With Jurassic World Rebirth hitting theaters this summer, there are a lot of fans who will be visiting the Jurassic Park franchise. Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park was a hugely influential blockbuster when it was released in 1993 and has maintained its beloved status for decades, launching a franchise that still excites audiences all over the world. To date, there have been six Jurassic Park movies in total, including the new sequel trilogy, Jurassic World, which began in 2015. However, some of these movies have been better than others.
With the Jurassic Park movies giving the audience a glimpse at a world in which dinosaurs coexist with humans, it is not a surprise that audiences have been drawn to the spectacle of this franchise for over 30 years. From the complex ideas about the ethics of modern science to the thrilling dinosaur action, the Jurassic Park movies seek to deliver the ultimate blockbuster fun to audiences, though the results have differed.
Jurassic Park 3 (2001)
Directed By Joe Johnston
Jurassic Park 3
5/10
- Release Date
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July 18, 2001
- Runtime
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92 minutes
- Director
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Joe Johnston
- Writers
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Jim Taylor, David Koepp, Peter Buchman, Alexander Payne, Michael Crichton
- Producers
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Kathleen Kennedy, Larry Franco
-
-
William H. Macy
Paul Kirby
After Sam Neill’s absence from Jurassic Park‘s first sequel, Dr. Alan Grant came back to the forefront for Jurassic Park 3, the first entry that wasn’t directed by Steven Spielberg. While he understandably has no desire to tangle with dinosaurs again, Grant is tricked into accompanying a pair of divorced parents to Isla Sorna so that he can help them search for their missing son.
While Neill is good as always, and there are some thrilling action and suspense sequences, Jurassic Park 3 feels a bit tired. The story is very thin, and the characters outside of Grant aren’t exactly exciting or particularly interesting. There’s also a dream sequence in which a raptor speaks to Grant, providing one of the strangest moments in the entire Jurassic Park franchise, as well as the fan-despised bit in which a T-Rex is dispatched by the newly introduced Spinosaurus as if the king of the dinosaurs was an utter chump.
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There are still a lot of thrills to be had by die-hard fans of the genre, including a great sequence in a Pteranodon cage, making these flying dinos truly intimidating. However, while Joe Johnston is a talented director, Spielberg’s absence is noticeable as the movie lacks the scale of the previous two installments.
Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)
Directed By Colin Trevorrow
Jurassic World Dominion
- Release Date
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June 1, 2022
- Runtime
-
147 minutes
- Director
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Colin Trevorrow
- Writers
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Colin Trevorrow, Derek Connolly, Jim Taylor, Michael Crichton, Peter Buchman, Rick Jaffa, Alexander Payne, David Koepp, Amanda Silver, Emily Carmichael
Much like the Jurassic Park trilogy, the Jurassic World half of the franchise started strong but finished on a less-than-stellar note with Jurassic World: Dominion. The sequel to Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom brought back a host of returning Jurassic Park characters, throwing them in with Owen, Claire, and the rest of Jurassic World’s cast for one final dinosaur-filled adventure. Sadly, Dominion was a little over-ambitious, an approach that was reflected in the mixed reception online from critics and Jurassic Park fans alike.
Jurassic World: Dominion isn’t a bad movie; it just failed to deliver what audiences expected from a movie billed as a celebration of, and conclusion to, a franchise spanning over three decades. Dominion wasn’t lacking in thrilling action sequences. Chris Pratt’s Owen Brady is known in the Jurassic World movies for high-speed dino/motorcycle chases, and Dominion delivers here. The mix of dino animatronics and CGI in Jurassic World: Dominion was also phenomenal, as has come to be expected since Spielberg raised that bar so high in the original Jurassic Park.
It didn’t give itself enough room to explore or create satisfying arcs for its overstuffed roster of characters.
What ultimately puts Jurassic World: Dominion so low on this list is its convoluted human cloning plot being out of place for the dino-focused Jurassic franchise, and that it didn’t give itself enough room to explore or create satisfying arcs for its overstuffed roster of characters. With the previous movie ending with the promise of a world in which dinosaurs and humans coexist, Jurassic World: Dominion does disappointingly little with that very exciting idea.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
Directed By J. A. Bayona
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
8/10
- Release Date
-
June 6, 2018
- Runtime
-
129 minutes
- Director
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J. A. Bayona
- Writers
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Derek Connolly
- Producers
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Frank Marshall, Patrick Crowley, Steven Spielberg, Thomas Hayslip, Belén Atienza, Colin Trevorrow
After the smash success of Jurassic World in 2015, it was clear that this new incarnation of the Jurassic Park franchise would get sequels of its own. The sequel finds Owen and Claire now attempting to save the dinosaurs on the island of Isla Nublar with the impending eruption of a volcano on the island threatening to wipe them all out. Why a multi-million dollar theme park was built on an island with an active volcano that could destroy everything is not made clear.
While Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom does feature a number of those lapses in logic, it also delivers some great sequences. In fact, the opening scene of a team of mercenaries retrieving dino DNA from the ruins of Jurassic World is one of the best sequences in the franchise. Director J. A. Bayona infuses the movie with a bit more horror than the franchise is used to, making for a fun ride.
However, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is also filled with shortcomings. Owen and Claire are still rather lackluster as protagonists, with their personalities only being surface-level. This is also the movie that introduced human cloning into the Jurassic Park franchise, taking the storyline in some strange and unsatisfying directions. The result is an uneven and polarizing Jurassic Park movie with its bright moments battling the poor storytelling.
Jurassic World (2015)
Directed By Colin Trevorrow
Jurassic World
7/10
- Release Date
-
June 12, 2015
- Runtime
-
124minutes
- Director
-
Colin Trevorrow
- Writers
-
Colin Trevorrow, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Michael Crichton, David Koepp, Derek Connolly
Oddly, Jurassic World seems to have fallen out of favor a bit in the years since its release, or it’s at least developed a very vocal group of detractors. You would never have expected that when the film hit theaters, though, as both audiences and critics lavished it with praise, and it earned nearly $1.7 billion at the box office. Anchored by capable new leads Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, Jurassic World offered fans a chance to finally see John Hammond’s dream realized, a fully operational dinosaur-based theme park.
While it’s obvious that things will once again go wrong, that it happens with actual guests at a finished park is a delightful new wrinkle, one which also allows for thrilling scenes of mass dinosaur attack. Jurassic World also introduces the enormous water creature called the Mosasaurus, which would be used to great effect both here and in Fallen Kingdom.
The movie lacks a lot of personality, with a fun cast left to play stale and cliché characters who aren’t particularly fun to watch. The overreliance on CGI also compares unfavorably to the original movie. However, it also delivers on its promise. Featuring lots of Jurassic Park trilogy fan service, Jurassic World is a film designed from the ground up to delight those who love dinosaurs and grew up with Spielberg’s original franchise, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
Directed By Steven Spielberg
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
6/10
- Release Date
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May 23, 1997
- Runtime
-
129 minutes
- Writers
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David Koepp, Michael Crichton
- Producers
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Colin Wilson, Gerald R. Molen
While not nearly as well-regarded as the first film, the reputation of Spielberg’s sequel The Lost World: Jurassic Park has improved somewhat since its release, a time when many simply saw it as an inferior follow-up. The Lost World certainly is that, but Jeff Goldblum’s Dr. Ian Malcolm remains engaging as the returning lead, and there are some really great suspense sequences, such as when a pair of T-Rex parents attack the trailer where their hurt child is being held, as Malcolm and associates desperately fight to survive the onslaught.
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There’s also a great scene in which raptors pick off characters moving through tall grass in a manner akin to a horror film. And the final act, in which a T-Rex rampages through San Francisco, is a complete blast. There’s a lot to love about The Lost World, and that the general sentiment toward it has shifte is a heartening circumstance. However, the less said about Malcolm’s previously unmentioned daughter and her gymnastics abilities, the better.
This is perhaps the movie that best proved that recapturing the magic of the original would always be impossible. However, with Spielberg back at the helm, it is also closer to the fun of the first movie than any of the sequels ever got.
Jurassic Park (1993)
Directed By Steven Spielberg
Jurassic Park
10/10
- Release Date
-
June 11, 1993
- Runtime
-
127 minutes
- Writers
-
Michael Crichton, David Koepp
- Producers
-
Gerald R. Molen
Jurassic Park is very deservedly one of the most beloved blockbusters ever, and its dinosaur effects still somehow manage to hold up today when so many other early attempts at CGI creatures now look terrible in hindsight. Jurassic Park is a case of everything working, from the directing to the writing to the casting to the effects to the iconic score by legendary composer John Williams.
DID YOU KNOW: George Lucas helped with the post-production of the movie (via Collider).
It has become the pinnacle of crowd-pleasing blockbuster filmmaking, that countless movies have been attempting to recreate ever since. It was a movie that gave audiences the magical feeling of seeing dinosaurs in the modern world, which is something the other movies can not replicate.
Jurassic Park was and is a masterpiece, and will no doubt continue to be discovered by new generations of fans as the decades since its release continue to pass.
However, it also outdoes the sequels in its human characters, making them interesting and entertaining people rather than distractions from the dino action. Jurassic Park was and is a masterpiece, and will no doubt continue to be discovered by new generations of fans as the decades since its release continue to pass.
The Future Of The Jurassic World Franchise
While Jurassic World Dominion was touted as the final chapter in the Jurassic World story, the franchise will continue on with the upcoming Jurassic World Rebirth. Sticking true to Dominion‘s claims, Jurassic World Rebirth will not continue that story but begin a new chapter and follow a new cast of characters on their own dinosaur adventure. The cast includes Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, and Jonathan Bailey, with no returning characters expected to appear.
The movie stars Johansson as the leader of a team of extraction experts who specialize in going into dangerous situations and bringing someone or something out safely. They are hired to help a group of scientists go to a new secluded location that the remaining dinosaurs have taken as their home. The hope is for the scientists to collect DNA from several species of dinosaurs, which is said to have breakthrough medical abilities.
Directed by Gareth Edwards, the movie looks like a throwback to a simpler story and a smaller group of characters while also doing something new with its story. The trailer for Jurassic World Rebirth hinted at some new dinosaurs, the experimental species that were rejected as being too dangerous to include in the park. Obviously, this will create some problems for the movie’s new band of heroes. Jurassic World Rebirth will hit theaters on July 2, 2025.
There Are Also Jurassic World TV Shows
While the movies have been the major draw in the Jurassic Park franchise, there are also some TV shows that further expand the universe. However, the two series currently available in the Jurassic Park franchise are animated series that are aimed at a younger audience, though they do feature some dino action that might be too intense for some young viewers. The first series is Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, which began airing in 2020.
Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous follows a group of young dinosaur enthusiasts who are invited to stay at the titular camp which is also located on the island of Isla Nublar. However, when the dinosaurs escape from their habitats, the young adventurers have to join together for survival. The series ran for five seasons and ended in 2022 only to be followed up by a sequel series, Jurassic World: Chaos Theory, following the characters once they have escaped the island and are introduced to the world where dinosaurs now live among humans.
Jurassic Park
- Movie(s)
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Jurassic Park (1993), The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), Jurassic Park 3 (2001), Jurassic World (2015), Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), Jurassic World Dominion (2022)
- First Film
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Jurassic Park (1993)
Summary
The Jurassic Park franchise, later also referred to as Jurassic World, is an iconic science fiction series centered on the creation of a theme park populated by genetically engineered dinosaurs. The franchise explores themes of human hubris, the dangers of playing with nature, and the ethical implications of cloning. It began with the release of the original Jurassic Park film in 1993, directed by Steven Spielberg, based on Michael Crichton’s 1990 novel of the same name. The success of the original film led to a series of sequels and spin-offs, making it one of the most successful media franchises in history.