By Charles Pugh
Michael Crichton, an American writer known for his cautionary science fiction tales, in the late 1980s, decided to revisit a concept that had previously been the focus of a screenplay that he ended up directing himself, Westworld. However, instead of audio animatronics coming alive to kill the guests at a futuristic theme park, his concerns about genetic engineering and cloning lead to him replacing them with living dinosaurs, and history was made that day.
After Jurassic Park was published in 1990, his friend, Steven Spielberg, had already secured the rights to produce an adaptation after loving the written drafts, and with the advancements in CGI technology, history was made again with one of the most popular movies ever made and the start of one of Universal Pictures’s most popular franchises in existence.
From the inciting Velociraptor attack, to the opening of the updated and renamed park, to the dinosaurs coming to the mainland, this list will rank all seven films from worst to best, where opinion sharing is allowed, as long as you don’t bring a T-Rex to devour anyone who has a differing opinion. So let’s get started.
7. Jurassic World Dominion (2022)
Directed by: Colin Trevorrow
Written by: Emily Carmichael and Colin Trevorrow
Starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill, DeWanda Wise, Isabella Sermon, Mamoudou Athie, BD Wong, Omar Sy and Campbell Scott
Music by: Michael Giacchino
Rated: 12A
Four years after the destruction of Isla Nublar, the island’s living dinosaurs now live alongside humans across the world and have been causing disruptions worldwide. Meanwhile, Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), have been secretly raising Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon), the cloned daughter of the late John Hammond’s friend, Benjamin Lockwood, in the wilderness of Nevada. After Maisie and Blue the Velociraptor’s daughter, Beta, is kidnapped by InGen’s rival organisation, BioSyn Genetics, Owen and Claire embark on a journey to rescue them, one that will lead them to finally meet the original guests of Jurassic Park, Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) and Alan Grant (Sam Neill)…
Despite the massive impact that Steven Spielberg’s 1993 film adaptation of Michael Crichton’s 1990 sci-fi novel, Jurassic Park, has had on filmmaking, popular culture and visual effects alike, the rest of the franchise has admittedly lived under the shadow of that groundbreaking classic. However, while the first two sequels, Spielberg’s own 1997 The Lost World: Jurassic Park and 2001’s Jurassic Park III came and went without much notice, 2015’s Jurassic World ended up being one of the biggest surprise hits of that year. With a $1.7 billion gross at the box-office and 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom also making over a billion worldwide despite getting mixed reviews, it was no surprise that Universal would want to end this new World trilogy and the entire Jurassic franchise with a bang (at least, until yet another billion dollar gross changed their minds and green-lit Rebirth as a result .)
However, those who were expecting Director Colin Trevorrow to further explore the shocking ending of the last film, with a dinosaur equivalent of a Planet of the Apes takeover after they ended up spreading across the world, will be sorely disappointed as Jurassic World Dominion refuses to explore the moral implications of that ending, in order to still appeal to family audiences. Although the plot as it is now is just fine as an average Jurassic Park sequel, on par with the other ones, the hype that the marketing built will leave people feeling dissatisfied if they come in expecting too much, complete with some Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker-style retcons.
It is great to see all three members of the original cast, Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum (having much more screen-time compared to his cameo in Fallen Kingdom) finally together again for the first time since 1993. The final act does manage to become interesting and fun again when the original three team up with the Jurassic World characters to stop the villains and escape, and the combination of CGI and animatronic dinosaurs is still as great as ever. Although the Jurassic Park sequel formula is extremely predictable now, the performances and Dino action including a motorbike chase in Malta does manage to make it entertaining, despite the lack of screen-time for fan-favourite dinosaurs Rexy and Blue.
Overall, Jurassic World Dominion is an ok, but disappointing ending to this new series of Jurassic films, which is saved by the actors, the dinosaurs and some incredibly fun setpieces even though it is possibly time for this story to go extinct, which will not happen now.
Rating: 3/5
6. Jurassic Park III (2001)
Directed by: Joe Johnston
Written by: Peter Buchman, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor
Starring: Sam Neill, William H. Macy, Téa Leoni, Alessandro Nivola, Trevor Morgan, Michael Jeter and Laura Dern
Music by: Don Davis
Rated: PG
When a kid named Eric (Trevor Morgan) ends up being trapped on Isla Sorna, the second island inhabited by living dinosaurs, his divorced parents Paul (William H. Macy) and Amanda Kirby (Téa Leoni), convince Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and his new assistant, Billy (Alessandro Nivola), to help them save him. When their plane ends up crashing on the island, the group finds that the island is now ruled by a creature that even the T-Rexes fear, the mighty Spinosaurus…
Taking place four years after The Lost World: Jurassic Park, the narrative of this film, the first not based on any of Michael Crichton’s books, abandons the darker, more complicated plot elements and lighting effects of the last film by going back to the more lighter tone of the 1993 film and reusing the plot device of Alan Grant bonding with a kid.
Although there is nothing really wrong with this plot per se, Jurassic Park III could have done without the cruel twist in the opening that revealed that Alan and Ellie (Laura Dern) have not gotten together. It would have made no difference to the plot, if they were still together and that they were the couple that had to put aside their differences to save their kid.
As for the dinosaurs themselves, Stan Winston has once again done an excellent job in blending both CGI with giant animatronics, with the most impressive being the redesigned Velociraptors and the new antagonist, the Spinosaurus, whose dominance is shown when it breaks the previous big-bad T-Rex’s neck after a brief fight. Other great set-pieces include the Pteranodon fight sequence and the lake scenes.
The main problem of this film is that, apart from Stan Winston, hardly anyone from the crew of the first two films return, making this the least impressive in terms of production design and scope, which is shown when numerous sets from the last film are reused again. Not even John Williams returned to do the score as although Don Davis does a OK job, it still falls flat when compared to the original score.
In conclusion, although there are some entertaining scenes and the Spinosaurus is cool, Jurassic Park III just feels unnecessary and anticlimactic as the final film in the original series.
Rating: 3/5
5. The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Written by: David Koepp
Starring: Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Pete Postlethwaite, Arliss Howard, Vince Vaughn, Vanessa Lee Chester, Joseph Mazzello, Ariana Richards and Richard Attenborough
Music by: John Williams
Rated: PG
Four years after surviving the perils of Jurassic Park, Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) is asked by John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) to join a team of scientists, including the former’s girlfriend, Dr. Sarah Harding (Juilanne Moore), on a mission to Isla Sorna, the breeding ground for the living dinosaurs from the first island. Along with his teenage daughter, Kelly (Vanessa Lee Chester), Ian and his group soon cross paths with another group led by Hammond’s greedy nephew, Peter Ludlow (Arliss Howard) and a game hunter named Roland Tembo (Pete Postlethwaite), who have more sinister plans for the prehistoric creatures…..
Looking into the production aspects of this film, this sequel had a lot of potential to work as its own story. Firstly, it was the last film in the series to be directly based of Michael Critchton’s writings, which came from the 1995 sequel to the book that the original film was based on, even though the main reason why he wrote it in the first place was to appease public demand for a sequel after the release of the first film. Steven Spielberg, after taking a two year-break recovering from Schindler’s List would return to direct, Stan Winston and ILM were called back for the visual effects and animatroinic and CGI dinosaurs and John Williams came back to do the score.
Despite all these good aspects of the film as those elements are mostly still intact from the first film, the decision to make Dr. Ian Malcolm the main character of the sequel, while the others are either not there or in the case of John Hammond (Richard Attenbourgh) and his grandchildren, only get small cameos at best is a frustrating move because although Malcolm was an entertaining character in the first film, he worked best as a side character rather then a major one as Goldlum’s stuttering and his weird quotes fit more into that role, rather then in the role of a main protagonist. Even though they do try to give him depth by giving him a reckless girlfriend and a angry daughter, this leads to mixed results as both characters are quite annoying. As for the rest, apart from Pete Postlethwaite’s dinosaur hunter Roland Trembo, the rest of the characters are forgettable and one-dimensional to care about.
As for the dinosaurs, thanks to ILM and Stan Winston’s talent with animatronicss, they still look amazing, with the highlights ranging from a Stegosaurus herd, a group of tiny dinosaurs who are extremely dangerous due to their sheer numbers, a rematch with the raptors in a warehouse and finally, a King Kong-inspired rampage by a furious father T-Rex looking for his baby in San Diego. Although their aren’t as many practical effects used on this film due to technology advancements at the time, the close-ups were this method is used such as the baby Stegosaurus and T-Rex and the close up shot that focus on the T-Rex parents are still a joy to watch.
Although The Lost World: Jurassic Park is a mixed bag in terms of character and plot elements, it does manage to be a great one in terms of visual effects. Even if it is not be as good as the first film, it’s still worth a watch if you like both dinosaurs and the “Jurassic age”. Not great but OK.
Rating: 3/5
4. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
Directed by: J.A. Bayona
Written by: Derek Connolly and Colin Trevorrow
Starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rafe Spall, Toby Jones, Ted Levine, BD Wong, Justice Smith, Daniella Pineda, James Cromwell. Isabella Sermon, Geraldine Chaplin and Jeff Goldblum
Music by: Michael Giacchino
Rated: 12A
Three years after the Indominus Rex laid waste to Jurassic World, the updated version of John Hammond’s theme park of living dinosaurs that was formerly known as Jurassic Park, the prehistoric island of Isla Nublar is under threat of devastation from an active volcano. Desperate to put right the mistakes in the past and to save the dinosaurs from a second extinction, Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) gains the support of Benjamin Lookwood (James Cromwell), a former business partner of Hammond, and Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), the Velociraptor trainer that helped her in the park incident, in order to take part in a massive rescue operation to save the prehistoric residents. But not everything is as it seems, and in the words of former Jurassic Park survivor Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), “Life will find a way”…
It had been nearly twenty-five years since Steven Spielberg’s 1993 record-breaking dinosaur epic Jurassic Park hit cinemas, became the highest-grossing film of all time for four years until Titanic came along and along with James Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgement Day, is regarded as the film that inspired the film industry to fully embrace CGI in mainstream blockbusters, with it’s impressive digital dinosaurs. Although both the 1997 and 2001 sequels The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III were commerical successes in their own rights, both films fell flat in critical terms when compared to Spielberg’s dino-fable. Which is why, back in the summer of 2015 that no one was expecting Colin Trevorrow’s belated sequel/semi-reboot Jurassic World to not only outgross those two films but to take a grand total of a whopping $1.6 billion at the box office and becoming the first film in history to gross over $500 million in just one weekend. Although that film was a bit diversive in terms of reviews, it was clear that audiences wanted more dino action, and as a result, the director of the excellent A Monster Calls, J.A. Bayona breathes new life into the late Michael Crichton’s universe of living dinosaurs with this tense sequel.
Changing the formula of the previous Jurassic Park films by having the island destroyed was going to be a risky direction, given how Star Wars fans have behaved in the last few years over change. But Bayona, along with the returning Trevorrow as a screenwriter along with Derek Connolly do manage to make this premise work, without it getting too silly. Like the second film, The Lost World, this screenplay examines the relationship between dinosaur and man, which is most prominent during the spoiler-heavy second act and in the subplot involving Owen and his relationship with Blue the Velociraptor.
Speaking of the dinosaurs themselves, for those who complained that the last film used too much CGI and not enough of the late Stan Winston’s animatronic dinosaur heads and limbs, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom brings back a lot more animatronics as most of the dinosaurs are stuck in cages throughout this film, which leads into some impressive sequences in which the humans have to handle them without waking them up.
Not everything works here however as most of the acting apart from Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, is either underdeveloped in the cases of James Cromwell’s Lookwood character and B.D. Wong’s returning Dr. Henry Wu, are annoying comic reliefs like Justice Smith and Dainiella Pineda’s characters or have extremely predictable arcs in the cases of Rafe Spall and Ted Levine’s villain characters. The one expection to this rule is the young Isabella Sermon as Lockwood’s granddaughter whose arc leads to some of the best moments in the third act, as J.A. Bayona knows how to bring out great child performances as seen in the previously mentioned A Monster Calls.
Overall, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom does not come close to capturing the spirit of the 1993 film. But J.A Bayona does manage to make this film stand apart from the other sequels in plot and presentation alone. The animatronic and CGI blending is back in full force, the third act is an intense ride all on its own thanks to Bayona’s skill in the horror genre and it’s always nice to have Jeff Goldblum back for a cameo. Will “Life find a Way” again for the franchise or will it go extinct again? (Spoiler alert from the future, financially, no. Creativity, yes!)
Rating: 3.5/5
3. Jurassic World Rebirth (2025)
Directed by: Gareth Edwards
Written by: David Koepp
Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and Ed Skrein
Music by: Alexandre Desplat
Rated: 12A
Five years after the events at Biosyn, the dinosaurs have had trouble adapting to Earth’s climate and have since retreated to tropical areas and countries closer to the Equator, as they are similar to their natural habitats in prehistoric times. Meanwhile, Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson), an ex-military operative, is hired by a pharmaceutical executive named Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend), to join with a student of Alan Grant, Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) on an expedition to a former InGen base on the Atlantic island of Ile Saint-Hubert. With the task to retrieve blood samples from three different dinosaurs from the land, sea and air, Zora, Henry, Martin and their team leader, Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali) embark to the base, where chance encounters with more dangerous breeds of dinosaurs, as well as a stranded family, will force them to find their place in this new phase of human and dinosaur history…
For over a decade now, ever since the franchise was successfully relaunched in 2015, Jurassic World, formerly known as Jurassic Park, has become one of Universal’s biggest franchises along with Fast & Furious and Despicable Me. Even though 2022’s Jurassic World Dominion was originally announced as the final film in the story of the living dinosaurs, yet another billion dollar gross, along with the franchise’s recent successes on Netflix with the Chaos Theory animated show, merchandise and with the incredible Live Experience exhibitions, has resulted in yet another resurrection with this new film.
Much like how 2015’s Jurassic World acted as a soft reboot to the original trilogy by being a direct sequel to the 1993 film, Jurassic World Rebirth is completely different from the last three films by having an entirely new cast of characters and minimal references to the previous storylines, with even the huge events of Fallen Kingdom and Dominion being largely written off. While the decision to go back to the formula of the first four films of humans escaping from a dinosaur island does sound like a downgrade, Director Gareth Edwards from The Creator, Godzilla and Rogue One fame, does manage to adapt his gritty sci-fi filming style to make the dinosaurs feel scary again, along with the returning writer from the first two films, David Koepp.
Swapping one MCU star for another, Scarlett Johansson as new lead, Zora, offers her level of charm to her ex-military character, while the likes of Rupert Friend, Jonathan Bailey and Mahershala Ali are all welcome additions to this franchise. As for the true stars of this franchise, the dinosaurs, a lot more attention is given to other species such as Titanosaurus and others as the T-Rex and Velociraptors are surprisingly downplayed here, even if the decision to feature another genetically engineered species, the D-Rex, does feel like slight desperation.
Overall, while still falling behind on some of the franchise’s best moments, Jurassic World Rebirth is a good step in the right direction for this series, although further evolution is required to avoid future films in this series reaching the lows of the last two films.
Rating: 3.5/5
2. Jurassic World (2015)
Directed by: Colin Trevorrow
Written by: Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Derek Connolly and Colin Trevorrow
Starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Vincent D’Onofrio, Ty Simpkins, Nick Robinson, Omar Sy, BD Wong and Irrfan Khan
Music by: Michael Giacchino
Rated: 12A
John Hammond’s dream has finally become a reality as a larger, more advanced theme park named Jurassic World. However, over a period of ten years, people start losing interest in seeing living dinosaurs and as a result, Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), the park’s operation manager, Simon Masrani (Irrfan Kahn), the new head of InGen and Dr. Henry Wu (B.D. Wong), one of the former geneticists of Jurassic Park, approve the creation of the Indominus Rex, a man-made dinosaur designed to bring people back. When the creature ends up breaking loose, Claire must rely on the help of Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), a former Navy veteran who has formed a bond with a pack of Velociraptors, to stop the creature and save her two nephews (Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins) from the wrath of this new dinosaur….
The idea of Hammond’s dream of a dinosaur theme park finally coming true was an interesting direction for the series to take, as one could interpret this story as a metaphor of how special effects have come a long way since 1993. Stuff like motion capture have become so advanced that a lot of people take these effects for granted, and I like how the creation of the Indominus Rex comes from a result of focus groups and petitions.
The Indominus Rex, although it shares a similar role as the Spinosaurus in the third film as the new alpha predator on the island, is much different from the other dinosaurs as it kills just for amusement rather then for food or territory as shown in a heartbreaking scene in which Owen and Claire comfort a dying Apatosaurus.
As for the other dinosaurs, despite the fact that there aren’t as much animatronics as the other films apart from the Apatosaurus scene, in which it is mostly replaced by motion capture, they still look amazing and have a much more prominent role then before. For example the raptors, one of the most dangerous breeds from the other films, have finally been tamed by Owen, a former officer who has become the dinosaur equivalent of the Crocodile Hunter and have become efficient trackers as a result of training. Although it may seem cheesy on paper, it have a great pay-off in one of the best film climax’s this year, with a an all-star dinosaur brawl.
One last thing to mention is the production design and the score, the former’s vision of the park itself is really eye-popping which resembles the world design of Brad Bird’s Tommorowland with protective “hamster ball” transports for visitors to explore the dinosaur plains, the baby dinosaur petting zoo and the holograms of dinosaurs in action. Keep an eye in several scenes by the way, for loads of references throughout both the park and in an familiar area in one scene. for the later, Unfortunately, the score itself despite having a few moments in which John Williams’s legendary theme pops up every now and then, the rest of the score by Michael Giacchino is pretty forgettable.
In conclusion, Jurassic World is the best sequel in the franchise, with interesting ideas on the idea of operating dinosaur theme parks and playing God, good effects, entertaining characters and amazing dinosaur fights. One last thing to mention is the similarities between this film and Mad Max: Fury Road as both films were the fourth entries in their respective franchises, they have both undergone years of development hell, and they both successfully revived their franchise for new generations.
Rating: 4/5
1. Jurassic Park (1993)
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Written by: Michael Crichton and David Koepp
Starring: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Bob Peck, Martin Ferrero, BD Wong, Samuel L. Jackson, Wayne Knight, Joseph Mazzello and Ariana Richards
Music by: John Williams
Rated: 12A
Two palaeontologists named Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), are summoned by the eccentric billionaire, John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), to endorse a theme park in which the process of genetic cloning and amber technology has been used to bring dinosaurs back to life. But when the combined efforts of a tropical storm and the electrical equipment getting hijacked ends up unleashing the creatures to roam free, Alan, Ellie, John, John’s two grandchildren Tim (Joseph Mazzello) and Lex (Ariana Richards) and a “chaos theory” mathematician, Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), must do anything they can in order to get off the island of Jurassic Park…..
Based on the 1990 Michael Crichton novel of the same name, the strongest aspect of Steven Spielberg’s modern dinosaur fable about the dangers of cloning and the consequences of bringing extinct animals back from the dead is, of course, the ground-breaking mixture of not just the new CGI tools at the time, but also the impressively huge animatronics from the late, great Stan Winston. This helped this new method of filmmaking seem more believable at the time of its release. As a result of these methods, the effects on the dinosaurs such as the mighty T-Rex, the scary Velociraptors and the gentle Brachiosaurs still look amazing by today’s standards.
Although the plot itself may lack some of the complex ideas and characters from the book, Michael Crichton himself and co-writer David Keopp both manage to apply Speilberg’s family fantasy formula that made him one of the most successful contributors to family films in the 1980s and early 1990s, to this cautionary tale of dinosaurs with great effect. With actors such as Richard Attenborough, Wayne Knight, Samuel L. Jackson before he got popular, the late Bob Peck and of course, the unforgettable Jeff Goldblum bringing so much life to their archetypal roles and John Williams bringing one of the best scores in his entire career, that it does succeed in making Jurassic Park, as this reviewer has said before, a modern-day fairy-tale.
Overall, Jurassic Park stands out along with the likes of the Disney Renaissance films, Pokémon and The Simpsons as one of the most iconic aspects of 1990s media culture that, like Star Wars in the late 70s, it inspired a new generation of filmmakers that have shaped fantasy into what it is today that proves that “life always finds a way”…
Rating: 5/5
Chaz’s Cinematic Odyssey 