In 1993, the release of Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park set a new benchmark for thrilling special-effects driven blockbusters. Twenty-two years later, Colin Trevorrow would kick off a sequel trilogy to continue the tale of these scientifically resurrected beasts with Jurassic World. And now, with the release of Jurassic World: Dominion, the franchise is at an end (for the moment). Dominion was designed as a “culmination of the franchise,” and indeed it does feel that way, what with the return of original Jurassic Park stars Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum as well as a slew of plot points that tie back to the previous films.
Now that all six Jurassic Park and Jurassic World movies are out, it’s as good a time as any to reflect on the long legacy of this iconic movie series. And what better way to do that than to rank them, and discuss what each brought to the franchise? Not all Jurassic movies are made equal, but each brings interesting things to the table that other movies have drawn from.
And now, let us rank! Starting with the runt of the clutch:
6. Jurassic Park III
Even as someone who grew up loving this movie, it’s hard to deny that Jurassic Park III deserves to be at the bottom of the list. Released in 2001, it saw Sam Neill reprise his role from the first film as Dr. Alan Grant…but alas, not even Neill’s immense charisma could carry this one to greatness.
The premise of the movie is that Dr. Grant is approached by millionaire adrenaline junkies Paul and Amanda Kirby (William H. Macy and Téa Leoni), who want the famed paleontologist to come with them on a flyover of Isla Sorna for their anniversary. They’re willing to pay for years of Dr. Grant’s research in exchange, so despite his insistence that he’ll never go near either of the dinosaur islands again in his lifetime, he’s persuaded.
Except once they get there, it becomes clear that the Kirbys have bamboozled him. Turns out that they’re not millionaires, and are only going to the island because their son went missing there two months earlier. The movie watches like one big theme park ride from there, as Grant and the rest of the group narrowly avoid being eaten by one creature after the next in their quest to find the Kirbys’ son Eric (Trevor Morgan) and get off the island.
The problem with Jurassic Park III is that it really didn’t have much of anything to say. Every single other film in the franchise is a delicate balancing act between the grounded, terrifying story of surviving some kind of dinosaur crisis and a commentary on the folly of blind human progression. Jurassic Park III is all about the adrenaline rush, there is no B plot or subtext to the film (unless you count the divorced Kirbys reconciling). It also has one of the most groanworthy cop-out endings in film history, with the navy and marines miraculously showing up to save the day after Grant manages to get a satellite phone call off to Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and tell her of his predicament.
Despite all that, Jurassic Park III does have some memorable aspects, as well as some stuff that had a huge impact on the Jurassic World trilogy. The first of those is the Spinosaurus, another apex predator that was larger even than the T-Rex. The Spinosaurus faces off against the T-Rex early on in the film and wins, which set the precedent for the World movies having dinosaur showdowns between impossibly huge creatures. Beyond that, Jurassic Park III was also the first film in the franchise to feature a sequence that revolved around flying dinosaurs; Pterodactyls, in this case.
But most important of all is that Dr. Grant’s research on Velociraptor intelligence solidified the idea that the lethal packhunters could communicate. Without Jurassic Park III, we never would have gotten Owen Grady’s trusty Velociraptor companion Blue.
5. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
There’s no weirder movie in the entire Jurassic franchise than 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Picking up a year after the destruction of the Jurassic World theme park, Fallen Kingdom sees Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) return to Isla Nublar when it’s discovered that an imminent volcanic eruption is about to wipe out all the dinosaurs on the island. They go in order to save Blue, Owen’s Velociraptor that he trained from birth. That part of the movie is pretty cool.
But after the rescue mission goes awry, things get real weird real fast. The bulk of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom feels much more like a haunted house movie as Owen, Claire, and Blue are swept off to the mysterious Lockwood mansion, where the newly rescued dinosaurs are being auctioned off on the black market. The Lockwood estate has secrets aplenty, from the introduction of a new hybrid dinosaur named the Indoraptor to Maisie (Isabella Sermon), a young girl who is actually a clone.
In many ways, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom doesn’t even feel like a Jurassic film at all. The whole cloning plotline is weird, as is the major retcon of the Jurassic Park canon required to introduce Benjamin Lockwell (James Cromwell), a former partner of John Hammond who we’re supposed to believe was pivotal to the creation of the original Jurassic Park despite never being mentioned in the previous four movies. The Indoraptor feels more like a horror movie monster than a dinosaur, though it is certainly fun to watch.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is also the only movie in the entire franchise that has an action hero fight scene, where Chris Pratt beats up a bunch of mercenaries wielding machine guns, as well as a murder scene. Despite being films about dinosaurs run amok, the actual human elements in the Jurassic franchise have always been very grounded and realistic. You might not notice how tonally out of place the fight and murder scenes are until you realize that the next closest thing we had seen up until that point was someone or other getting punched in the face during a heated debate.
The only reason Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is not at the bottom of the list is because despite its many flaws, it’s at the very least bold, unpredictable, and ambitious. Fallen Kingdom has some of the most unique scenes in the franchise, such as Claire and Owen taking blood from a sedated T-Rex and the haunting volcanic eruption on Isla Nublar. The development for Claire in particular was excellent; this was the movie where she truly became an Ellen Ripley-level badass. And it did set the stage for the much better Jurassic World: Dominion by ending with dinosaurs being released out into the wider world.
4. Jurassic World: Dominion
The capstone to the Jurassic franchise (for now), Jurassic World: Dominion took the ambition of its predecessor Fallen Kingdom and jacked it up to a whole new level. Dominion brings back just about every living major character in the entire series, including Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler, Ian Malcolm, Owen Grady, Claire Dearing, Maisie Lockwood, and Dr. Henry Wu (BD Wong), as well as a slew of minor characters like Franklin Webb (Justice Smith) and Zia Rodriguez (Daniella Pineda) from Fallen Kingdom, Barry (Omar Sy) from Jurassic World, and even Lewis Dodgson from the original Jurassic Park (though he’s played by a different actor and may as well be a totally new character). And that’s not even getting into new players like Kayla Watts (DeWanda Wise) and Ramsay Cole (Mamoudou Athie).
In short, Jurassic World: Dominion is packed to the gills with memorable characters and new dinosaurs, set against the backdrop of a world where the terrible lizards have repopulated the globe and are learning how to co-exist with humanity. On the one hand, all those elements make for an exciting popcorn flick that is never anything less than extremely entertaining. On the other, there are so many elements and characters floating around that most all of them feel somewhat underserved, and having so many A-list stars in the film means that this is the only Jurassic movie where there are practically no memorable deaths.
Perhaps the place where Jurassic World: Dominion most sets itself apart from the rest of the franchise is the special effects. Unlike the previous two Jurassic World movies, Dominion steers clear of making up its own hybrid dinos in favor of bringing in a ton of actual prehistoric creatures instead. The result is an undeniable improvement, from the imposing Giganotosaurus to the terrifying Therizinosaurus, the return of the poison-spitting Dilophosaurus from the first Jurassic Park, and even a surprise cameo by some Dimetrodons. The bestiary of dinosaurs in this film is the largest of any in the series, and Dominion uses it to great effect. It also makes ample use of animatronic puppets, something the previous two Jurassic World films severely lacked.
The locust plotline is pretty weird, and the story itself is surprisingly contained despite the globetrotting setup (the climax revolves around another park going off the rails), but overall Dominion is in a whole other league than Fallen Kingdom.
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.
2. The Lost World: Jurassic Park
While 1997’s The Lost World had practically no similarities to the Michael Crichton novel on which it was based, it was still an all-around solid film that has aged surprisingly well. After the disastrous events at Jurassic Park during the first movie, John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) enlists Dr. Ian Malcolm to lead a team to Isla Sorna, or Site B, another island with dinosaurs on it where Hammond’s company InGen did most of its actual research before shipping the animals off to the park.
Malcolm is initially reluctant until he learns that his girlfriend Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore) is already on Isla Sorna, since she’s one of the world’s leading animal behaviorists. Hammond hopes to have Malcolm and Sarah document the animals in an undisturbed ecosystem as a means toward garnering enough public support to keep his own company (which has just kicked him out of leadership) from starting up another amusement park.
However, once Malcom, Sarah, and the rest of their team (Richard Schiff and Vince Vaughn) arrive on the island, they discover that InGen is already hard at work capturing dinosaurs to please the investors. Acts of sabotage lead to acts of destruction, and before you know it both parties are stranded on the island.
Like the first Jurassic Park, The Lost World is directed by Steven Spielberg, and it shows. The shots and effects are often breathtaking, and it included the debut of many new dinosaurs that would become series mainstays, including Stegosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Pachycephalosaurus, and the best Compsognathus scene of the franchise. It had a razor-sharp script that really allowed Jeff Goldblum to let loose with his trademark wit to great effect; this is easily the funniest Jurassic movie, though it does go a little overboard at times. The score by John Williams is also excellent, and different enough from the original Jurassic Park to not feel like a retread.
And let’s not forget the cliffside T-Rex trailer attack, which is arguably the single scariest sequence in the entire Jurassic franchise. Or the T-Rex rampaging through San Diego at the film’s climax, which was the only time we saw a dinosaur wreak havoc in the wider world before Dominion.
The Lost World may not have achieved quite the same transcendence as the original Jurassic Park, but it was just as much of a success in its own way.
1. Jurassic Park
Let’s be real: was there ever any doubt that the original Jurassic Park movie was going to end up in the number one slot? For as great as many of the sequels have been, none have ever topped the absolute legendary status of the first film, which followed a focus group of scientists who were whisked off to give an early endorsement for John Hammond’s dinosaur theme park, only for it to all go horribly off the rails due to corporate espionage.
When Jurassic Park came out in 1993, its special effects were completely revolutionary. They’ve influenced literally decades of movies, yet even now, they still stand above many modern films. A huge part of it had to do with the way the movie combined CGI with sweeping practical effects. Viewers don’t need to stretch their disbelief at all to imagine how terrifying the Tyrannosaurus Rex is, because it’s actually on screen as an enormous, animatronic puppet. The same goes for many of the other dinosaurs in the movie.
But hey, you’ve seen Jurassic Park, and you know it was more than just the effects that made it special. The iconic score by John Williams. The top tier cast, which included Wayne Knight, Samuel L. Jackson, Bob Peck, Ariana Richards, and Joseph Mazzello in addition to Neill, Dern, Goldblum, and Attenborough. The blistering examination of human hubris in the face of scientific advancement, courtesy of a script co-written by Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton.
There’s a reason this film is still so highly regarded even today. It’s the stuff of cinema history and moviemaking magic.
“Welcome to Jurassic Park,” proclaims John Hammond…and just like that, we’re there.
Thus concludes our power ranking of all six Jurassic movies. What do you think? Would you rearrange the list at all? Let us know in the comments!
Jurassic World: Dominion is out now in theaters, bringing this epic series to a close. Though if we’re learned one thing over these past three decades, it’s that Jurassic Park rarely stays extinct.
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