All 6 Jurassic Park and Jurassic World movies, ranked

3. Jurassic World

While I personally prefer Jurassic World: Dominion for its extensive dinosaur list and the Sam Neill/Laura Dern/Jeff Goldblum of it all, if we’re looking at things as objectively as possible, I think Jurassic World is the better film.

A lot of it comes down to the overall strength of the vision behind this movie. The choice to introduce the next generation of Jurassic movies through the eyes of a pair of teenage brothers who are going to visit it for the first time was wonderfully transportive. Getting to actually see what John Hammond’s dream dinosaur park might have looked like if it were actually realized was glorious; from the sleek design of the park to the addition of the impressive aquatic Mosasaurus, Jurassic World was a feast for the senses.

On the writing side of things, it also had arguably the best character development of any movie in the entire franchise for its leads, Owen and Claire. This movie spent a lot of time fleshing them out, and they really do feel like they ended the movie as different people. The movie also had a tremendous supporting cast, including Vincent D’Onofrio, Irrfan Khan, Judy Greer, Jake Johnson, Lauren Lapkus, and BD Wong reprising his Jurassic Park role as Dr. Henry Wu.

That said, the Indominous Rex is…well, it was a choice. The first three quarters of Jurassic World almost feel like a Frankenstein’s monster story, with the genetically engineered hybrid getting loose and going on a bloody rampage through the park. Whether you liked the hybrid dinosaur or not, the plotting is very focused and effective. Jurassic World also features the most memorable death scenes of the World trilogy, plus the harrowing Pterodactyl attack on the park.

At its heart though, the thing that sets Jurassic World above its two sequels is that it really feels like it was trying to have a dialogue with the original Jurassic Park trilogy. From the sweeping introduction to the park to the ruminations on the dangers of reckless genetic engineering to the thrilling nighttime Velociraptor hunt, Jurassic World really felt like it understood the heart of the older films and was prepared to take up the mantle.