Poll: Voting on and ranking the Jurassic Park/World movies!!

As Lizardmen/Seraphon fans, I thought this would be a fun one...

• pick your TWO favourite Jurassic Park/World films in the poll
• RANK all five Jurassic Park/World films from best to worst

Here is my ranking:
BEST

1. Jurassic Park
2. The Lost World: Jurassic Park
   
3. Jurassic World
4. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
5. Jurassic Park III

WORST

I'll expand on my selections later.

Vote, rank and discuss!!

Afterwards, feel free to open up the discussion to Jurassic World: Dominion thoughts, hopes and expectations!

 

I've only seen the first one, and while it was amazing to see when it first came out I think it is just an ok popcorn movie.

 

I just saw the first one.

Somehow the sequels never really interested me.

 

This is quite surprising. I never thought a forum dedicated to Dinos and Dinos riding Dinos would have so many distinguished members who have not at least seen all the Jurassic Park/World movies. Might have to revoke some Lizardmen/Seraphon credentials


The fact that @Lizards of Renown has only seen the first one is the most surprising of them all. I always figured you to be a die hard Jurassic fan.

 

I am surprise as well.
Although I have seen them all the only ones that I can still remember the most parts from are Jurrasic Park and Jurrasic World followed closely by Jurrasic World: Fallen Kingdom and then the other two in chronological order.

Grrr, Imrahil

 

Basically...

This.

I have a terrible experiential track with sequels. I enjoyed the first one so much, when I saw the trailer for the second I didn't want to chance sullying my experience with the first.

I think the Matrix sequels was the worst of the lot. I enjoyed the first SO MUCH it probably takes top billing as my favourite movie of all time. Then the sequels completely killed it for me. Unbelievable.

The last one holds the distinction of the only movie I have ever seen in the cinema where I loudly swore at the screen and walked out before the movie ended.

 

Honestly I've seen them all and I have no major issues with any of them. The Jurassic World movies with their hybrids are a bit annoying, as I would rather have seen more real dinosaurs, but aside from some incredibly dumb decisions made on the part of certain characters in those movies I still enjoyed them. The first one is still probably the best in my opinion, but I still actually liked the second and third ones too. Of course, I was watching them mostly for the dinosaurs so while I know a lot of people hate 3 I kind of liked it just for the Spinosaurus, lol!

 

Jurassic Park > Monty Python

Besides, Monty Python isn't even close to being the most meme'd movie. There are relatively few meme templates arising from it. Monty Python is a relatively small player in the Meme world. Jurassic Park/World on the other hand, is the preeminent dinosaur movie series.

I agree, I'm always more interested to see more historically realistic dinosaurs (although I recognize that they take liberties even with those).

Indeed!

No matter how bad the movie may be, if it has good dino action in it, I always have a good time watching it.

 

Alright this is gonna be long because I feel very strongly about this.

For reference, I hold a degree in both Biology (Genetics major) and Earth Science (Palaeontology major) and am currently completing honours in Palaeontology. Yes, I based my entire life (and career) off the major scientific themes of Jurassic Park. I have read both books multiple times, seen every movie multiple times, and watch the Original Jurassic Park at least 3x a year.

My ranking is:
1. Jurassic Park
2. The Lost World
3. Jurassic World
4. Jurassic Park III
5. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Jurassic Park is, and always will be, the ultimate and best movie of the series. It's completely true to Crichton's themes of man believing he wields power over nature, the hubris of man, and the raw power of nature itself, in the form of terrifying Dinosaurs. Yes, some of the Dinosaur reconstructions are (now) inaccurate, but they were extremely accurate for their time and still hold very well today. The combination of animatronics and CGI creates living breathing dinosaurs that the World series cannot hope to hold a candle to.
The Dilophosaurus frill is a clever take on the dinosaur. It's probably inaccurate, but fun for the movie. Doesn't bother me too much.
Velociraptor is Deinonychus. When Crichton wrote his book, he did extensive scientific research. One major source was Predatory Dinosaurs of the World: A complete illustrated guide by Gregory Paul: https://www.amazon.com/Predatory-Dinosaurs-World-Complete-Illustrated/dp/0671619462
Paul proposed that Velociraptor and Deinonychus were synonymous, and that they represented a single species: Velociraptor. We now know this is incorrect, but it was the science of the time. Thus, Velociraptor in Jurassic Park is accurate for the Universe's science, and should not be altered or questioned. Velociraptor in Jurassic Park is also the ultimate predator: Tenacious, cunning, agile and brutal. It represents the very fear of reptiles (I know it's not a reptile) that is a core theme of the book. We just don't understand them.
I've said this a million times: Jurassic Park is a movie for Geneticists above Palaeontologists. It is inaccurate, but was accurate for the time, and the continuity of the Universe should be left alone.

The Lost World is fun and entertaining. Seeing the Tyrannosaurus mating pair and the savage raptors (wish they explored the disease from the book more) follow on from what made JP great. I honestly don't hate the San Diego scene that much; yeah, it makes it a monster movie, but it follows on that Dinosaurs and man cannot coexist. Also, best theme. And I really like Roland Tembo, he's such a cool character.

Jurassic World is an interesting take on what the park could have been, and is a fun movie. I have some major issues with it.
The reasoning for creating Indominus rex: 'kids are bored of dinosaurs'. Honestly, no. I still go to the zoo and get excited every time I see a Gorilla. How in the hell would you think people would be sick of dinosaurs. I saw a recent post estimating a 3 day pass at JW would be ~$1050 American, add on travel costs and accomodation and people would maybe go to JW once or twice (middle class). Nah, I don't buy it.
Let's draw on my continuity statements in JP. Dr. Wu states 'we made them to be entertaining, not accurate'. No. Stop. Shut up. This line kills the movie (and JW series) for me. The dinosaurs aren't accurate. The dinosaurs are accurate to the science of 1993 and the Jurassic Park Universe continuity. This completely disregards the first trilogy and its living, breathing dinosaurs. Dr. Grant never comments on inaccuracies, he takes in the wonder of living, breathing dinosaurs. They do move in herds. I absolutely hate this garbage to pander to the scientific community. Jurassic Park was never going to be completely scientifically accurate, it's a movie series. Keep the continuity for the fans, not the ever changing science, as you'll never keep up. Prime example is Spinosaurus in Jurassic Park 3. We now see it as quadrupedal and semi-aquatic, most likely fish-eating. In 2003, he was a bipedal super-predator. As it should remain in the JP universe.
Oh, and I hate so much how they turned the raptors, the scariest thing in Jurassic Park, into pet dogs.

Jurassic Park III is hard to watch. I love that they brought back Alan, but I hate what they did to he and Ellie's relationship. The entire growth arc of Alan accepting children and being with Ellie in JP is thrown out the F---ing window for some 'ooooh, you didn't see that coming'. I hate this so much.
All the cringey one-liners 'no, sounds bigger'. Ugh, its so hard to watch. I wished they explored Alan's PTSD more than just the 'Alan!' raptor scene, could have been a very interesting story.
And again, for 'shock value', let's let this new dinosaur kill off the icon of Jurassic Park so we can push Jack Horner's 'T-rex is a scavenger' agenda. Read Kane et al.(2016): adult T-rex couldn't scavenge enough to offset energy to move its weight. https://research-repository.st-andr...erpodDinosaurs_FinalPubVersion.pdf?sequence=1

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is just painful. Why do we keep needing hybrids! Dinosaurs are already awesome on their own.
Why the hell would Hammond build his mutli-million dollar one-of-a-kind park on an island with a f--ing VOLCANO on it. What was the inevitability? This just completely ruins the continuity of the original series, again.
Blue jumping through the glass after smelling gas like a scene from Mission Impossible? Give me a break.
T-rex only shows up to 'kill' the big bad suit who I don't even remember the name of. Again, ruining continuity by giving Hammond a partner and a cloned child; its a dinosaur movie, come on. FK is just a transformers movie with dinosaurs instead of robots.

I'm interested to see where Dominion goes with the series and man interacting with Dinosaurs, but the recent statement of 'Indiana Jones mixed with James Bond + dinosaurs' does not keep me hopeful. Jurassic Park has its own style, use it to your advantage. We don't need a summer action flick, we want suspense and terror that the first movie brought!

/rant

This is about 30% of how I really feel about the JP universe, because I didn't want this to be a giant post (and I'm procrastinating my thesis at the minute). Please feel free to message me if you want to discuss more.

 

Great review @Geedo-Ra ! I agree with your breakdown of the hybrid dinosaurs. That seems to be an inclusion that many people do not enjoy.

YES! One of the very best in the entire series!

 

Brother, is that you!?

I'll admit I took a turn from Genetics and Paleontology in high school, and turned towards ChemEng and MatSci (journey didn't end there either...) I still get grief from my sister for being that 7 year old at the museum correcting the tour guides and placks were wrong or out of date (enthusiasm based ocd delivered by the voice of a child).

I will admit that while I don't like Fallen Kingdom, I hold it up slightly higher than JPIII since it has a slightly better story structure even if I don't like the direction of the narative.

My list shakes out like this:

1. Jurassic Park
2. The Lost World: Jurassic Park
   
3. Jurassic World
4. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
5. Jurassic Park III

I am hoping to be pleasantly surprised by Dominion, but we will see. I miss being terrified by Velociraptors. I mean legitimately terrified to the point that the concept of them existing would wake me in the night. Wild animals are absolutely capable invoking that fear in audiences. We don't need kaiju to replace dinosaurs in the next movie.

 

Bro I feel you.... I used to give 'special presentations' in 2nd and 3rd grade where I'd read dinosaurs from the Dinosaur Encyclopaedia to the class. I could spell 'Palaeontologist' when none of my teachers could. My partner and I took her nieces to the Museum and I spent the whole time complaining how Melbourne Museum has next to no Australian Dinosaurs on display!

Seems we all follow a similar path...

 

#1 - Jurassic Park: No surprises here. If I hadn't set up the poll to allow for two votes, Jurassic Park would have likely picked up each and every last vote. Jurassic Park feels like the most grounded and realistic (in the context of a Dinosaur movie ) of the entire series. The story is the strongest of the bunch as it takes us on an adventure of bringing Dinosaurs back into the world and the chaos that ensues. Most importantly, the first Jurassic Park has the greatest cast of characters. Ian Malcolm, Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler, John Hammond, Newman Dennis Nedry, etc. They're all classics that are rarely even approximated by the later characters of the series.

#2 - The Lost World: Jurassic Park: While it has its ups and downs, I think it is a worthy sequel. The sequences on the island are by far my favourite, capped off by the two adult Rexes! Who doesn't like the trailer scene with the parent Rexes? While the first story revolves around losing control, this movie feels more like they (the characters) never had control at all. The movie also gives us the character of Roldan Tembo, who is one of the only sequel characters that can hold a candle to the main cast of the first film. That said, The Lost World does have one of the most ridiculous scenes in the franchise where Kelly does here little gymnastics move (how come up with an idea like that, and who okays it). Once they return to the mainland, the movie isn't as intriguing, but it is still decent.

#3 - Jurassic World: Visually a very beautiful movie. It is nice to see the dream of dinosaur park fully realized (until things go wrong of course). Chris Pratt is good in the movie and I actually like the dynamic between Owen and Claire. The kids are pretty annoying throughout and I find it difficult to root for them. As mentioned earlier by others, I'm also not a particular fan of the hybrid dinosaurs. It is much more interesting to see "real" dinosaurs brought back to life as opposed to genetically modified super dinosaurs which begin to feel more like movie monsters as opposed to living beings that once walked the earth. I did enjoy seeing the Ankylosaurus briefly in action, I've always loved that dinosaur. Unfortunately, the final climactic scene doesn't make much sense (and I'm not even talking about the high-heels race with the T-Rex... which also doesn't make much sense).

#4 - Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom: Doubling down on the whole Dinosaurs as military weapons is pretty nonsensical. Who came up with the idea of that targeting gun to prime the Indoraptor?!? How does that make any sense? Why research, develop, grow, train, transport, feed, contain and sneak a big dinosaur into place and then have to train a targeting gun on the target, as opposed to just shooting the target with a regular gun? Most of the new characters are pretty forgettable but at least the little girl, the "granddaughter", is probably the least annoying kid of the series.

#5 - Jurassic Park III: By far the worst in my opinion. The Spinosaurus is pretty cool (who doesn't love a Troglodon), but it seems entirely overpowered. Once the T-Rex has its Jaws wrapped around its throat, it would have been all over (that always bugged me). Additonally, the Spinosaurus special effects don't look as good as the T-Rex effects from the first two movies, and it lacks the same magnitude and screen presence. In terms of characters, the only decent character is the return of Alan, but he just can't carry the entire movie singlehandedly. The Kirby couple is aggravating and the kid seems a wee bit too skilled in the early stages of the film. The raptors are not nearly as impactful as in the other movies and the climax of the movie seems anti-climactic to me. It almost feels like the movie ends prematurely.

 

Not sure if you've seen this deleted scene which starts at 3:09