It's impossible to think about the most iconic movie franchises in Hollywood without thinking about the Jurassic Park film series. A titan of the big screen, the franchise has stood the test of time, weathering the evolving landscapes of moviemaking, streaming, and the entertainment industry itself to ensure that it doesn't go extinct. Even a 14-year hiatus couldn't kill it off, nor could the end of two respective trilogies within it.
Jurassic World Rebirth launched a brand new chapter for the dinosaurs of the world that Michael Crichton and Steven Spielberg first brought to the screen back in 1993 and it performed so well that Universal Pictures is actively working on a sequel (with a tentative 2028 release window rumored). But as the only standalone currently in the franchise, how did Rebirth stack up to the original Jurassic Park trilogy and the more recent Jurassic World trilogy? There's only one way to find out!
Join us as we venture back 65 million years ago to rank all seven Jurassic movies and see if we can deduce who the true Tyrannosaurus Rex of this franchise really is.
7. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Release year: 2018
Directed by: J.A. Bayona
Cast: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rafe Spall, Toby Jones, Justice Smith, Danielle Pineda, Ted Levine, B.D. Wong, Isabella Sermon, Oliver Cromwell, Jeff Goldblum
Jurassic World reinvigorated the Jurassic Park franchise after years of dormancy but its 2018 sequel couldn't quite sustain the momentum. Granted, it was another billion dollar hit - and the third highest-grossing movie of 2018 - but it didn’t quite hit the nail on the head in the way we were all hoping it would. That’s down to the fact that it’s a tale of two halves.
The first half of the movie, which sees Claire Dearing and Owen Grady return to Isla Nublar to rescue some dinosaurs from the volcanic eruption set to destroy the island, is amazing. The stakes are high and there are some of the really fun set pieces that we’ve come to expect from the franchise mixed in there too. But after that, the plot grinds to a halt, with its middle act auction slowing things down significantly.
The final act is a thrill to watch, with director JA Bayona leaning into the horror of the Indoraptor’s rampage through Lockwood Manor incredibly well. There’s an invasive, claustrophobic feel to it that elevates the fact that we’re not on the island anymore, but it still feels a little too contained for a Jurassic Park movie. Adding to that, the Indoraptor never feels like the same level of threat as the Indominous Rex (even though it’s likely much worse) and the franchise’s iconic T-Rex (a.k.a. “Rexy”) is sorely underutilized.
6. Jurassic World Dominion
Release year: 2022
Directed by: Colin Trevorrow
Cast: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, B.D. Wong, DeWanda Wise, Mamoudou Athie, Oma Sy, Campbell Scott
Jurassic World Dominion had a lot of pressure on its shoulders to succeed. It was the final movie in the Jurassic World trilogy and audiences were intrigued as to how the franchise would play with the idea of dinosaurs outside of the island (in the Jurassic World, if you will). Adding to that, it also featured the long-awaited returns of Jurassic Park legends Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum, as it was set to close not one but two chapters in the franchise’s history.
The results were quite mixed though, with fans responding well to the returning Jurassic Park characters but not so much to the rather odd subplot involving locusts that dominated the first two-thirds of the film. In fact, audiences felt that the World characters had the better storyline and that the Park legends should have had more involvement in that one.
Dominion also struggled with pacing issues, which is easier to overlook when the main characters are trapped outdoors with the dinosaurs because the stakes are higher. But here, there were just too many drawn-out scenes with too much dialogue. We get it, the big bad guys in the big bad companies are corrupt. That doesn’t make them as compelling antagonists as the dinosaurs themselves.
The movie’s final act is a nostalgic and fitting finale to the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World stories, but Dominion just takes a little too long getting there.
5. Jurassic Park III
Release year: 2001
Directed by: Joe Johnston
Cast: Sam Neill, William H. Macy, Téa Leoni, Alessandro Nivola, Trevor Morgan, Michael Jeter, Laura Dern
For the longest time, Jurassic Park III was considered the worst movie of the franchise. It seems like a rough fate considering how decent the movie actually is, but it was hard to argue with when its only competition was Jurassic Park, and The Lost World. As its place on this ranking highlights, it doesn’t hold that title any longer, so let’s take some time to actually acknowledge how good it is.
Like many later installments in classic movie series, Jurassic Park III isn’t particularly worried about adding anything new to the saga. It’s just a survival story set in an already established world, so it doesn’t waste time throwing you right into the action - and when that action involves an estranged couple kidnapping Alan Grant so that he can rescue their missing son from an island full of dinosaurs, it’s pretty darn compelling. It also tries something different, focusing more on the velociraptors’ motivations (and their new appearance) and having a new antagonistic dinosaur in the Spinosaurus.
The one thing that the movie got wrong was its disrespectful treatment of the T-Rex to establish the Spinosaurus as the new threat. Fans didn’t take too kindly to that and they were right to call it out for it. That aside, though, Jurassic Park III is an enjoyable standalone chapter in a franchise that has since become too concerned with its own complicated mythology.
4. Jurassic World Rebirth
Release year: 2025
Directed by: Gareth Edwards
Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, Mahershala Ali, Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Ed Skrein, David Iacono, Luna Blaise, Audrina Miranda
The most recent installment in the legendary movie series, Jurassic World Rebirth was simply designed as a standalone sequel to capitalize on the franchise's continued success. In many ways, that shows - but it's not necessarily a bad thing. While the previous Jurassic World trilogy got more and more convoluted as it went on, there is a beauty in Rebirth's simplicity that makes it a much more enjoyable movie.
Set five years after Dominion, the plot revolves around a pharmaceuticals company that needs blood from three live dinosaurs and recruits a team led by former marines-turned-mercenaries Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) and Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali), as well Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) to head to an island near the equator where some of the last living dinosaurs reside and extract the DNA. The result is an edge-of-seat tale of survival in which the trio must outlast the dangers of an unexplored jungle full of genetic hybrids and an old-faithful T-Rex.
Jurassic World Rebirth never fully justifies its existence and the genetic hybrids serve absolutely no purpose (you could replace them with real dinosaurs and the movie would be exactly the same) but it is an entertaining movie that very much feels like a modern day answer to Jurassic Park III. And after the overly complex previous two films, good old-fashioned popcorn entertainment is a welcome change-of-pace.
3. The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Release year: 1997
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Pete Postlethwaite, Arliss Howard, Richard Attenborough, Vince Vaughn,
Four years after Jurassic Park changed Hollywood forever, Steven Spielberg returned for a sequel. Like its predecessor, it was also based on a Michael Crichton novel of the same name. It didn’t quite hit the mark in the way that it was hoped it would, but it still provided plenty of thrills.
The special effects are even better than the first one, with the T-Rex’s rampage in San Francisco looking particularly stunning, and the decision to focus on Jeff Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm was also inspired. It simply isn't talked about enough how these two elements carry the film extremely well.
While one of the film’s main criticisms is that it overlooks important character development in place of mindless fantasy, I would argue that Malcolm benefits from being center stage here as, through his troubled relationships with daughter Kelly and girlfriend Sarah, we actually get to see that there’s so much more to him than being a walking one-liner machine (albeit a very clever and cool one). And speaking of there being more to them, the T-Rex family storyline is as heartwarming as it is fantastical.
It was always going to be a tough task to match the highs of Jurassic Park, but The Lost World tried its best to do it. It didn’t get all of the way there, but it got close - and had a damn good time doing so. And I had a damn good time watching it (many, many times).
2. Jurassic World
Release year: 2015
Directed by: Colin Trevorrow
Cast: Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pratt, Nick Robinson, Ty Simpkins, Vincent D'Onofrio, Omar Sy, B.D. Wong, Irrfan Khan, Jake Johnson, Lauren Lapkus, Katie McGrath, Judy Greer
The Jurassic franchise went dormant for 14 years after Jurassic Park III, but the wait would ultimately be worth it. Jurassic World relaunched the saga with new characters in a new chapter of a brand new story, and it turned out that this was exactly the refresh that the franchise needed.
Much of what makes Jurassic World work is that it takes its cues from the very first Jurassic Park movie, opting against making it another survival film on an abandoned island full of killer dinosaurs. Yes, it’s fuelled by nostalgia, replicating a lot of what we saw in the 1993 film, but it also takes JP‘s ideas further, envisioning the functioning theme park that never quite came to fruition in the first movie.
Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard work incredibly well opposite each other as the film’s leads, while Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins’ performances as Claire’s nephews reminded us why Jurassic movies work best when family is at the heart of it. That is what Jurassic Park is all about, and Jurassic World is the perfect reminder of that.
This was designed to be the Jurassic Park of this generation and, even though that’s obvious, it worked nonetheless, reviving the franchise from near-extinction and providing audiences with a movie almost as larger-than-life as the original.
1. Jurassic Park
Release year: 1993
Directed: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern, Richard Attenborough, Bob Peck, Martin Ferrero, B.D. Wong, Samuel L. Jackson, Wayne Knight, Joseph Mazzello, Ariana Richards
You probably already knew which film was going to end up at the top of this list before you even began reading it. Sorry to be predictable, but that’s just how revolutionary, stunning, and downright epic Jurassic Park is.
Released in 1993, Steven Spielberg’s dino drama brought Michael Crichton’s legendary novel to life on the big screen in bigger, scarier, and gripping fashion. What the movie accomplished with its cutting edge special effects didn’t just give the story the larger-than-life look that it needed, it changed the face of cinema forever. From the T-Rex’s stormy arrival, to the velociraptor’s clever trap, every moment in Jurassic Park looks beautiful. Beautifully frightening. Beautifully exhilarating. Beautiful full stop.
Perhaps the greatest beauty of Jurassic Park is that the amazing visuals set the table for a gripping story – something that so many modern movies overlook. There are themes of nature vs. nurture, greed vs. logic, and love vs. hate running throughout the narrative, and it’s all held together by its star-studded cast’s compelling performances.
Life found a way with Jurassic Park and we’re so happy that it did.
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