Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park Review: A scintillating sci-fi sojourn

Brighton Nelson

Jun 19, 2025 — 5 min read

This review 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 complete honesty, this isn't my favorite movie in the franchise. The "objective" best? Absolutely. My favorite? Absolutely not. By the end of this article, you may or may not be able to guess which one is my favorite. So let's talk about why Jurassic Park is one of the best sci-fi movies ever made, discussing its triumphs yet teasing why it's not my favorite of the series in today's Jurassic Park review.

Let's get this out of the way: Jurassic Park has fantastic characters. No movie in the series has ever come close to touching the qualities of the characters in this film. I guess maybe Dominion could've, if it hadn't botched the endings of the characters' stories and turned Alan Grant into a fake James Bond. I'd say Rebirth has come the closest (in my opinion) at recapturing some of the magic of the character roster here, but it's still really not even a competition.

Jurassic Park (1993) - IMDb — This cast is simply iconic, isn't it?

The original Jurassic Park also has the best story of any Jurassic film and has some of the best sci-fi elements we've seen in film history. Obviously, being based on a Michael Crichton book helped elevate this movie's story far more than the rest of the sequels (save The Lost World, which still feels like it hasn't lost the sci-fi wit yet), but the point still stands. The plot twists, the tension, the wonder of seeing dinosaurs for the first time, the introduction into the world... all of it is far better than the other Jurassic films.

Jurassic Park is a sci-fi classic for a reason—it nails the characters, the story, and the sci-fi horror elements in a way that no other film does. While it isn't my personal favorite dinosaur movie, it's the magnum opus of the dinosaur-horror subgenre and a classic that won't be lost to time.

While I'm an adamant defender of Fallen Kingdom and Rebirth and enjoyed many of their plot elements, and think that The Lost World also had a pretty great story, I think the other three films are really lacking in the core story department. Elevating the story and characters is the phenomenal score by John Williams. It enhances every wondrous dinosaur scene and makes every horror scene all the more tense. The soundtrack in this film is one of those that people never forget for a reason.

Welcome To Jurassic Park (From "Jurassic Park" Soundtrack) - YouTube — One of the best movie soundtracks of all time.

Steven Spielberg's filmmaking in Jurassic Park was fantastic, and the CGI here is still some of the best the film world has ever seen. And, just as great, are the practical effects that ground this film in reality much more than any of the post-Park trilogy films. The wide shots of the dinosaurs (like the opening plane scene or the iconic 'My Friend the Brachiosaurus' scene) and how beautiful they are are something that's missing from the majority of the following movies in the franchise. There's an awesome wonder to be had with even the most ferocious of creatures. While Jurassic World: Rebirth returned to respecting the beauty of the creatures, the majority of Jurassic Park movies that followed treated them solely as horror villains, and the original World trilogy (usually) just treated them as CGI boss fights.

The horror and suspense of this film are fantastic. This film has far more setup before things hit the fan than the latter entries in the series, but that's for the better. To break the status quo, you have to establish it. That's why the pacing in this film is incredible. In terms of the horror elements, the raptor scene in the kitchen is my personal favorite in the movie, though the T. rex rampage is obviously iconic as well. The way they're shot, combined with the great effects, makes them believable in a way the original Jurassic World trilogy could only dream of. While I prefer the horror elements in the other two Jurassic Park films and Jurassic World: Rebirth over this film's, that doesn't mean this film doesn't have impeccable horror elements.

The Reel Ranker Verdict

Reel or Unreel? - Reel
The Reel Ranker Score: 76%
Letter Score: A
Star Ranking: 4 out of 5

While I am more of a Star Wars kind of sci-fi guy, this is one of the greatest sci-fi magnum opuses of all time, and from a critical standpoint, this is easily the franchise's least flawed film. It nails the characters, the story, and the sci-fi elements in a way 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 more discreetly and tightly, while also elevating the horrifying stakes to a whole new level.

And my review for that film (and the others of the series) can be found at the links below. I'll add more as I review more of them and as more inevitably come out.