to make useful amendments to the preexisting negative option rule within the scope of the Commission’s authority.”

Given that the Democrats who ushered the rule across the finish line are no longer at the agency, which currently consists of three Republican members including Ferguson and Holyoak, the future of the rule looks bleak. FTC spokesperson Juliana Gruenwald Henderson declined to comment on the ruling.

Disclosure*: Comcast — represented by NCTA – The Internet and Television Association, one of the parties to the case — is an investor in Vox Media, The Verge’s parent company.*

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Jurassic Park Rebirth does pretty much what fans of the franchise expect, and seem to want: Director Gareth Edwards (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, The Creator) and original Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp (Presence) gather up a bunch of characters with varying motivations and throw them into a wilderness setting where they risk getting eaten by dinosaurs. Some die, some survive, but before the final tally is taken, the humans spend a lot of time running, screaming, and looking panicked. All except covert ops agent Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson), who smirks and shrugs her way through a lot of the action — an acting choice that’s drawn a lot of sneering criticism about her “extreme for-the-paycheck energy.”

Or as one critic put it, “[Johansson]’s many attempts to appear as if her character is thinking about some devilishly clever plan onscreen only suggest the actress’s fraught mental calculations regarding how much this gig might pay for, say, her home renovations.”

It’s true that Johansson plays Zora without a lot of the range or nuance she’s brought to movies like Under the Skin, Lost in Translation, or Vicky Cristina Barcelona. When Zora first meets pharma bro Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend), who kicks off the plot by hiring her to run point on his illegal, dangerous trip to dinosaur-occupied equatorial regions, she plays the entire encounter with the patient tolerance of a cool aunt humoring a cosseted young nibling who’s just learned how to tell knock-knock jokes. Her half-amused smirk barely flickers when Martin offers her $10 million for the mission.

When she helps him recruit paleontologist Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) and her old partner-in-combat Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali), she maintains the same Mona Lisa semi-smile the whole time. Even when Zora and Duncan run a pre-arranged gambit to force Martin to double their fee, she never once bothers to pretend she believes Duncan’s doubts and demurrals about the gig are true. Her entire attitude is “You know we’re scamming you. We know that you know. And it doesn’t matter, because we know you need us and you have infinite funds. You’re going to pay our price, so why should we bother putting actual effort into this con we’re running on you?”

Johansson’s choices for Zora as a character haven’t landed well with a lot of viewers, who’ve said she “never shows a hint of human emotion,” and that her “almost impressively unemotive” performance mean that “absolutely nothing about [her] says “warrior,” “veteran,” “leader,” or anything along those lines.” A common thread in reviews claims that, “At no point […] is she remotely believable as a world-weary, battle-scarred mercenary looking to make one last big score.” Others have just complained that she never comes across as committed to the role.

I saw it in a completely different way. From the moment Zora first arrives on screen — unexpectedly appearing in Martin’s car during a traffic jam, startling the hell out of him and letting the audience know she’s already three steps ahead of him — she’s channeling an identity that’s familiar from decades of action movies. It’s just a type of identity that women play a lot less often than men. As Zora went into that first salary negotiation with Martin, again looking smug as hell at having anticipated everything he was going to say and do, I thought, “Oh wow, she’s doing a Bruce Willis impression.”

I don’t have any reason to believe that’s literally true — I’ve been reading up on Johansson’s pre-release interviews, and mostly just finding her talking about her lifelong Jurassic Park fandom and how she wanted to avoid seeming “desperate” for the role when she pitched herself to Steven Spielberg. (Which certainly seems to counter the “in it for the paycheck” accusations.) She’s talked about Zora as “burnt out” after a career of traumatic, violent experiences, but I haven’t seen any sign that she modeled the character on any particular past actor or role.

Still, her entire performance in Rebirth has extreme Bruce Willis energy. Zora cares about other people enough to fight for their lives, and she gets angry when Martin’s greed, other characters’ poor decisions, or the dinosaurs themselves endanger her charges or her mission. But she doesn’t care about much else — at least, not in ways she’s willing to let other people see.

It’s an unusual choice for a female lead in an action movie. Sigourney Weaver in 1986’s Aliens redefined women in action, and created a new mold where they often tended to be fiercely maternal protector figures. As roles changed for women in action movies over the decades that followed, they were most often either coded to imitate the masculine heroes of the ’80s (big muscles, impossibly high pain tolerance, minimal emotional expression), or presented as kick-ass aspirational figures that a male character could surpass, impress, and possibly win romantically. Recent studies showing that women-led movies do better at the box office help explain why female action leads are so common in the 2020s.

But if you page through any long list of woman-fronted action movies, you’ll see a lot of movies with roughly the same lead character: a grim-faced, tougher-than-nails type who probably has a secretly soft heart that emerges in one or two downbeat scenes, but has learned not to show it the rest of the time.

I can only think of a handful of women in action movies who’ve taken the specific tack Scarlett Johansson takes with Jurassic Park Rebirth: ​​Gina Carano sneering her way through Steven Soderbergh’s excellent, efficient 2011 MMA vehicle Haywire, for instance, or Lori Petty in Tank Girl, or Geena Davis in The Long Kiss Goodnight. Usually, that kind of cocky, too-cool-for-school swagger is reserved for minor characters — Jenette Goldstein as Vasquez in Aliens, for instance. (And that attitude tends to get punished; arrogant characters in thrillers generall go down early. Rebirth has its own example of that dynamic.)

But not in Bruce Willis movies. His entire career was defined by that kind of swagger and an “I’m above all this” smirk. His most common action-movie persona suggested that no matter what he was facing in any given movie — even when pulling shattered glass out of his lacerated bare feet in Die Hard or navigating an agonizing personal history in Looper — he had already been through so much in his lifetime that his latest crisis was just a laugh.

That’s a mode more and more male stars in action films embody these days. Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel each have their own signature version of the “I’m cooler than whatever trials or trauma I’m facing” character, for instance. And the popularity of Marvel Studios movies, with their bantering, smirking heroes, has launched a new wave of male action heroes whose characters either sneer at danger to cover up their own vulnerabilities (think Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark), or are puffed-up, self-parodying, and not intended for an audience to take entirely seriously. (Think Chris Hemsworth’s Thor.)

ScarJo’s portrayal of Zora doesn’t consistently work as well as the best of these characters. Zora’s inevitable downbeat “let’s bare some past traumatic history to show this character’s secret depths” scene feels shallow and rigid, as if Johansson is trying so hard to hang onto the character’s swagger that she can’t let any sincerity creep through. (It doesn’t help that the scene is written as obligatory, halfhearted, and by-the-numbers.) The back half of the movie, which mostly centers on running and gunning as the dinosaurs close in, doesn’t give her much room for nuance or personalized characterization.

And her whole arc builds toward a moral turning point, where she has to decide whether to turn over Martin’s illegally acquired data to the scientific community for the greater good, sacrificing her $20 million payday. Playing that moment as a “Eh, whatev, no big deal” moment is consistent with the character we’ve seen throughout the film, but the performance undermines any sense that the decision has any weight for Zora, which raises the question of why it was ever a debate for her at all.

But that doesn’t negate how refreshing the early sequences feel, when Johansson gets the freedom to play around a little with the role, bringing something to it that we’ve rarely seen in her as an actor before. When she works in action movies, she tends to take roles where she’s intense and emotional, pained and under pressure. It would have been easy for her to turn Zora into another take on Black Widow in the Marvel movies, another mama-bear type who protects civilians and her teammates with equal fervor. The lead in Lucy gave her more room to play with persona in the early going; starring in Ghost in the Shell gave her a lot less. But in both cases, she winds up as the same kind of hard-charging, goal-focused badass.

In Rebirth, she’s playing around with a different kind of persona, one that’s far less familiar either in the action realm or in her personal filmography. The script does her choices in the role no real favors: It doesn’t give Zora much room to develop as a character in ways that would pay off that hipshot smugness, that dismissive attitude, in satisfying emotional ways, or let us peek meaningfully under the character’s trauma-forged surface.

But in spite of some of the criticisms, it never feels like Johansson is bored, checked out, or just cashing a blockbuster-movie paycheck. She’s taking on an action-movie persona that male stars in similar modes have been experimenting with for decades. You don’t have to love the character, or the performance. But it’s worth recognizing it for the flex it is.

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