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Ranking Jurassic Park Films

The Jurassic Park franchise belongs in the vein of those series that start off strong with a great original, and then they quickly succumb to mediocrity. Still, even though all of the sequels were weak, at least they were hugely entertaining for the most part. This is my ranking of all Jurassic Park films released so far.

5. Jurassic Park III

This one takes the last spot as the only truly mediocre flick in the series. Even this movie has its fun scenes as the action is very entertaining. Sam Neill is also a welcome presence as Alan Grant. However, all the other characters are either forgettable or utterly annoying as in the case of Paul and Amanda. This sequel rehashes the original in many copied scenes and the entire premise is forced. It’s the most unnecessary entry so far.

4. The Lost World: Jurassic Park

The Lost World: Jurassic Park is a weak sequel that benefits from excellent special effects, a solid first half and memorable Jeff Goldblum and Julianne Moore, but the second half is too extensive in terms of action scenes and simply not engaging enough. The story is also tiresome while the original’s rich themes and adventure elements are entirely lost here. I could not believe how lazy Spielberg’s direction was in this instance.

3. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Fallen Kingdom tried something different in terms of storytelling and I definitely respect that. But the execution of its story is so bad that it still ended up being just passable entertainment. The action is a whole lot of fun and the main couple is great, but the dialogue is absolutely horrendous and the villains are so damn cartoony that they really annoyed me. It succeeds as fun entertainment, but in terms of themes and scripting, it failed miserably.

2. Jurassic World

Jurassic World came after years of pause for the franchise and it was extremely successful. To me, it represents everything that is good and wrong with this series. The character development is excellent as is the acting, and the action is superbly executed across the board. However, the movie is just dumb scientifically speaking with the dinosaurs behaving unrealistically. It’s a film that mixes something with and mostly something old by repeating the feel of the original, and it somewhat succeeds at that. It’s stupid, but undeniably fun.

1. Jurassic Park

Of course the original gets the top spot. This is the only film in the series that is reliably good. Though not great owing to overwhelming in action second half, it’s still one of Spielberg’s best blockbuster features that is spirited in its adventure elements and groundbreaking in terms of CGI spectacle. The score is absolutely beautiful and the highlight of the movie. I also liked its characters with Jeff Goldblum stealing the show. It’s also the only entry in the franchise that has something on its mind as it explores evolution and the power of nature so well.

You can get the entire Jurassic Park franchise on Amazon in this very neat package.