From worst to best dino adventure

Jurassic World 3: A New Era has been in cinemas for a few weeks and marks the end of the second era of Jurassic adventures in cinemas. So we decided to take a look back at dinosaur feeding and rank all Jurassic Park movies from worst to best.

Short films also count when ranking Jurassic Park and World films

The selection includes the two cinema trilogies that were launched in 1993 with the adaptation of a novel by Michael Crichton, but also short films. In some cases, they put their expensive feature film counterparts in the shade. The result is our ranking of 8 Jurassic Movies.

In the discussion of the order we considered different criteria, including the staging of the dinosaurs and their action scenes, the originality within the series and the general entertainment value.

Here we go!

Best Jurassic Movies – 8th place: Jurassic World: A New Age

Jurassic World 3: A New Age got terrible reviews and rightly so. That Finale of the sequel series starring Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard throws umpteen dinosaurs in front of the camera, but kills them at the latest in the editing. Adding to the disappointing staging is the bloated plot centered around biosyn, locusts and clone girls ruining the fun of simple dino thrills. The meeting of the Jurassic generations is the low point of the series. (YY)

Best Jurassic Movies – 7th place: Battle at Big Rock

The short film Battle at Big Rock was intended to shorten the wait for the grand Jurassic World finale and keep the memory of the franchise alive. To achieve that, Colin Trevorrow directed one nine-minute moment of tension, which turns a family’s camping trip into a hell of a trip thanks to Dino Encounters. Much more than a finger exercise, however, did not come out of it. Battle at Big Rock seems like a sequence that didn’t find a place in one of the big movies because it was too interchangeable in direct comparison with the cool set pieces. (MH)

Best Jurassic Movies – 6th place: Jurassic World

The great revival of the franchise: Jurassic World uses nostalgia heavily to rekindle the allure of the Dinopark. A bold blockbuster looks different. Still, it’s fascinating how preoccupied the film is with its own existence on a meta level. The park’s reopening, which is even bigger, translates beautifully to Jurassic World as a blockbuster cinema and brand refreshment. In both cases, the question arises as to which attraction we buy the ticket for and how much we are really interested in it. (MH)

Best Jurassic Movies – 5th place: Jurassic Park III

The first film without Steven Spielberg in the director’s chair feels less like a big summer blockbuster and more like a B-movie. That’s praise. Joe Johnston’s 2001 Jurassic Park III lacks the wow moments of its predecessors, instead offering lean dino action with variety. Whether it’s a ringtone gag or a raptor nightmare, pterosaurs in the fog or a T-rex-Spinosaurus fight: there’s a lot to remember in the 90-minute film with Sam Neill, William H. Macy and Téa Leoni. (YY)

Best Jurassic Movies – 4th place: Jurassic World: A New Age – Prologue

The most amazing thing that emerged from the Jurassic World era is the prologue, which was released ahead of the theatrical release of the third part. He is not part of the finished film. For this he fulfills a little fantasy and shows us the dinosaurs in their lifetime as if we were watching the Jurassic Park version of The Tree of Life. The pictures speak for themselves. And then the prologue turns into a wonderful declaration of love to the cinema (including Spielberg tribute): Jumping to the present, we see a hungry T-rex trampling through a drive-in theater. A little boy stares wide-eyed at the movie monster, which is illuminated by the projector – on the screen and in reality. (MH)

Best Jurassic Movies – 3rd place: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

The second part of the sequel series, released in 2018 a pretty bad reputation, and there is a lot to be said for him: he brings two elements into the series that have not existed to this extent before and that does not mean the clone girl. The volcanic eruption in the first half fuels unfamiliar disaster action, while the second half functions as a suspenseful slasher film. The Indoraptor also returns a bit of danger potential to the raptors after the introduction of the all-too-tame Blue. (YY)

Best Jurassic Movies – 2nd place: Lost World: Jurassic Park

If the first Jurassic Park film was a blockbuster staged with masterful precision, Steven Spielberg lets off steam in the sequel to his heart’s content in the world of dinosaurs. Starting with the nasty opening sequence to the relentless dinosaur hunt to the outright Escalation in San Diego, when the T-rex first sets foot on the mainland: Lost World: Jurassic Park takes no prisoners. Spielberg extracts maximum fun and excitement from every sequence. Especially when the windows crack and the dinosaurs come closer like the abyss. (MH)

Best Jurassic Movies – #1: Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park took blockbuster cinema to a whole new level in terms of effects, which prompted an entire generation to study paleontology. The dinosaurs show up sparingly, and when they do, it’s with emotional weight. Horror and admiration alternate as T-rex, brachiosaurs and raptors roam the park. That would only be half as effective if it weren’t for them people in the movie: They have an excellent cast, clearly defined characters and are surprisingly entertaining. That’s true of the core trio of Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, as well as supporting characters like Wayne Knight and Samuel L. Jackson. Best example: The wonderfully slimy Martin Ferrero, whose lawyer is hiding in the outhouse. (YY)

Spielberg’s masterpiece is almost 30 years old and Jurassic Park still doesn’t seem a bit outdated, even if some CGI effects can’t hide the year they were created on closer inspection. But this is exactly where the strength of the film comes to the fore: Spielberg never relies on just one thing, but creates breathtaking scenes from the interplay of many different things. It’s not just the CGI dino, who overwhelms. It is a combination of astonished looks, animatronic models, atmospheric use of light, trembling water glasses and and and… Jurassic Park is a film that exploits all the possibilities of cinema and completely trusts in the resulting magic. (MH)

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What is your Jurassic Park ranking?