With Jurassic World Rebirth bringing the series back to theaters, there are a lot of fans who will be revisiting the larger 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 seven 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. Here’s how they stack up against one another, including 2025’s Jurassic World Rebirth.
7
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
-
-
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.
6
Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)
Directed By Colin Trevorrow
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 disappointingly does little with that very exciting idea.
5
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
Directed By J. A. Bayona
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.
4
Jurassic World Rebirth (2025)
Directed By Gareth Edwards
Jurassic World Rebirth
7/10
- Release Date
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July 2, 2025
- Runtime
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134 Minutes
- Director
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Gareth Edwards
- Writers
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David Koepp, Michael Crichton
Jurassic World Rebirth is a fresh start for the franchise that builds on the previous trilogy, ultimatley leaning more heavily into the thrills than the worldbuilding. The result is a movie that often feels less focused than some of the other movies, but boasts some of the series’ best set-pieces. Focusing on two groups (a civilian family and a band of mercenaries) who both end up stranded on a dinosaur-infested island, the true horror sets in as they encounter previously unknown mutant variants like Mutadons or the D-Rex.
The human characters are fairly one-note and the plot is largely bereft of surprises, but the strength of the execution elevates Jurassic World Rebirth above other entries in the series. The performances (especially Scarlett Johansson’s Zora, Jonathan Bailey’s Dr. Loomis, and Mahershala Ali’s Duncan) give a sense of depth to their stock characters, while Gareth Edwards puts together a solid string of brushes with death to keep the story going.
Jurassic World Rebirth feels indebted to the earlier movies in the series in a way the others aren’t, trying to find the right balance between the thrills of the original trilogy and the modern touches of the other Jurassic World films. It does a better job of the former than the latter, delivering an enjoyable and entertaining film that may be forgettable on a story level but is a blast in the moment and on the big-screen.
3
Jurassic World (2015)
Directed By Colin Trevorrow
Jurassic World
7/10
- Release Date
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June 12, 2015
- Runtime
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124 Minutes
- Director
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Colin Trevorrow
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.
2
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
Directed By Steven Spielberg
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.
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.
1
Jurassic Park (1993)
Directed By Steven Spielberg
Jurassic Park
10/10
- Release Date
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June 11, 1993
- Runtime
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127 minutes
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.
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.
- 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)
- Latest Film
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Jurassic World: Dominion
- First TV Show
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Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous
