All Six Jurassic Park Films... RANKED!

The Jurassic Park series is a divisive series at best and a hated-on series at worst. A vast majority of people say the original is the best and that all the others are bad or mediocre—but I simply don't agree. This series has two fantastic films, a couple solid films, and a couple... less-than-good films. Now, without further ado, The Reel Ranker presents... All Six Jurassic Park Films RANKED!

6. Jurassic World - D Tier

Director: Colin Trevorrow
Release Date: 2015
Emphasized Genre: Action

The Reel Ranker Score: 40%
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 71%
Metacritic Score: 59

Often cited as the second best of the Jurassic movies, I couldn't disagree more. While it may be inoffensive compared to the other films, I love the risk the other movies were willing to take. By the contrary, this movie attempts to be the Disney World to Disneyland—it may be bigger, but it's not better or more original. After the events of Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park, some idiotic businessmen had the audacity to make yet another amusement park to show off dinosaurs yet again (don't we take history class so history doesn't repeat itself... you'd think this would be taught in schools, wouldn't it?). However, corporate greed leads to the manufacturing of a dinosaur bigger and scarier than any ever-before-seen! It is up to action stars Christ Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard (who star as themselves, like many blockbuster stars) to stop the rampage of this genetically-modified dinosaur before it wrecks the whole park and kills everybody.

Outside of the big budget and iconic branding, this movie doesn't feel like much more than another quipping, summer blockbuster without any of the wacky innovation and stupidity I enjoy from this bizarre series. While it doesn't have any big issues like any of the other sequels, it also doesn't have the interesting ideas of those flawed sequels. I'm not saying the other films are masterpieces, but they were certainly more interesting than that film. This movie is also simply too much of an action blockbuster without the deep sci-fi and horror ties I love about the series. Instead of the dinosaurs feeling terrifying, they feel more like epic boss fights—something I'd rather see in a MCU film or a kaiju movie. Ultimately, while I like that we got an insane corporate-greed-centric, action blockbuster popcorn flick out of this franchise, I found that it was the least inspired of the six Jurassic films. I realize I may be one of the only people on planet Earth to prefer the subsequent Jurassic World films to this one but, you know what? Whatever. Different strokes for different folks, I say.

5. Jurassic World: Dominion - C Tier

Director: Colin Trevorrow
Release Date: 2022
Emphasized Genre: Thriller

The Reel Ranker Score: 44%
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 29%
Metacritic Score: 38

I genuinely believe that this movie had the potential to be the best movie in this whole franchise if it were executed correctly, but that simply was not the case. So much missed potential here! Bringing together the main cast of both Jurassic Park and Jurassic World was an absolute delight, and easily the biggest strength of the film. This movie starts strong, with the seclusion of the Jurassic World characters and their avoidance of the rampaging dinosaurs. However, the movie takes a turn for the questionable when it introduces Biosyn and their corporate agenda to unleash locusts onto U.S. crops to take out other companies. Now, don't get me wrong, I love this idea for another movie, or even a movie in this series that wasn't billed as an epic finale to an already crumbling trilogy. However, this is simply not the smartest idea for a plot after having a monumental plot twist in the previous movie—it feels like a sidequest. The difficult thing is Maisie's inclusion as, with her, eradicating the dinosaurs is not a narrative option. This movie seemed to back itself in a corner and forget about the intriguing ramifications set up in the previous movie. If this movie was billed as "Jurassic Park Dominion: Part 1," I would've found it a whole lot better. The locust plot was a good way to bring the two casts together and make for a very interesting setup for a slam-dunk finale, but that's obviously not what happened here.

This movie was instead attempting to close out a trilogy instead of what it should have done: push the series forward to an epic finale. This is a film I can see myself loving or finding a cult classic in the future if they use it as a launchpad for a three-to-four hour Lord of the Ring's-style, grandeur-filled, globe-spanning epic! But, as-is, it just had so much missed potential. If the next film takes a retconning route and makes said epic, I'd be happy. Albeit, I'd rather see a 24-style political drama involving the judicial ramifications of this dinosaur rampage, with Owen as a proxy-Jack Bauer—and maybe the fifth film deal with dinosaur eradication! That is, after Maisie and the world governments see that dinosaurs can't co-exist with humans, as much as they'd love to try. Ultimately, I'm mixed on this film—as a trilogy finale, if couldn't have failed more, but if it were the middle of an epic quintilogy? This could likely place above the next few films.

Nevertheless, I'm an optimistic dreamer, and I know the later will never be the case. If you weren't aware, they decided to reboot the franchise with none of the original actors, starring Scarlet Johansson with the executive producer being none other than Spielberg himself. As sad as it is that I'll never get the epic quintilogy I wanted, a reboot that takes it back to its roots with the man who started it all? I ain't complaining. But, since that is the case, it looks like Dominion won't be moving up my ranking in hindsight after all.

4. The Lost World: Jurassic Park - C Tier

Director: Stephen Spielberg
Release Date: 1997
Emphasized Genre: Horror

The Reel Ranker Score: 49%
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 53%
Metacritic Score: 49

Following Dr. Ian Malcolm after the events of the original film, this sequel takes things in a crazy new direction. Ian reluctantly goes back into the world of the dinosaurs as the film's main protagonist, going to the second InGen island, Isla Sorna, to try to get the company out of bankruptcy. My favorite part of this movie is its powerful dark tones and music that make it feel more real and dangerous than any of the other films. This movie is all about the horror aspects of it all, as opposed to the last two movies on this list, which felt like action and thriller movies, respectively. The first act of the film sets up for a bombastic second act, and then the second act takes the movie in an entirely new direction. In an attempt to secure a deal, a T-Rex is tranquilized and taken off-island to be part of a new Jurassic Park in San Diego. The dinosaur then runs rampant and all hell breaks loose before the movie quickly wraps things up with a nice, pretty bow. This movie functions well as a neat horror flick in the Jurassic series, and it shows the terror dinosaurs can cause on the world much better than Dominion ever did. In the end, this movie draws nice parallels to the second Indiana Jones movie very well: it's darker and often more interesting but, in most ways, it has a difficult time standing up to its predecessor. I stand by the fact this is an averagely good and overhated movie, but that doesn't mean it deserves a higher spot on this list.

3. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom - B Tier

Director: J.A. Bayona
Release Date: 2018
Emphasized Genre: Action

The Reel Ranker Score: 53%
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 46%
Metacritic Score: 42

I'll admit, I've always been a much bigger fan of this movie than most. This movie feels like a completely natural evolution from its predecessor—in my opinion, having such a faithful sequel has only happened once in this series, and that was with this movie. This movie challenges morality and the issue of dinosaurs in the most interesting ways of the series, and it recreates the first destruction of the dinosaurs on Earth in a satisfying and intriguing way. I found the dinosaur relocation and mansion sequences to be some of the best moments in the franchise! Maisie's character, while stupid and irrational, brought an interesting side to the plot that made sense to the story being told. As a little kid who loved animals and dinosaurs? I'd likely have made the same stupid choice given the circumstances. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie for what it was—an action film with interesting setpieces and moral consequences of stupid, childish decisions. If Dominion hadn't tarnished what I enjoyed about this movie and it got some more time in the editing room, I could see it taking the top spot on this list. Now, don't send the T-Rex after me for saying that but, honestly, I found this to be an above-average action movie. While it was certainly missing some elements to be a genuinely great film, for what it was trying to be, I felt it succeeded more than the last three movies on this ranking.

2. Jurassic Park - S Tier

Director: Stephen Spielberg
Release Date: 1993
Emphasized Genre: Sci-Fi

The Reel Ranker Score: 74%
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%
Metacritic Score: 68

This is where I'm about to be crucified by Jurassic lovers and left to be eaten alive little by little by a group of The Lost World's tiny menaces, the Compsognathus. But, in full honesty, this isn't my favorite movie in the franchise. The "objective" best? Absolutely. My favorite? Absolutely not. The original Jurassic Park has the best characters, the best emotional atmosphere, the best sci-fi elements, and all of that superficial and nostalgic jazz-and-a-half. But, to be brutally honest, you'll catch me watching Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back or Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith if I want a wonder-filled, sci-fi-esque adventure over this movie. Whether or not you deem that an inherent character flaw of mine or not, that's ultimately for you to decide. But I digress. Regardless, I understand why this is billed as a masterpiece, I mean, rightfully so. It is one of the greatest sci-fi magnus opuses of all time, and from a critical standpoint, this is easily the franchise's least flawed film. It nails the characters and sci-fi elements in a way that none of the others do! However, there is one film in the series that I believe does a better job of depicting the horror of dinosaurs in a more discreet and tighter way, as well as elevate the stakes to a whole new horrific level. There's one more film that, to me, depicts a more grand adventure, as well as is the most fun and rewatchable of them all in my eyes (even if it isn't objectively "great", as one might say). And that film, you guessed it, is Jurassic Park III.

1. Jurassic Park III - S Tier

Director: Joe Johnston
Release Date: 2001
Emphasized Genre: Adventure

The Reel Ranker Score: 75%
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 49%
Metacritic Score: 42

I'm not going to pretend like this is an objectively great movie—as my favorite movie critic (and huge inspiration for this website) Sean Chandler would say, Jurassic Park III is a Taco Bell movie. You know it isn't good for you and you know it isn't fine dining, but it's convenient and good in an unconventional way. This movie is essentially a B-movie horror flick at its finest—plus dinosaurs. I've literally watched this film over three times as often as each of the other films on this list. Yes, I've kept a tally. Yes, I know it is unhealthy. Yes, I know most would call me stupid. Yes, I know that I blasphemy in the name of dinosaur lovers around the world. And, yes, I do in fact know (so help me God) that I'll be passing gas on my date following this Taco Bell movie visit. But I will metaphorically dab on the haters in a not-so-2016 way and declare that this linear and fun horror movie is brilliant in its own special way. I would never say that the claims of this movie being the least consequential and most derivative in the series are baseless. But I do firmly believe that there are so many reasons that this movie is the movie I gravitate to more than the others! This movie is the definition of fun, crazy, dino action, with some surprisingly heartfelt moments as a cherry on top. I get why people label this as a silly, dino B-movie that can't live up to its contemporaries, but it will always be my favorite movie in the series (if anybody reading this knows Joe Johnston personally, DM this article to him, he deserves more recognition... moving on). To me, this is a top five go-to movie to put on in the background while I play video games, work on homework, or grind out articles for this website (and my other site, RPG Ranked). In contrast, the other films in this series are movies I hardly have the urge to rewatch, as good as they may be. And, for that? This movie more than deserves to top my list as my favorite Jurassic movie of all time.

The Verdict:

The Reel Ranking:

6: Jurassic World - 40%
5: Jurassic World: Dominion - 44%
4: The Lost World: Jurassic Park - 49%
3: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom - 53%
2: Jurassic Park - 74%
1: Jurassic Park III - 75%

Common Critic Consensus:

6: Jurassic World: Dominion - 34%
5: Jurassic Park III - 46%
4: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom - 49%
3: The Lost World: Jurassic Park - 51%
2: Jurassic World - 65%
1: Jurassic Park - 80%

Common Audience Consensus:

6: Jurassic Park III - 49%
5: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom - 52%
4: The Lost World: Jurassic Park - 61%
3: Jurassic World: Dominion - 63%
2: Jurassic World - 73%
1: Jurassic Park - 89%

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