Which Jurassic Park Film Is Best?

Which Jurassic Park film is the greatest of them all? The first one. That’s the easy part, but how do the other films in the franchise compare?

I decided it would be fun to look at each Jurassic Park film and break them down analytically in various categories, giving a score out of ten for each. That way, we’ll be able to rank the films based on science!

In case you forgot, the Jurassic Park films are:

• Jurassic Park
• The Lost World: Jurassic Park
• Jurassic Park III
• Jurassic World
• Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
• Jurassic World: Dominion

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Plot

1st	Jurassic Park	9/10
2nd	Jurassic World	8/10
3rd	The Lost World	7/10
4th	Jurassic Park III	6/10
5th	Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom	4/10
6th	Jurassic World: Dominion	3/10

My original plan was to talk about each film in each category, but I realised that would make this blog post far too long. Instead, I’ll briefly touch on why I’ve rated each one the way I did.

The first Jurassic Park is pretty much as perfect as plots come, and I think Jurassic World and The Lost World did a good job justifying their existence. Jurassic Park III was pushing it slightly, but it wasn’t too bad.

The worst offenders were Fallen Kingdom and Dominion (a phrase I’ll say a lot in this list). Both of them felt completely unnecessary, and Dominion especially had one of the worst film plots I’ve ever seen.

Dinosaurs

Action

Tension

Characters

Wouldya look at that, Dominion didn’t finish last for once! Purely because the old cast returned, it has to be said. Spoiler alert, this’ll be the only time that happens in my entire list.

Other than Fallen Kingdom, the rest of the characters in the franchise are fine – but nothing will ever compare to the original.

Jurassic Park’s characters are quite underrated in that regard. They all feel human and believable, and that makes their terror later on all the more terrifying for the audience. Characters like Alan Grant and John Hammond have some fantastic arcs of learning to accept something, and that’s what drives the non-dino scenes.

Final Battle

Fun

Final Scores

All of these score will be out of a possible total of 70, and I’ll even provide the average score just for fun:

1st – Jurassic Park – 64/70 [9.14]

Averaging over 9/10 in each category, it’s clear that the original is still the best. If I’m being brutally honest, no Jurassic Park sequel will ever be half as good.

2nd – The Lost World – 58/70 [8.29]

People like to hate on the immediate sequel, but I see The Lost World as a fun action romp with some improved dinosaurs. It obviously has its flaws, but I can look past it when the whole package is so entertaining.

3rd – Jurassic World – 56/70 [8.00]

A return to form, the Jurassic World reboot was exactly what the franchise needed. The sequels didn’t do it any favours, but the first one is a great foray back into the world of dinosaurs.

4th – Jurassic Park III – 46/70 [6.57]

Jurassic Park III is a pretty underwhelming sequel that fails to recapture the imagination, but it has its moments.

5th – Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – 42/70 [6.00]

Not a travesty, but Fallen Kingdom was far from what I wanted in a Jurassic Park film. Some of the scenes are intense and well-shot, but the plot and characters drag it down.

6th – Jurassic World: Dominion – 29/70 [4.14]

Combining the worst aspects of all the Jurassic Park sequels, Dominion manages to not only be a disappointing conclusion to the Jurassic World trilogy but also a terrible film in its own right. Nothing about it works, and it would have been better if it was never made.

Aaaaand that’s my list! You can check out some of my latest blog posts below: