"This is not a science fiction movie by any stretch of the imagination. This is just science eventuality."--Steven Spielberg, FantaZone Magazine, 1993
As far back as I can remember, I’ve had a lifelong fascination with dinosaurs. It’s difficult to ascertain what the initial trigger was; whether it was seeing Godzilla films on television, or airings of THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT (1975) and THE PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT (1977), both were defining factors. This led to my mother purchasing me numerous books on prehistoric life; one item in particular was a set of dinosaur cards purchased for me at the Natural Science Center. They came housed in a hard plastic case and told you valuable information on a variety of species from the Mesozoic Era—these being the Triassic, the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods—also known as the Age of Reptiles.Flash forward to 1993, and the next step in the advancement of dinosaur/giant monster cinema and special effects began...
This article aims to look at this constantly evolving series that, as of this writing, has a seventh entry hitting theaters on July 2nd, 2025. Possibly some of you reading this have had a similar adoration for dinosaurs since your childhood; and because of that, a fascination with this series 65 million years in the making—which, stunningly enough, began 32 years ago.
JURASSIC PARK (1993)
Businessman John Hammond creates a unique park cloning dinosaurs using 100 million year old DNA extracted from prehistoric mosquitos trapped within ancient tree sap. Hammond brings a varied group of individuals to see his island attractions in the hopes they’ll sign off on its viability so as to turn it into a functioning park for all the world to see. A self-serving park employee intending to enrich himself by selling dinosaur embryos to Hammond’s rival causes a security malfunction that sets the dinosaurs loose, endangering the lives of everyone trapped inside.
Based on Michael Crichton’s novel, Steven Spielberg “spared no expense” in the realm of creativity, special effects and child-like wonder. His Dino-sized blockbuster became a phenomenon and made prehistory more popular than it had ever been before. A year before the film came out, it was already being described as the movie event to see, with the largest effects crew in film history. There was an impenetrable level of secrecy surrounding the production. Stan Winston, who was in charge of the live-action creature effects, teased what audiences were in for by commenting in interviews, "what I can tell you is that [JURASSIC PARK] is more than you've ever seen before, and beyond anything you can imagine". 
Since the 1970s, both Spielberg and George Lucas have revolutionized motion pictures beginning with JAWS in 1975 and STAR WARS in 1977. Spielberg did it again with JURASSIC PARK (Lucas helped finish the picture). The filmmaker and his crew brought dinosaurs to life in a way never seen by human eyes. The tagline for 1978's SUPERMAN was "You will believe a man can fly". With JURASSIC PARK, the film's makers made you believe dinosaurs were alive. This advanced special effects magic was done by a combination of computer generated imagery and live-action animatronics. Seeing it in the theater was an experience not unlike seeing JAWS or STAR WARS during their initial release; to use two examples. And it was possibly the last time a sense of awe overcame an audience witnessing something they'd never seen before.
Twenty minutes into the movie when we see our first glimpse of dinosaurs (the friendly sort, or course), you could hear gasps of amazement throughout the theater. Each
sequel would have a scene like this where docile herbivores cross paths
with humans while John Williams's bombastic musical cues soar on the soundtrack. This turned to screaming and yelling when the Tyrannosaurus Rex, Velociraptors and other assorted carnivores made their first appearances after being built up in expert fashion. JURASSIC PARK's narrative structure would be replicated near identically in the next two sequels. And because of this, a sense of stagnation and repetition sets in.
Spielberg harnessed that same mix of characterization, fear, horror and adventure that he'd done with JAWS nearly 20 years earlier. He had a penchant for capturing intense horror that pushed the boundary of the PG rating that eventually led to the PG-13 rating in 1984. Spielberg showed he still had the knack for potent "boo" moments throughout his groundbreaking movie. JURASSIC PARK remains a masterfully made motion picture that retains both its wonderment and its intensity 30+ years later. 
As mentioned above regarding the early hype, Spielberg and everyone involved with the project had a strong feeling this film would be a gigantic moneymaker. It ended up being the most transformative motion picture of the 1990s. Just about every big studio picture with the hoped for blockbuster brand attached to it would be compared to JURASSIC PARK. The most prescient moment in the movie is when the lawyer representing the parks investors, stunned at the living creatures from millions of years ago stomping around before him, prophetically remarks “We’re gonna make a fortune with this place”.THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK (1997)
Ian Malcolm meets with John Hammond and reveals to him there’s another island, Isla Sorna, where the dinosaurs were originally cloned before being transported to Jurassic Park on Isla Nublar. After an incident involving a family vacationing on the shore of Isla Sorna, Hammond’s nephew, Peter Ludlow, takes advantage by using the mishap to take Hammond’s company, InGen, away from him and make money off this island of dinosaurs. In a bid to save his integrity, Hammond wants Malcolm to lead a team to document the creatures in their new and natural habitat in the hopes they can be left alone. Malcolm reluctantly agrees to the journey only when he discovers his girlfriend, a paleontologist, is already there. Malcolm and his team land on Isla Sorna and it isn’t long before Ludlow, a group of mercenaries and big game hunters arrive unexpectedly to capture dinosaurs to use as attractions for a San Diego park. This time there’s no fences. No safety. Plenty of danger--human and reptilian.
It’s hard to capture lightning in a bottle twice, and Steven Spielberg demonstrates that with this sequel. It strives mightily for what the first movie achieved--only to end up a well-funded adventure picture. Jeff Goldblum returns, taking the lead while Spielberg returns as director in a rare occasion of his helming a sequel. What doesn’t return is that sense of wonder and intensity Spielberg maintained in the original PARK. When Spielberg directed INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM (1984), everything was bigger--the scope, the action and the adventure. THE LOST WORLD cost around $10 million more than its predecessor and delivers about $10 million less of its imagination. 
The film’s best moment is an extended attack on two research trailers by two Tyrannosaurs trying to retrieve their offspring and their failed rescue by Eddie (Richard Schiff). JPII never achieves this level of excitement again; but does come close during the finale when a Tyrannosaur runs wild in San Diego. FALLEN KINGDOM would revisit and rework this plot point of bringing the dinosaurs to civilization. In this film, though, it’s like an African safari only it’s not rhinoceros and giraffes they’re wrangling. THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK is an un-acknowledged remake of THE LOST WORLD from 1925; itself officially remade in laughable fashion by Irwin Allen in 1960. According to Spielberg himself, additional inspirations for this sequel were KING KONG (1933), THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS (1953), GODZILLA (1954), and other 50s monster pictures.
As for its human cast, the returning Jeff Goldblum as the leading actor brings an air of familiarity; but curiously, he channels Alan Grant more than Ian Malcolm--lacking the
eccentricities that made his character stand out in the first PARK. The performer that resonates more than anyone else is Pete Postlethwaite as big game hunter Roland Tembo. He leaves a deeper impression than Bob Peck's game warden Robert Muldoon did in the first movie. In a picture largely missing a soul, Postlethwaite is this film's heart. As an adventure picture, JPII (1997) works fine; but compared to its predecessor, it feels like a step back in time. JURASSIC PARK III (2001)
Dr. Alan Grant is visited by Paul and Amanda Kirby of Kirby Enterprises offering him full financial backing for his projects if he will act as a guide on an aerial trek to see the prehistoric life on Isla Sorna. Since they won’t be landing he agrees to accompany them. Unfortunately, Grant discovers too late the Kirby’s have lied to him about everything. They’re divorced. There’s no Kirby Enterprises. And they do indeed land the plane on the island of dinosaurs. The Kirby’s son went missing on the island and they wanted Grant’s assistance since he’d been on the island before, only that was Isla Nublar… not the even deadlier Isla Sorna. Shortly after landing, the group is attacked by a Spinosaurus, pterodactyls and, of course, Velociraptors.
JPIII is an astonishingly mediocre sequel. We are once again back on the restricted dinosaur island Isla Sorna, but this time to find a missing boy. Joe Johnston (HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS; JUMANJI) takes the directing reigns and, despite the production problems and shooting the film without a completed script, he manages a few moments of excitement in addition to moments of absurdity. Everything feels rushed or like an afterthought. Since the first movie, Spielberg has showcased resourceful children. JPIII takes it to ridiculous levels in depicting the young kid Eric as some sort of a survivalist who’s been able to avoid death for two months despite being surrounded by carnivores. At only 93 minutes, it’s a brisk rehash of the same dinosaurs and set pieces from the previous two movies. 
The Spinosaurus, one of the largest carnivorous dinosaurs, gets no buildup and makes no impact other than it kills a Tyrannosaur. There are a few scenes where it exudes menace, but with little tension bridging the dinosaur attacks, the Spinosaurus is the weakest main antagonist of the series thus far. Pterodactyls make their debut after getting a cameo in the closing moments of JPII (1997). The sequence is fine, but there was more peril in Raquel Welch being snatched by a Pterodactyl and dangled over a nest of hungry hatchlings in ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. (1966).
Sam Neill (who praised the film in 2022 prior to the release of DOMINION) returns and looks as bored as you’re likely to be after all but one of the supporting cast is wiped out 25 minutes into the movie; and you know nothing will happen to the main cast. A strength of Spielberg's original movie is that the characterizations are strong and the situations immersed in high levels of tension that you believe something could happen to anyone at anytime. JPIII dispenses with all of that by annihilating its supporting cast as if they were wearing red shirts from STAR TREK. 
The most effective sequence is when the cast are surrounded by Velociraptors that want their eggs back. You're left wondering how they'll escape what is certainly instant death. The Raptors had grown stale but are reinvigorated here because the script has them doing things we haven't seen before. Had there been more creative scenes like this, JPIII wouldn't feel like an "asleep at the wheel" sequel. This sequence must've left an impression on Colin Trevorrow. He incorporates scenes with people surrounded by Raptors in each of the next three films. Aside from Sam Neill, Laura Dern returns for a cameo at the beginning; although she figures into the films weak-kneed anti-climax. The
shortest JURASSIC movie is also short on everything else. It moves at
such a fast pace, the filmmakers forgot to give it a proper ending. 
This was the second and last JURASSIC picture I'd see in a theater. It was a full house although the atmosphere in the theater was the opposite of what I experienced the first time. There were no gasps, or shouting, screaming or even clapping. Aside from some groans when the young boy they're looking for demonstrated a RAMBO-level of survival skills, it was quiet across the theater.
Spielberg's original movie is such a benchmark motion picture,
expectations are preset to a certain level that JP3 never reaches. You
could blame production problems, but look at JAWS (1975); the shark
didn't work but the movie did. Here, the dinosaurs work but the movie
they're place in doesn't.
This would be the last film in the series to feature the amazing work of makeup effects artist Stan Winston. He died in 2008. His work on the first three movies was absolutely incredible. Even though there was gradual decline in parts 2 and 3, Winston and his crews' work remained impressive. The succeeding sequels maintained the mix of hydraulically controlled creatures and computer generated ones; although there was a greater emphasis on the latter. After his death, Stan Winston's Studios was renamed Legacy Effects. His crew continued to work on some of the sequels, but in a smaller capacity. 
Shortly after the release of JPIII, it was announced that JURASSIC PARK IV was in the planning stages. The proposed fourth installment was originally about an underwater theme park. I remember thinking it would be a refreshing direction to see water-based beasts like the Plesiosaur, the Elasmosaurus, the Ichthyosaurus, and the Megalodon. It would’ve been intriguing to see a Megalodon had this version been made, and especially with JAWS's Spielberg on board as executive producer. When the fourth film finally arrived, it retained elements of the aquatic dinosaur park. Although this was the fourth film in the series, it was a second trilogy with new characters.JURASSIC WORLD (2015)
An all new prehistoric theme park has been opened on Isla Nublar. Jurassic World is even bigger, expanding on John Hammond’s original Jurassic Park. Zach and Gray Mitchell are sent to Jurassic World for a week of fun and to also spend time with their aunt Claire who works there. But unlike the old PARK, the new WORLD has to find new avenues to keep attendees young and old interested and enthralled. To give the public something they’ve never seen before, the scientists of Jurassic World use gene splicing to create creatures with “more teeth”. The result is the first genetic hybrid, Indominus Rex; designed by Doctor Henry Wu, previously a scientist working under Hammond at the old Jurassic Park. Meanwhile, Navy vet Owen Grady works at the park training Velociraptors. Once the Indominus Rex, which was created using a variety of animal and reptilian DNA, escapes captivity and kills everything it sees, park owner Simon Masrani orders its destruction. Things don’t go as planned, leading to mass chaos and death inside the park at the claws of the ferocious Indominus Rex.
It took a hard reset to get the series back online, and 14 years for another visit to the PARK. By 2015, it became a much bigger WORLD. Special effects had changed even further. Depending on one’s point of view, the advent of computer generated imagery is either an evolving or a devolving in the natural order of storytelling. Since the opening of the first PARK, CGI gradually became a dominating force that far too often took the place of exposition; and for a while there, threatened to make practical effects and animatronics extinct. Thankfully, that didn’t happen; but where special effects were used to enhance a movie, special effects then became the movie.
JURASSIC WORLD is Disney World with teeth and claws. Director Colin Trevorrow’s movie is certainly next-level for the series, successfully replicating and sustaining the tension, the terror that Steven Spielberg brought to the screen way back in 1993. Spielberg is still aboard as executive producer, but otherwise, it’s the same story told by fresh eyes. It feels like a Spielberg movie, too. And while it may be the same story, it takes elements of Spielberg's movie and expands on them; such as the quasi domestication of the Velociraptor that also retains the creature's ferocity. It's treated in such a way that successfully pacifying 65 million years of predatory nature is unpredictable.
And whereas the human cast of JURASSIC PARK were intricately drawn and identifiable, the same applies in JURASSIC WORLD. Chris Pratt as Owen Grady and Bryce Dallas Howard as Claire Dearing make a great, unlikely couple--the opposites that they are. From their light bickering in their initial scenes together, "it must be love" is an easy conclusion to make. Pratt essays one of the most natural, as well as traditional, action heroes to come along in a long time. Owen Grady is the John Wayne of the Jurassic franchise. 
Unlike most movies these days where women are unbeatable killing machines, Claire is a realistic, human interpretation of a woman. She has moments where she's trying to hold her emotions together in a crisis; and others where she shows strength in a dangerous situation while maintaining her natural femininity. The entire cast of characters are a wide array of good and evil; strong and weak; wise and impulsive; and people die whom you're not expecting to.
Just because dinosaurs were real creatures that once roamed the Earth, movies about them can still be referred to as monster pictures. If one film in this series could be classified as a monster picture, it's JURASSIC WORLD. Its primary villain is the Indominus Rex, a new, and righteously indomitable creation--a literal Frankenstein Monster of the 21st century. The beast's rampage rivals if not surpasses the Tyrannosaur assault on San Diego in one of the few bright spots of THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK (1997). 
JURASSIC WORLD is a part 4, but essentially a new trilogy with new leading characters. There’s connective tissue with the previous films such as mentions of the late John Hammond; then there’s BD Wong, who played Doctor Wu, a scientist seen briefly in the first movie, returning here as the same character, but in a larger, more sinister capacity. And we’re back on Isla Nublar, the setting for the original movie. JURASSIC WORLD is the best of the sequels; which makes it the best installment next to the original. The next two sequels bring new elements to the table but the series won't be this good again.JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM (2018)
Owen and Claire are hired by John Hammond’s former partner, Benjamin Lockwood and his advisor Eli Mills to lead an expedition to Isla Nublar to rescue as many dinosaur species as possible—including Blue, the human-trained Velociraptor—before the island is destroyed by a volcanic eruption. The former Jurassic World employees are told Lockwood’s plan is to save the creatures and place them on a new island preserve where they will live without human contact. Owen and Claire learn too late that they’re only being used and the real plan isn’t to save the animals but to sell them on the black market and for military purposes. This includes Dr. Henry Wu’s plan to mix Blue’s DNA with that of the Indominus Rex to create an even more intelligent predator, the Indo-Raptor. 
The series begins to fall apart in this fifth entry—much like the island Isla Nublar does in the movie. Whether intended or not, there’s an anti-human message making its way through the film like the molten lava consuming the island. Near the beginning, Lockwood quotes something he claims Hammond once said, “These creatures don’t need our protection, they need our absence”. It’s odd that such a statement would be attributed to Hammond considering human interaction with dinosaurs was the point of the prehistoric park; and also that none of the Dino-disasters would’ve occurred had he left well enough alone in the first place. 
You could say Hammond's alleged quote was a reference to the new island preserve; but in one of the stupidest endings ever, cages of dinosaurs are opened, letting them loose into civilization so now everyone can experience running, screaming and potentially being devoured or trampled to death. So, our absence is actually our extinction. Spielberg remarked in a 1993 interview that "DNA cloning may be viable, but is it acceptable?" FALLEN KINGDOM answers this by dictating everyone should accept the consequences of a few. Presumably by moralizing such an irresponsible decision, and backing it with a soaring musical cue, it will become more palatable to an audience; that it was the right thing to do. Unlike Ian Malcolm's statement to Hammond in the first movie, in the case of FALLEN KINGDOM, nature didn't select man for extinction, man did.
On the other side of the coin, there’s good things here like the darker tone that returns to the elements of horror in the first movie and amplifies them. The destruction of Isla Nublar is well done and a poignant closer on familiar ground before switching to an isolated, but no less ominous setting halfway through the movie. The impossibly spacious mansion with its cavernous basement and darkened hallways cinematically splices dinosaurs with a gothic horror, haunted house ambiance. This plays in the favor of this film's leading monster, the Indoraptor; a nasty, scarily intelligent creation smaller than a Tyrannosaur but enormous in its fright factor. The monster is no longer in the closet, nor under your bed; it's opening your bedroom door or raising your window to get you. The Velociraptor learned to open doors in the first movie, but it resonates on a greater fright-filled level here.JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION (2022)
Owen and Claire secretly raise Maisie Lockwood, the clone of Charlotte Lockwood, in the Sierra Nevada mountains. They learn that Blue has reproduced asexually. Poachers hired by Biosyn have tracked them down and captured both Maisie and Blue. Doctors Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler and Ian Malcolm come together to investigate a giant species of locusts that is wiping out American crops. They discover a link between the locusts and the Biosyn Corporation, run by Lewis Dodgson (seen briefly in the first JURASSIC PARK), a scientist who started with good intentions, but descended into nefarious ones. Owen, Grant, Claire, Ellie and Malcolm, along with others like the redeemable Dr. Wu, uncover Dodgson’s mistakes as he attempts to erase them. But to expose him to the outside world, they must escape the Biosyn facility and surrounding valley that’s inhabited by innumerable and deadly dinosaurs.
JURASSIC PARK: DOMINION is the current title holder as the most expensive movie ever made. It's also the reigning Clutter Champion of the series--loaded with dinosaurs and every conceivable action movie cliche. If you're going to take a series this far, you have to take it in new directions while maintaining some level of recognition to let viewers know they're still within parameters that they know; a comfort zone, if you will. Even so, DOMINION is the kitchen sink sequel. It veers further from the PARK by taking a detour into a ‘Spies and Dinosaurs’ plot, trotting not just across the US but around the globe. It’s also a western with poachers who are after dinosaurs and Maisie Lockwood, the clone of Benjamin Lockwood’s daughter, and also the most unnecessary character in the series. Tradition dictates there be a child character so we get a human cloning sub-plot that's treated in a non-traditional way. 
Instead of dealing logically with the "dinosaurs are loose" scenario by tranquilizing them and taking them to the prehistoric preserve mentioned in the previous movie, DOMINION expands on the stupid "kill all mankind" ending of FALLEN KINGDOM by depicting a society content with being trampled or eaten by dinosaurs. There's so much going on the rest of the time, this moronic plot point is only visualized a handful of times. The set pieces are unusually elaborate and more outrageous than before as both the JP characters and the JW characters embark on separate missions before they finally meet--ending up together in familiar surroundings—a research facility nestled within a mountainous, jungle setting. When the two trilogies come together, it’s like another movie has started wherein both casts work together to fend off one prehistoric threat after another. 
The entire film is a whirlwind of cliffhangers and craziness wherein a new breed of Raptor, the Atrociraptor, are used as assassins, controlled by laser pointers; and any number of carnivorous creatures are seemingly around every corner. Blue, the blue-colored Raptor Owen trained from a baby, is at the center of the film's plot although she is only seen at the beginning and the ending. Her offspring is kidnapped and Owen and company rescue the little one. It doesn't make the scenario of humans existing alongside dinosaurs any less alarming, but in the movie world, seeing Owen say goodbye to Blue is a satisfying conclusion to end the series. 
There’s several new dinosaurs showcased in DOMINION, such as the Dimetrodon and a few species of Velociraptors. Then there's the Giganotosaurus and a Therizinosaurus--both of which feature in the climactic, titanic tussle with a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The ending is a replica of JURASSIC WORLD’s ending; even down to the human characters running around in circles to avoid being trampled by the battling dinosaurs. Unlike the masterful buildup and characterization of the terrifying Indominus Rex in JURASSIC WORLD (2015), the Giganotosaurus of DOMINION is a visual development. If you're watching the extended version, you see it kill a Tyrannosaur at the beginning. The two meet briefly in the middle, and a few characters mention the creature before the concluding monster melee.
Ian Malcolm's 'Chaos Theory' applies to this big, bloated mess--but a fun mess--that obeys no rules and cares about nothing but spectacle. Had the filmmakers stopped with the sixth entry, DOMINION would’ve been a satisfying series finale (and that's in reference to the extended version that restores approximately 15 minutes of footage). This sixth installment was another billion dollar grosser, so it was only a matter of time before filmmakers would be digging for more dinosaurs.So, as Dr. Ian Malcolm once said... "sequels find a way".
JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH has no connection to any of the previous characters. There's now a third island we never knew anything about; so apparently there's a multitude of tropical isle's so long as this series remains profitable. Judging by the plot, it's a retread of past ideas but adds mutant dinosaurs. It even blatantly clones a kill sequence from ALIEN: ROMULUS (2024). Gareth Edwards of 2014s GODZILLA and ROGUE ONE directs. Depending on how this new sequel turns out, many may find themselves questioning the need for future entries, “Since 1993, filmmakers have been so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should”.
If I were to rank them, the order would be: 1,4,6,2,5,3. No matter how many sequels are made, Spielberg's larger-than-life adventure thriller will always take the top spot. With the over-reliance on CGI these days, it's intriguing to go back to where CG life began, and marvel at how well the film holds up against countless others that came after it that abused the technology. The characterizations, the special effects, the photography, the set-pieces, the musical score... all perfect. Ironically, the ascension of CGI replaced much of what was real about Spielberg's incredible JURASSIC PARK. If we're still around in a hundred years, Spielberg's dinosaur classic will remain a milestone motion picture that started a franchise and, for good or ill, revolutionized special effects for decades after its release.
