Few franchises have evolved quite like Jurassic Park. Three decades, two trilogies, and a whole lot of dinosaur carnage later, here’s how the movies measure up. Which one has the biggest bite?
“Welcome to Jurassic Park.”
With those words in 1993, John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) invited us into cinematic history and ushered in a mammoth movie franchise. Born from Michael Crichton’s novel, the dinosaur-park-gone-wrong saga has become a global phenomenon — spawning sequels, theme park rides, animated spin-offs, and endless merch. The movie series itself now has seven instalments. We look at all seven dino blockbusters, ranking them from worst to best.
7) Jurassic World: Dominion
The third entry of the Jurassic World saga and the sixth overall instalment in the Jurassic Park franchise tries to do it all but ends up doing too much.
Dominion reunites the three leads from the original movie — Sam Neill as Alan Grant, Laura Dern as Ellie Sattler, and Jeff Goldblum as Ian Malcolm. But the power of nostalgia and the magic of the originals can’t save a bloated and scattershot plot where dinosaurs feel oddly secondary. Behind-the-scenes pandemic chaos contributed to the movie’s lack of coherence. With all that said, Jurassic World: Dominion still earned over US$1 billion at the box office.
6) Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Half survival thriller, half gothic horror movie. The second Jurassic World entry, helmed by Spanish filmmaker J. A. Bayona, starts with a volcano erupting on Isla Nublar and the human visitors’ efforts to escape. Then, it pivots to a haunted house movie-esque segment set in a mansion hosting a black-market dino auction. Fallen Kingdom is visually striking and refreshingly weird, but clunky writing and flat characters keep it from reaching full evolutionary potential. Still, credit for trying something bold.
5) Jurassic Park III
Dismissed upon release in 2001, Jurassic Park III is now semi-redeemed. Helmed by Joe Johnston, who took over the directorial reins from Steven Spielberg, this lean, mean sequel trades grandeur for pulpy thrills. Alan is tricked into a rescue mission on Isla Sorna, the ‘Site B’ where bioengineering company InGen bred dinosaurs before Jurassic Park. Cue family drama, a menacing Spinosaurus (the movie’s new Big Bad, usurping the Tyrannosaurus Rex), and one spooky Pteranodon sequence. The movie feels a bit like an episode of a TV series, but it doesn’t matter. It’s short, scrappy, and knows it’s a B-movie — and that’s its charm.
4) Jurassic World: Rebirth
The latest Jurassic World chapter goes standalone. No legacy characters (looking at you, Dominion!), just Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, and Mahershala Ali facing new hybrid horrors. Penned by David Koepp, writer of the first two Jurassic Park movies, and helmed by Godzilla director Gareth Edwards, the movie serves up the dino-tastic thrills that we have come to expect from the franchise. Rebirth does feel like a ‘greatest hits’ playlist at times with the way it recycles plot beats and set piece ideas from earlier entries, not that fans mind: it has already raked in more than US$850 million at the box office. Its Jaws-inspired Mosasaurus chase sequence is a showstopper.
This action-packed new entry in the Jurassic series follows an extraction team as they brave an isolated island research facility inhabited by dangerous prehistoric creatures on a mission.
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3) Jurassic World
After 14 years in hibernation, the franchise roared back to life with the legacy sequel Jurassic World, which comes after Jurassic Park III in the chronology. A fully operational park! Chris Pratt wrangling raptors! It was all Jurassic fans could hope for.
While overstuffed with CGI and broad archetypes (macho ex-military guy, uptight workaholic woman, excitable kid, etc.), it scratched the nostalgia itch for fans of the franchise. And having earned over US$1.6 billion worldwide at the box office, it became the second-highest-grossing movie of 2015. It’s the rare reboot that delivers popcorn perfection.
2) The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Spielberg’s much-anticipated sequel to Jurassic Park ups the spectacle — and the dinosaur count — in every way. Loosely based on Crichton’s 1995 novel of the same name, itself inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, the film trades the awe of the original for darker, pulpier scares, echoing classic monster movies like King Kong.
Goldblum steps up as the lead, reprising his Jurassic Park role as Ian, who’s reluctantly pulled back into dino drama when his girlfriend, palaeontologist Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore), heads to Isla Sorna. The expedition quickly turns into a survival nightmare as a rival team tries to capture the creatures for a new mainland attraction.
Spielberg stages some unforgettable moments, such as the Velociraptor attack in the tall grass and a rampaging T.rex loose in San Francisco. The Lost World is bigger, louder, and more chaotic than the original, but it is still packed with that signature Spielberg spectacle. While it lacks the first film’s memorable, fleshed-out characters and perfect balance of wonder and terror, it remains a suspenseful and unapologetically wild ride.
1) Jurassic Park
Still the apex predator. Spielberg’s Jurassic Park was a game-changer, revolutionising blockbuster filmmaking with its cutting-edge visuals. It was among the first films to use CGI on a massive scale, seamlessly blending CGI dinosaurs with Stan Winston’s astonishing animatronic creations to bring prehistoric life stomping across the screen.
Adapted from Crichton’s novel, the story follows a group of experts — palaeontologist Alan (Neill), palaeobotanist Ellie (Dern), and chaos theorist Ian (Goldblum) — who are invited by billionaire John (Attenborough) to tour a remote island where cloned dinosaurs roam. When the park’s security systems fail, the visitors are thrown into a desperate fight for survival.
From the awe of the first Brachiosaurus reveal to the T.rex breakout scene, Spielberg strikes the ideal balance of wonder and terror. Meanwhile, the cast grounds the film with warmth and wit. Smart, thrilling, and endlessly rewatchable, Jurassic Park remains the gold standard of summer blockbusters.
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Academy Award®-winner Steven Spielberg's classic vision of a theme park featuring genetically-engineered dinosaurs. Who will survive when the dinosaurs run amok?
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