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Twenty-nine years ago, when " Jurassic Park " was released, computer-generated and digitally composited effects were still relatively new, but director Steven Spielberg's team raised them to a new level of credibility by deploying them sparingly, often in nighttime and rainy scenes, and mixing them with old-fashioned practical FX work (mainly puppets and large-scale models). The result conjured primal wonder and terror in the minds of viewers. The T-Rex attack in particular was so brilliantly constructed that it put this writer sideways in his seat, one arm raised in front of his face as if to defend against a dinosaur attack. When there was a break in the mayhem, Spielberg cut to a very quiet scene, letting everyone hear how many people in the audience had been screaming in fright, which of course led to raucous laughter and a release of tension (a showman's trick). A small girl sitting near this writer regarded his still-terror-contorted body and asked, "Mister, are you all right?"

There's nothing in "Jurassic World: Dominion" that comes close to that first "Jurassic Park" T-Rex attack, or any other scene in it. Or for that matter, any of the scenes in the Spielberg-directed sequel "The Lost World," which made the best of an inevitable cash-grab scenario by treating the film as an excuse to stage a series of dazzling large-scale action sequences, and giving Jeff Goldblum's chaos theorist Dr. Ian Malcolm the action hero job. Goldblum, who reprises his role in "Dominion" alongside fellow original cast members Sam Neill and Laura Dern , turned his "Lost World" performance into a wry-yet-cranky meta-commentary on corporate capitalism.

For that matter, there's nothing in this new film as good as the best parts of "Jurassic Park III," " Jurassic World ," and "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.” The latter had the most surprising pivots since the original, conjuring Spielbergian magic (think of that shot of the brachiosaur left behind on the dock) and mixing gothic horror and haunted house-movie elements into its second half. "Jurassic Park" creator Michael Crichton's original inspiration, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein , was referenced through the character of Maisie Lockwood ( Isabella Sermon ), a clone created by John Hammond's business partner to replace the daughter that he lost. 

Maisie is one of many major characters featured in "Dominion," and her tragic predicament has disturbing new details added to it. But returning franchise director/co-writer Colin Trevorrow (writer/director of "Jurassic World") and his collaborators are unable to focus on their deeper implications long enough to develop Maisie with the sophistication required for a great or even good science fiction/horror film. 

The mishandling of Maisie is but one bit of scrap in this dumpster of a sequel. The film opens with Claire Dearing ( Bryce Dallas Howard ), onetime park operations manager of Jurassic World turned head of the activist Dinosaur Protection Group, breaking into a ranch where baby plant-eaters are being kept and impulsively deciding to rescue one of them. Then she goes to a cabin in the snowy Sierra Nevada mountains, where Maisie is living with the park's former raptor-whisperer Owen Grady ( Chris Pratt ). The three form a makeshift nuclear family focused on protecting Maisie against parties who want to exploit her for genetic and financial gain. The semi-domesticated raptor Blue lives with them as well, and has asexually produced a child (mirroring Maisie's relationship to her mother's genetic material—though so haphazardly that it's as if the filmmakers barely even thought of the two creatures as being thematically linked). 

There's also a corporate spy plot (as in most of the other films) involving a thoughtless and/or sinister corporation that talks of magic-and-wonder but is mainly interested in exploiting the dinos and the technology that created them. From "The Lost World" onward, the successors to park founder John Hammond ( Richard Attenborough )—a nice old man who meant well but failed to think through the  implications of his actions—have been actively treacherous Bad Guy types. The heavy in this one is Dr. Lewis Dodgson, a character from the original film who’s been recast and promoted to CEO of BioSyn ('bio sin,' get it?). Dodgson hired another recurring "Jurassic" character, B.D. Wong's Dr. Wu (arguably the true villain of most of these films, though in an oblivious, John Hammond sort of way) to breed prehistoric locusts that are genetically coded to devour every food crop, save for engineered plants sold exclusively by the company. 

Dodgson is the mastermind behind the kidnapping of Maisie and Blue's child. Actor Campbell Scott uses inventive body language and unpredictable phrasings and pauses to invest the under-written Dodgson with a distinct personality. He turns him into a sendup of two generations of Baby Boomer and Generation X tech-bro capitalist gurus. Dodgson is a man who carries himself like a peace-loving hippie but is really a voracious yuppie who keeps black marketeers and hired killers on retainer. The warm-voiced but dead-eyed way that Dodgson conveys "caring" is especially chilling—like a zombie Steve Jobs . It's the film's second most imaginative performance after that of Goldblum, who never moves or speaks quite as you expect him to, and blurts out things that sound improvised. (Chastising colleagues who are moving too slowly for his taste, he snaps, "Why are you skulking?")

All narrative roads converge at BioSyn headquarters, where Neill and Dern's Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler have gone to ask Ian Malcolm's help in obtaining top-secret information that can end the prehistoric locust plague, and where Maisie and Blue's baby have been brought so that their genetic secrets can be mined as well. Two new characters—Han Solo-ish mercenary pilot Kayla Watts ( DeWanda Wise ) who says she doesn't want to get involved in the heroes' problems and then does, and Dodgson's disillusioned acolyte Ramsay Cole ( Mamoudou Athie )—join the intrigue, and presumably are being introduced as new-generation figureheads who can take over the franchise. Even if the entire film had focused on BioSyn headquarters, the film still might have seemed overstuffed and under-imagined. But Trevorrow turns the movie into a global travelogue, every sequence feeling narratively cut-off from the others in the manner of a substandard spy flick. (There's even a rooftop chase modeled on one in " The Bourne Supremacy ," but with a raptor.)

A long sequence in Malta, where Claire and Owen have gone to rescue Maisie from kidnappers, encapsulates the film's failures. There are a lot of promising notions in it, including a dinosaur-focused black market (like something out of a " Star Wars " or Indiana Jones film) where criminals go to buy, sell, and eat forbidden and endangered species. But it's undone by a lazy undercurrent of comic-book Orientalism and a seeming inability to even see, much less capitalize on, potentially rich material. Michael Giacchino's score pours on sinister Arabic-African "exotic" cliches, as if setting up an R-rated prison thriller in which Owen does a " Midnight Express " stint in a Turkish prison for hashish possession. 

An action scene that throws Owen and the lead kidnapper into a fighting pit where onlookers wager on dinosaur fights is as indifferently composed and poorly edited as nearly every other action scene in the film—and it becomes depressing once you think about what Spielberg, or his favorite second-unit director Joe Johnston ("Jurassic Park III"), might have done with it. It could've been a tiny masterpiece of action, slapstick, and social commentary, with the pit audience initially reacting with outrage when their regularly scheduled dino-fights are disrupted, then gleefully shifting gears by betting on the two humans who are going at each other, making fresh odds and handing off fistfuls of cash while baying for blood. Trevorrow looks at this setup and sees nothing but a hero fighting a henchman in a pit. 

There's no scene in the film that's entirely worthless. There's no question that at this point, the "Jurassic" factory knows how to design and animate prehistoric creatures and integrate them with live-action scenes of actors running, screaming, shooting, setting fires, and the like. And yet the totality feels indifferently assembled, and the stalkings and chases and dino-battles are for the most part bereft of the life-and-death tension that every other franchise entry has managed to summon. And the plotting is abysmal, relying too heavily on coincidence and flukes of timing, retro-engineering personal connections between new and pre-existing characters, and handing the heroes major victories as casually as a hotel desk clerk giving a guest a room key, instead of letting them earn them through ingenuity.  

Trevorrow even manages to recycle, not once but three times, one of the only clever gags in his "Jurassic World"—a comment on the 40-year budgetary and spectacle escalation of the summer blockbuster, in which a great white shark, the creature at the center of Spielberg's groundbreaking 1975 film " Jaws ," gets eaten by a mosasaurus the size of a skyscraper. Every time Trevorrow does something like this, it feels like an even-more-desperate attempt to remind us of how much fun we might've had during "Jurassic World," which wasn't that great of a film to start with, and that was dining out on reheated cultural leftovers even during its best moments. 

There are also scenes where characters (mainly but not always Malcolm) tie the capitalist rapaciousness of BioSyn to the film you're sitting there watching. But these don't have the wit and playfulness that powered similar material in "The Lost World." They just seem curdled with self-loathing and awareness of how hollow the whole production is. At one point Malcolm chastises himself for taking the company's money to work as their in-house philosopher/guru even though he knows they're cynical corporate exploiters, and there's a self-lacerating edge to Goldblum's voice that makes it seem as if it's the actor rather than the character who's confessing to low personal standards. And there are times where Sam Neill, like Goldblum, seems embarrassed to be onscreen, or at least confused as to what he's doing in the story—although to be fair, the script never convincingly justifies why Allan, a reluctant action hero in his other two "Jurassic" appearances, would leave the dinosaur dig site where Ellie finds him, other than that he's from the earlier movies and needed to be here for nostalgia-marketing reasons.

Worst of all, the series again fails to properly explore its most tantalizing question: how would our world change if dinosaurs were added to it? The opening section packs any halfway intriguing or funny thing that "Dominion" might have to say about this topic into a TV news montage—showing, for instance, a little girl being chased on a beach by baby dinos (an homage to "The Lost World"), a couple releasing doves at their wedding only to have one of them get snatched out of the air by a pterodactyl, and pteranodons nesting in the World Trade Center (possibly a reference to Larry Cohen's " Q: The Winged Serpent ," in which an ancient Aztec god nests in the Chrysler Building). Ninety minutes of footage like this, minus any characters or plot at all, probably would've resulted in an artistically better use of a couple hundred million dollars than "Jurassic World: Dominion," which will doubtless be a smash on the order of all the other entries in the franchise, even though it doesn't do much more than the bare minimum you'd expect for one of these films, and not all that well.

Now playing in theaters.

Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor at Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

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Film credits.

Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action, some violence and language.

147 minutes

Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant

Laura Dern as Dr. Ellie Sattler

Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Ian Malcolm

Chris Pratt as Owen Grady

Bryce Dallas Howard as Claire Dearing

Mamoudou Athie as Ramsay Cole

Scott Haze as Rainn Delacourt

Dichen Lachman as Soyona Santos

Daniella Pineda as Zia Rodriguez

Isabella Sermon as Maisie Lockwood

Justice Smith as Franklin Webb

Omar Sy as Barry Sembène

DeWanda Wise as Kayla Watts

Campbell Scott as Lewis Dodgson

B.D. Wong as Dr. Henry Wu

Joel Elferink as Jeffrey

Jake Johnson as Lowery Cruthers

Kristoffer Polaha as Wyatt Huntley

Elva Trill as Charlotte Lockwood

• Colin Trevorrow

Writer (based on characters created by)

• Michael Crichton

Writer (story by)

• Derek Connolly
• Emily Carmichael

Cinematographer

• John Schwartzman
• Mark Sanger
• Michael Giacchino

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‘Jurassic World Dominion’ Review: Extinction Rebellion

Things get very hectic in the last episode of this trilogy, which brings back familiar faces (Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern, Sam Neill) along with the usual dinosaurs.

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By A.O. Scott

“Jurassic World Dominion” starts with a nod to “The Deadliest Catch”: A marine reptile snacks on king crabs in the Bering Sea before turning its jaws on a trawler and its crew. Yikes! Then a mock newscast swiftly brings us up-to-date on the global catastrophe that began to unfold almost 30 years ago in the first “Jurassic Park” movie. In case you need a refresher, how it started was with Richard Attenborough rhapsodizing about the wonders of life; how it’s going is that the big lizards are everywhere, generally bringing out the worst in people.

It would be nice if those reanimated monsters inspired better movies. The “Jurassic” brand, born in Michael Crichton’s 1990 novel , promises bone-rattling action and sublime reptilian special effects infused with pop pseudoscience and bioethical chin-scratching. The second trilogy, which started in 2015, hasn’t quite lived up to that promise. “Dominion,” directed by Colin Trevorrow, might be a little better than its two predecessors ( “Jurassic World” and “Fallen Kingdom” ), but in ways that underline the hectic incoherence of the whole enterprise.

However: Jeff Goldblum is back, as the “chaotician” Dr. Ian Malcolm, more seductively lizardy than the dinosaurs themselves. Ian is reunited with his “Jurassic Park” frenemies Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern). Ellie has been married and divorced and made a name for herself in the field of genetic something or other. Alan is still carrying a torch for her. Yes, he’s in love with her, but what I mean to say is that he literally carries a torch, to light their way through an old amber mine deep in the Dolomites.

That rocky bit of Italy is where the fiercest, biggest ancient predators now live, in a preserve built and supervised by Lewis Dodgson, an evil tech/pharma billionaire played by Campbell Scott. He seems nice enough at first — his company, Biosyn, claims to be protecting the dinosaurs out of the goodness of its corporate heart, and also curing disease, feeding the world and so on — but nobody except a naïve scientist is likely to be fooled. There are too many tells. Lewis’s silver hair is combed flat against his scalp, and he wears collarless shirts and soft jackets in rarefied neutral tones like ecru, pewter and mother-of-walrus. His very speech patterns suggest libertarianism run amok.

As it happens, Lewis has bioengineered a plague of giant locusts, with the help of Dr. Henry Wu (BD Wong), another revenant from the earlier “Jurassic Park” movies. Biosyn has also kidnapped Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon), the cloned avatar of a famous scientist.

To make a very long story as short as I can: For the past few years, Maisie has been in the care of Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), who have been with the franchise since “Jurassic World” and who have less and less to do. Well, that’s not quite fair. It’s just that everybody else is more interesting, both the old-timers and the newcomers. Mamoudou Athie and DeWanda Wise are both better than they need to be in cookie-cutter parts. She’s Kayla Watts, a tough, cynical cargo pilot, and he’s Ramsay Cole, a smooth techie minion. They both end up pretty much where you expect they will. Kayla is someone you might hope to see in her own movie.

Pratt and Howard, bless them, are the designated action figures, who do a lot of the running and jumping and fast driving. There is a complicated chase through the narrow streets of a picturesque Mediterranean seaport, which is only tangentially related to dinosaurs but which might remind you, not unpleasantly, of a Jason Bourne movie. Other chases happen in mud, rain, snow and gloom of night, and also along the sleek, curving corridors of a high-tech research facility.

This is a very crowded movie — so many species of dinosaur, and I’m so bad at keeping track of them that my 8-year-old self is no longer speaking to me. They are variously menacing, ravenous, bizarre and kind of cute, but the frenzied live-action and digital special effects rarely produce moments of Spielbergian awe.

Within the world of “Dominion,” the dinosaurs are no big deal. The message seems to be that human beings need to learn to live with them, accepting the occasional pet-mauling or boat-devouring as the price of coexistence. Is this utopian or dystopian? A vision of ecological harmony or of genetically engineered apocalypse? A metaphor for Covid or just a sign of imaginative exhaustion?

Jurassic World Dominion Rated PG-13. Lizard-brain stuff. Running time: 2 hours 26 minutes. In theaters.

A.O. Scott is a co-chief film critic. He joined The Times in 2000 and has written for the Book Review and The New York Times Magazine. He is also the author of “Better Living Through Criticism.” More about A.O. Scott

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Review: Dino delight 'Jurassic World Dominion' is the best since the first 'Jurassic Park'

After so many “Jurassic Park” and “Jurassic World” movies spent trying to keep dinosaurs isolated in poorly executed high-tech sanctuaries, it’s nice to see a thunder lizard drop by a drive-in movie theater for a bite.

Director Colin Trevorrow’s “Jurassic World Dominion” (★★★ out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters now) is a globe-trotting action adventure that awesomely imagines a world having to come to grips with rampaging dinos big and small living among humans – at least until the movie shifts its focus to yet another sanctuary full of cloned creatures, another shady tech company and another climactic primal showdown.

Although overly familiar, “Dominion” boasts everything you’d ever want in a “Jurassic” film and is the best in the series since the original 1993 movie. (That said, apart from Steven Spielberg's wondrous opener , this is not exactly a high bar.) The plot brings together the original “Park” heroes – a joy to meet again – and the newer “World” crew to essentially wrap up the current trilogy and the franchise so far.

'It's truly remarkable': 'Jurassic World' dads Chris Pratt, Jeff Goldblum on witnessing childbirth

All those warnings in the first “Jurassic Park” about playing with science come to fruition at the beginning of “Dominion,” which deftly uses an internet video to show how life on Earth has been affected by an influx of dinosaurs.

The new film picks up four years after the beasts escaped the destruction of Isla Nublar (see: 2018’s “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" ), and returning characters Owen Grady ( Chris Pratt ) and Claire Dearing ( Bryce Dallas Howard ) are now a couple living in the Sierra Nevada as adoptive parents to Maisie (Isabella Sermon), the clone girl who released the dinos into the wild in the previous film. Much to her tween angst, the adults keep her hidden away from people who’d want to capture her for scientific purposes, but she gets kidnapped anyway alongside Beta, the spawn of Owen’s Velociraptor pal Blue.

Meanwhile, evolved dino-locusts are doing a number on crops in the Midwest. Fearing a worldwide famine on the horizon, paleobotanist Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) reaches out to old paleontologist friend – and fellow OG Jurassic Park survivor – Alan Grant (Sam Neill) for help. During their investigation, they get an invite to the remote Italian mountain headquarters of Biosyn Genetics, where dinos from all over the world are taken. Mathematician Ian Malcolm ( Jeff Goldblum ) is the in-house philosopher, and he gives Ellie and Alan the lowdown on the corporation and the morally and ethically questionable practices of its CEO (Campbell Scott).

'Appropriate at the time': Laura Dern, Sam Neill reflect on 'Jurassic Park' romance's age gap

It takes a while, but the parallel story lines in Trevorrow and Emily Carmichael’s screenplay do come together for a “Jurassic” super team-up that’s pretty nifty to see, especially the long-awaited reunion between Dern and Neill’s characters. The coolest new character joining the bunch is Kayla Watts (DeWanda Wise), a cargo pilot – and fun, swagger-filled twist on the Indiana Jones/Han Solo archetype – who helps Owen and Claire on their rescue mission. If the next trilogy ends up being “Jurassic Space,” let’s hope she’s at the wheel.

If you come to the “Jurassic” movies for the dinos (and let’s face it, that’s a lot of folks), there are plenty of species to be had – 27, in fact. The T. rex is back, naturally, although it gets a large new foe on the block with the debuting Giganotosaurus. Atrociraptors are used as precision killing machines in a spectacular motorcycle chase scene set in Malta – think something out of “Mission: Impossible,” but replacing Tom Cruise with speedy reptiles – and a winged Quetzalcoatlus does a number on Kayla’s plane. The creature effects are all top notch, especially the eerie mega-locust swarms.

Other than a T. rex getting loose in San Diego for a little while in the second “Jurassic Park,” the franchise hasn’t really leaned into dinos wrecking stuff in the real world – and mankind being thrown by having to share the Earth – so those moments early on in “Dominion” feel inventive. Yet the science veers pretty wonky and, while still mostly exciting, the film tends back toward the romping-and-stomping template we’ve seen previously.

In that vein, the new “Jurassic World” is more “Return of the Jedi” than “Empire Strikes Back,” giving fans a comfort-food finale that plays a few fresh numbers, but mainly sticks to the hits.

Jurassic World Dominion Review

Something old, something new, and the dino, blue..

Jurassic World Dominion hits theaters on June 10, 2022.

Nostalgia has become such a common device that it could basically be media currency at this point, but there are some movies where it just works. Jurassic World Dominion is one such flick, combining this generation’s heroes with those of the ‘90s with a surprising amount of success. Now, Dominion is far from a perfect movie. But how low of a rating can you really give to a film that had you grinning from ear to ear from start to finish?

Let’s get the weaker points out of the way before we dive into all the reasons this movie kind of rules. Michael Giacchino’s score isn’t anything to write home about. Anything that makes your ears perk up here is going to be thanks to homages to/riffs on John Williams’ original work. There are some odd character beats — particularly with Owen and Claire — where it kinda seems like neither Chris Pratt nor Bryce Dallas Howard wanted to be on set that day. And the character of Maise (that’s Fallen Kingdom’s cloned child), while admirably performed by Isabella Sermon, mostly just plays as a lack of faith in the audience to find empathy without a human counterpart to the dinosaurs.

Jurassic World Dominion Gallery

While none of these are insignificant flaws, Jurassic World Dominion still manages to play with dino DNA in a way that keeps you excited and marks some notable improvements from previous entries. Most notably is the character of Claire Dearing. She’s given breakneck character changes between Jurassic World and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, none of which are earned in any way that’s meaningful. In Dominion, we get several moments that retroactively acknowledge the woman she was when she allowed Isla Nublar to fall and the woman she wants to be now that she sees the dinosaurs as actual living beings.

Those living beings, by and large, look pretty great too! Dominion does seem to lean heavier on VFX than past entries, and there are a couple rough-looking atrociraptors. These new raptors are meant to play as more form than function, though. Their existence in the story is solely as quick-moving foils to Owen, Claire, and Kayla (DeWanda Wise), so any distractions that may be presented by dicier-looking dinos is limited to a few seconds-long glimpses. Action-wise, everything else is thrilling raptor chases, dino-on-dino fighting, and the return of fan-favorites like Blue, Rexy, and the dilophosaurus. And don’t worry, those atrociraptors are the only dinosaurs who look a little funky!

What's the best Jurassic Park movie?

Jurassic World Dominion may be leaning heavily into nostalgia, but every single one of its newcomers is an impressive introduction to the franchise. Mamoudou Athie rules as new addition Ramsay Cole, and I couldn’t be more here for DeWanda Wise’s cargo pilot Kayla Watts. Each one of them is invaluable to the story, with Kayla showing up Owen’s machismo with ease and Ramsay showing — well, we actually can’t tell you that because it’s kind of a spoiler, but rest assured that he’s imperative to the storyline and is fun to boot.

And Blue’s baby, Beta? Listen. Was this baby dino created solely with the intention of selling toys? Probably. Is she an exciting and incredibly cute new addition to the Jurassic Park Dino Pantheon™? Yes. You can put her plush right next to your Baby Yoda and Baby Groot toys. Beta and the atrociraptors aren’t the only new prehistoric players, either. We see realistic versions of several of the dinosaurs (updated from what we knew about the era at the time that the original Jurassic Park was made) and a surprising new bio-threat is introduced that ends up ultimately competing with the dinosaurs for the biggest current threat to humanity’s survival as a species.

All of this takes us to what had most fans hyped for Jurassic World Dominion to begin with — the return of the big three. Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum all make their homecoming as doctors Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler and Ian Malcolm, respectively, and said return is as delightful as one would expect after missing them together on-screen for nearly 30 years. More importantly, though, is the fact that their presence in the World franchise isn’t shoehorned. Writers Emily Carmichael, Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly didn’t think up some hamhocked reason for Claire and Owen to go to any of the three for help. Instead, their paths cross in a very organic matter that easily justifies everyone’s presence in the story. No one’s trading their character goals for anyone else’s, and they all play a part in saving our world while doing our best to keep the dinosaurs humanity has brought back as safe as they can.

Jurassic World Dominion doesn’t tie any bows on the fact that dinosaurs are now an ever-present challenge in our world, nor does it believe in its audiences’ intelligence enough to explore that complicated of a story. Honestly, Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous does a better job with such themes with its long-form narrative. That’s a warranted frustration with the continuation of the franchise, but Dominion still has enough going on to keep it both exciting and fun for audiences. The film’s successful marriage of hardcore nostalgia and new challenges works in its favor, and I can’t wait to see what the franchise does next.

While Jurassic World Dominion is most certainly an imperfect addition to the Jurassic Park franchise — particularly with the rough presentation of some newer dinosaurs and its lack of faith in audience intelligence — it manages to introduce an impressive marriage between ever-present nostalgia and the constantly evolving challenges of having prehistoric creatures roaming free in our world. Characters new and old keep the film flying high, even if some of the Claire and Owen stuff makes the plane’s engine sputter now and again.

More Reviews by Amelia Emberwing

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The Jurassic World Trilogy Has Painted Itself Into a Corner

Watching Jurassic World: Dominion , you might find yourself starting to feel just a little sorry for the people who made Jurassic World: Dominion . At the end of the previous film ( Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom — these titles start to blend together after a while), dinosaurs had finally been unleashed on the mainland and begun to exist alongside humans. That made for a promising cliffhanger, not to mention some stirring closing images, but it also effectively put the series in a bind. Now that dinosaurs are just, like, out there … what happens next? Why should we care about dinosaurs showing up somewhere since dinosaurs are effectively everywhere? How can the suspense escalate in interesting ways when these prehistoric creatures have become mere background noise?

Sadly, Jurassic World: Dominion appears to have found the answer in not making a dinosaur movie at all. The new film is, at times, a kidnapping thriller, a cloning drama, a Jason Bourne–style action flick, an Indiana Jones derivation, and a disaster movie, among others. It impatiently leaps from subgenre to subgenre with such frantic desperation that it feels like the movie is running from its own lack of imagination. Once upon a time, Steven Spielberg could spend enormous amounts of screen time patiently (and nastily) tightening the screws on a suspense set piece. Jurassic World: Dominion can’t be bothered to spend much time on anything, perhaps because if the movie ever pauses to take a breath, the audience might realize they’re being had. Because if the filmmakers aren’t all that impressed by dinosaurs, then what chance do the rest of us have?

To be fair, there are dinosaurs in Dominion , and there are enough bits of dino business to keep the kids awake, but the film itself clearly finds these creatures mostly unremarkable and uninteresting; one climactic three-way dino fight seems to last for about three minutes. Instead, the movie spends its time on … locusts? Dominion ’s central menace is a mysterious plague of giant locusts that is destroying crops and terrorizing farmers, seemingly unleashed on humanity by a powerful and mysterious biotech firm. Of course, all the Jurassic films like to dwell on the dangers of unchecked science and amoral profiteering (that’s how we got the dinosaurs in the first place), but we don’t go to these movies to see cautionary tales about deluded scientists, we go to see dinosaurs. The scientists are just an excuse to have the dinosaurs — not vice versa.

There are many other things Jurassic World: Dominion assumes. It assumes that we are genuinely interested in the relationship between raptor-trainer and dino-wrangler Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and park manager turned activist Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard). It assumes that we buy Pratt as a wisecracking, can-do tough guy (as opposed to the slightly hapless and overconfident goofball he plays in the Marvel movies, where he fares better). It assumes that we are fully invested in the fate of Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon), a young girl who was revealed to have been a clone near the end of Fallen Kingdom (long story) and who is now being sought by Dr. Lewis Dodgson (Campbell Scott), a soft-spoken but sinister, Steve Jobs–style tech guru who runs the aforementioned biotech company, called Biosyn.

The previous Jurassic World movies did generate tankerloads of money, so perhaps such assumptions were fair ones to make. Owen and Claire are, after all, the heroes of this trilogy. And yet one never really hears about them out here in the real world, the way we once heard about Han Solo and Princess Leia and Indiana Jones and the way we still hear about assorted superheroes, or James Bond and Jason Bourne. (Have you ever seen an Owen Grady lunch box? I sure haven’t.) That is likely because — and I hope you’re sitting down for this — the Jurassic World movies are not about characters; they are about dinosaurs . The original Jurassic Park trilogy (mostly) understood this; the films offered solid character work, but once the time came, the monster-movie spectacle took over.

Dominion also seems to have overestimated the nostalgia factor in bringing back the stars of the first film, Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum, treating their relationships like some sacred canon. So, when doctors Ellie Sattler (Dern) and Alan Grant (Neill) are reunited, we learn about her failed marriage, which means there is hope again for them as a couple. Ellie and Alan have been invited to the campuslike headquarters of Biosyn by Dr. Ian Malcolm (Goldblum), who has become some sort of in-house philosopher and skeptic for the firm. While it’s certainly nice to see Dern, Neill, and Goldblum play these people again, it’d be nicer if the script gave them well-written dialogue or placed them in interesting situations. A symptom of our current nostalgia-at-all-costs pop-cultural landscape is that all too often filmmakers think it’s enough to just bring back familiar faces. I love Sam Neill, but I’m not sure I needed to see that “raising his head in twinkly-eyed bewilderment” move of his 85 more times.

Anyway, there are foot chases and motorcycle chases, and a plane crash, and a big fire (there’s often a big fire). It’s frantic yet lifeless, chaotic yet pro forma. A thorough lack of care emanates from the screen. At one point, a standoff involving two somewhat major characters is, as far as I can tell, completely abandoned halfway through; these people are never mentioned again. The film cuts so rapidly and so haphazardly among its various plot strands that the filmmakers appear to have lost their own threads.

At times, one can see what director Colin Trevorrow and his collaborators were attempting. Trying to be all things to all people, and to find their way in a universe where dinosaurs roam (and rampage) freely, they decided to mix dinosaurs into these familiar subgenres instead of finding a new story to tell. But the solution reveals the depths of the problem. Because the awe we’re supposed to feel upon seeing these dinosaurs — the entire reason for the movies’ existence — winds up taking a back seat to a cacophony of half-hearted plot points and story lines and twists and throwaway bits. During one chase, a dinosaur does the famous stunt from The Bourne Ultimatum in which Jason Bourne jumped from the window of one building into the window of another. In that earlier picture, the moment took our breath away, because we could see that it was a real stunt, done by real people, and it was something we recognized as being nearly impossible to accomplish. In Dominion , it’s an offhand, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it gag, but it’s symptomatic of the movie’s broader issues. Because when the “stunt” is being performed by a CGI dinosaur … well, let’s just say a certain “wow” factor is removed. Which is a bizarre thing to say, because these movies are supposed to be nothing but wow factors. The only wow factor in Jurassic World: Dominion is the awesome depth of its failure.

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Review: Overlong franchise finale ‘Jurassic World Dominion’ falls short of veloci-rapture

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“This isn’t about us.” The words arrive late — much too late — into “Jurassic World Dominion,” an underimagined, overlong goodbye to this phase, at least, of a blockbuster franchise that’s overdue for extinction. The speaker is making an obvious point (it’s about the dinosaurs, stupid), but also, in context, a pretty disingenuous one.

Once upon a Michael Crichton-loving epoch — exactly 29 summers ago, when Steven Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park” conquered the box office — these giant prehistoric reptiles effortlessly stirred our collective awe, terror and wonderment. But those days now feel as distant as the Late Cretaceous epoch, and this sixth series installment, ostensibly another Mother Nature cautionary tale, feels awfully human-centric and human-driven. For better and for worse, it is about us.

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The Times is committed to reviewing theatrical film releases during the COVID-19 pandemic . Because moviegoing carries risks during this time, we remind readers to follow health and safety guidelines as outlined by the CDC and local health officials .

What this means, practically speaking, is that you’ll spend much of the movie’s 147-minute running time watching seven or eight co-protagonists running around another mad scientist’s dinosaur farm, where bioethical boundaries are once again crossed and security measures are once again doomed to fail.

Chris Pratt is back as that genial raptor whisperer Owen Grady, as is Bryce Dallas Howard as his dino rights-defending better half, Claire. The more exciting news, if you can call it news, is that Laura Dern, Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum are reunited for the first time since 1993’s “Jurassic Park” — a fan-service coup that almost compensates for the dim reality of how little they’ve been given to do.

From a narrative standpoint, the most important figure here is Owen and Claire’s adopted daughter, Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon), the 13-year-old product of a human cloning experiment whose precious genetic code may hold the key to human survival. And survival is key, now that the dinosaurs have broken past their various man-made barriers and migrated all over the planet.

After the relentless claustrophobia of the previous film, 2018’s “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” there’s a certain relief in seeing these creatures free to roam the planet they once ruled; witness the majestic sight of a friendly, wrinkly apatosaurus experiencing what appears to be its first taste of snow.

That striking image aside, it’s a grave new world indeed. Fishing boats are capsized by creatures from the deep. Winged pteranodons attack from above without warning, and it’s a pter-rible sight indeed.

A deep-pocketed biotech firm called Biosyn has stepped up to provide the dinosaurs with a high-tech mountain sanctuary, and just in case you thought that might be a good thing, the company is run by an eccentric megalomaniac (a perfectly hissable Campbell Scott) whose name, Lewis Dodgson, will jog every “Jurassic Park” fan’s memory. And if all that weren’t enough, a plague of genetically modified giant locusts has descended on farms and fields, threatening to wipe out most of the world’s food supply.

Maybe it’s my entomophobia talking, but in a movie about dinosaurs, it’s funny that it takes a swarm of oversize insects to induce even the mildest case of the shivers. Still, for a while, “Jurassic World Dominion” holds your attention, and it does so less insultingly than 2015’s franchise reboot “Jurassic World,” a vapid, hugely profitable foray into blockbuster filmmaking for its director, Colin Trevorrow.

After contributing to the script for 2018’s mildly superior “Fallen Kingdom,” Trevorrow is back at the helm for “Dominion” and clearly determined to engineer his own nostalgia-tickling clone of a grandly old-fashioned Spielberg entertainment.

That’s a tall order, but Trevorrow and his co-writer, Emily Carmichael, do an initially serviceable job of keeping the story’s many unwieldy parts in diverting motion. Much of the first half plays like a globe-trotting espionage thriller, as Owen and Claire get swept up in a kidnapping, a raptor-napping, car chases through the streets of Malta and a brief glimpse inside the ever-growing dinosaur black market, which is sadly not called “Dinos ‘R’ Us.”

The genre template is obvious, but for a “Jurassic” arc, it’s almost novel. It also generates the movie’s one remotely thrilling sequence, involving Owen, a couple of friendly-as-they-sound Atrociraptors and a rusty beater of a plane piloted by the whip-smart Kayla Watts (a very welcome DeWanda Wise).

Meanwhile, the movie busies itself getting the original “Jurassic Park” gang back together, staging a tentative romance between scientists Dr. Ellie Sattler (Dern) and Dr. Alan Grant (Neill) under the least romantic possible circumstances (genetically modified giant locusts!), and then shipping them off to Biosyn’s remote facilities for some undercover snooping.

There’s fleeting pleasure in these scenes, especially once John Williams’ original theme kicks in and that merry theoretician of chaos, Dr. Ian Malcolm (Goldblum), shows up, wisecracks at the ready. But this is also where tedium sets in, long before the finish, as all the good guys — which is most of the cast, including Mamoudou Athie as a conflicted Biosyn employee — wind up on a long and repetitive collision course, in which scene after scene plays out with zero wit, tension or surprise.

OK, that’s not entirely true. It is surprising, or at least dispiriting, to see an actor as nimble as Omar Sy ( “Lupin” ) wasted in a few forgettable action scenes. Sadder still is the reduction of a once-proud antagonist, Dr. Henry Wu (BD Wong), to a series of self-flagellating “Oh, God. Sorry I unleashed a plague of genetically modified giant locusts” monologues.

For all that, and despite Dodgson’s unambiguous villainy, “Jurassic World Dominion” plays at times like a feature-length biotech promo, anchored by the sight of young Maisie contemplating her own miracle-baby origins and a lot of earnest encomiums about the power of genetic engineering to save us all.

It’s about us, in other words, notwithstanding the movie’s imbecilic “Circle of Life”-style hymn to the wonders of interspecies coexistence. And because it’s about us — well, us and the genetically modified giant locusts — the dinosaurs themselves fade even further into insignificance.

It’s astonishing how little tension or even momentary menace Trevorrow is able to mine from individual action sequences, how tame even T. rex now seems in its late-franchise dotage. The mix of practical and computer-generated effects used to bring these behemoths to life has evolved by leaps and bounds, but their ability to stir and scare us — much less provoke even a moment’s thought — is a thing of the ancient past.

'Jurassic World Dominion'

Rating: PG-13, for intense sequences of action, some violence and language Running time: 2 hours, 27 minutes Playing: Starts June 10 in general release

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Justin Chang was a film critic for the Los Angeles Times from 2016 to 2024. He is the author of the book “FilmCraft: Editing” and serves as chair of the National Society of Film Critics and secretary of the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn.

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Jurassic World Dominion review – time to drop the dead dino

A dead-eyed Chris Pratt presides over this convoluted mess of Bond-style villains and toothless action that even the original cast can’t save from extinction

H ere is the kind of sequelised franchise-clone movie to make you feel as if you’re lining up at the cinema like one of Nurse Ratched’s patients, while a dead-eyed attendant pops IP-content capsules out of an enormous blister pack. Genre and formula films can be great, but this flavourless slice of digitainment – the third in the Jurassic World series and the sixth in the Jurassic franchise overall – is overwhelmingly mediocre and pointless, contrived and lifelessly convoluted to the point of gibberish.

The first in the World series , back in 2015, admittedly put a little zap back in, but now this exercise in dead-dino flogging is dire. And the very worst thing of all is Chris Pratt. It’s painful to remember how funny he used to be in TV’s Parks and Recreation, as well as Guardians of the Galaxy. Now he’s the boring action lead, forever doing smoulderingly hunky looks directed past the camera. You’ve heard of Blue Steel. This is Brown Steel. Or Beige Steel.

The previous film, Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom , left us with the idea that humans will just have to coexist with dinosaurs out there in the wild, dangerous but manageable, like bears or spiders. This new movie begins a few years after the destruction of the “Isla Nublar” compound for dinosaurs. Nowadays, beefy velociraptor handler Owen (Pratt) lives a remote, almost hermit existence as a kind of dino-cowboy, with his wife, Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), and their adopted daughter Maisie (Isabella Sermon), the cloned child of Sir Benjamin Lockwood’s daughter. Sir Benjamin, played by James Cromwell, is the supposed former business partner of Jurassic Park OG John Hammond, once played by Richard Attenborough. Maisie has still got her posh English accent.

So much for the Jurassic World lineup. Meanwhile, “legacy characters” from the Park series (1993-2001) have to be crowbarred into the action, too. Dr Alan Grant, genially played by Sam Neill, is to cross paths once again with Dr Ellie Sattler, played by Laura Dern. All these people are to be drawn into the orbit of a new, arbitrarily created corporate baddie, a firm called BioSyn, which is covertly developing dino-clone tech to create dinosaurs as weapons and a new super-locust which will destroy crops planted by independent farmers who refuse to buy BioSyn seed. It is run in a massive Bond-villain city-state retreat in the Italian Dolomites by creepy plutocrat Lewis Dodgson, played by Campbell Scott. He whimsically employs Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) as a kind of contrarian in-house lecturer/motivator for his staff and also the clone genius Dr Henry Wu (BD Wong). But Malcolm and Wu are no sellouts, and will themselves finally join the righteous resistance to all this.

There are some flickers of fun, largely from the geezer generation: Dern and Neill have a nice chemistry and Goldblum is dependably droll. But Pratt and Howard look as if they have just been introduced at some LA party and have nothing in common. Their closeups, while they do their unconvincing acting expressions at each other, seem to create a green-screen aura of phoniness all around their heads. There are some action set-pieces, created for their own sake and with no convincing relationship with the supposed non-plot; these include a chase between a car and a dinosaur, which reminded me of Charlie Kaufman’s car-versus-horse idea from Adaptation.

This could have been fun, but there is something so arbitrary and CGI-bound and jeopardy-free about it, as the film joylessly chops in bits of Alien, The Swarm, Bourne and 007. And the essential thrill of the first Jurassic Park movie, from Michael Crichton’s novel, is completely gone: that vital sense of something hubristic and transgressive and wrong in reviving dinosaurs in the first place. It’s time for everyone involved to do some original thinking.

This article was amended on 13 June 2022 to give the character of Dr Ellie Sattler her honorific as a doctor of palaeobotany.

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All Jurassic Park and World Movies Ranked by Tomatometer

Jurassic Park celebrates its 30th anniversary: Buy tickets for its 3D theatrical re-release this weekend !

Jurassic Park was a next-gen leap in the evolution of the Hollywood blockbuster, combining the high concept of man versus dinosaur with CGI, practical effects, and Steven Spielberg’s unmatched yet still growing directing prowess. Throw in some fleshed-out characters and a clever script dipped in the amber of moral and ethical quandary, and no wonder Jurassic Park became the highest-grossing film ever upon release in 1993.

Spielberg returned for sequel The Lost World: Jurassic Park , and Sam Neill’s chracter Dr. Alan Grant came back for 2001’s Jurassic Park III . The franchise lay dormant until 2015’s Jurassic World , and its sequel Fallen Kingdom , which go all-in on theme park spectacle. World stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard join OG JP crew Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum for the finale, Dominion .

Now see all Jurassic Park and World movies ranked by Tomatometer! — Alex Vo

Jurassic Park (1993) 92%

Jurassic World (2015) 71%

The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) 53%

Jurassic Park III (2001) 49%

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) 47%

Jurassic World Dominion (2022) 29%

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'Jurassic Park' Review: Steven Spielberg's Summer Blockbuster Is So Much More Than Its Sequels

In Collider’s look back at beloved films, a first-time watcher reviews the ultimate summer blockbuster, Steven Spielberg's 'Jurassic Park.'

When Steven Spielberg 's Jurassic Park came out in 1993, it was considered ahead of its time. 30 years later, it's not hard to see why this colossal summer blockbuster has become so entrenched in pop culture and cinematic history. As someone who took their dinosaur-loving kid to the movies and struggled not to sleep through all of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Jurassic World: Dominion , I figured perhaps dinosaurs were just not my thing. It turns out, I was wrong, and I should have listened to my gut: never judge a franchise based on its unnecessary sequels.

Based on the novel of the same name by Michael Crichton , Jurassic Park follows three experts, paleontologists Alan Grant ( Sam Neill ) and Ellie Sattler ( Laura Dern ) and mathematician Ian Malcolm ( Jeff Goldblum ), who have been chosen to tour and sign off on a theme park in Central America populated with genetically re-created dinosaurs. Jurassic Park is another timeless cautionary tale of man interfering with nature, or in other words, another clueless man plays god and is shocked when it doesn't work out how he envisioned it. The result? Dinosaurs fuck shit up, and it couldn't be more fun to watch.

Jurassic Park's Visuals Stand the Test of Time

It has been 3 decades since its release, and it is still not hard to see why Jurassic Park was such a visually groundbreaking film. The film employs a masterful blend of CGI and practical effects in order to create its iconic dinos, but what is most impressive is that the film actually only utilizes a shockingly sparse 6 minutes of CGI work in its entirety. In fact, most of the film's most iconic shots, such as the injured Triceratops, rely entirely on practical effects. In total, Jurassic Park utilizes CGI for no more than 63 shots. Compare this to Jurassic World: Dominion – an utter snoozefest of a finale to the Jurassic World franchise – which used around 900, and Jurassic World , which used around 2,000. The Jurassic World franchise is a perfect example of an overabundance of wealth. There is a majesty in Spielberg's dinosaurs in Jurassic Park that hasn't been matched since in the sequels, and a large part of that is due to the delicate balance between practical and digital effects.

RELATED: How to Watch 'Jurassic Park' and 'Jurassic World' Movies in Order (Chronologically or by Release Date)

One of the best examples of this is the iconic T-Rex, which was created with a blend of both highly detailed animatronics and the occasional CGI. The Rex is still iconic in Jurassic Park 's many sequels, but there is something indescribably special about seeing the Rex stomp onto the screen for the first time after escaping its paddock. The scene is rife with the perfect amount of spine-tingling tension, and it's not hard to see how this particular scene sparked a defining moment in cinematic history. The quietness of the scene increases the nail-biting build-up to the T- Rex's debut and makes sure the visuals remain the star of the show, from the shot of the water rippling in the glass to the horror of realization on the characters' faces. It's absolute perfection even before the T-Rex graces the screen.

In fact, Jurassic Park is 127 minutes long, and yet, there are only about 15 minutes where dinosaurs are actually onscreen. This is one of most impressive feats of the original as opposed to the sequels (again – an abundance of wealth, or in this case, dinosaurs, is not always a good thing). Jurassic Park makes every single second of those 15 minutes count, so much so that I was convinced the internet had to be wrong about their screen time. Those 15 minutes feel much longer because Spielberg's dinosaurs are just that imposing and impactful.

The Dinosaurs Are the Stars, but the Cast Is a Perfect Complement

The dinosaurs may be the stars of the show, but the cast, particularly the three leads and scream queen Lex Murphy ( Ariana Richards ), perfectly complement the prehistoric giants. There isn't anything particularly special about the characters themselves, but that's okay. At the end of the day, you're watching Jurassic Park for the thrill of the dinosaurs. The characters themselves are fleshed out enough that they serve as a refreshing complement to the dinosaurs, each serving a different role in the narrative. Dr. Ian Malcolm is the voice of reason who advises against the "rape of the natural world." (Also, Goldblum has a major "cover of a romance novel" moment that is 100% necessary). Dr. Grant and Dr. Sattler serve as reminders that there is an intimate beauty in these prehistoric creatures, one that comes across vividly in Laura Dern and Alan Grant's performances, particularly when they see the dinosaurs for the first time. And then, of course, there's Lex, who is your reminder that dinosaurs are scary as hell, and they will eat you, so you better start running for your life.

Let's Not Forget That Iconic Final Shot

In the film's climax, our team of experts are desperately trying to outrun some hungry raptors when they are rescued by none other than the T-Rex himself. The film's iconic theme song begins to soar as the Rex snatches the raptor up in its mouth as Dr. Grant, Dr. Sattler, and the kids watch in stunned disbelief before scrambling away. They dash outside where Hammond and Dr. Malcolm pull up just in time, and Alan says, "Mr. Hammond, after careful consideration, I've decided not to endorse your park!" Inside the lobby, the T-Rex lets out a ferocious roar as the lobby banner ("When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth!") flutters to the ground. It is, in every way, a perfect ending, from the cheesiness of Alan's line to Hammond to the epic symbolism and visual feast of T-Rex's final moment in the spotlight.

Jurassic Park is a masterpiece with visuals that stand the test of time, an impressive feat during a time where almost anything can be shown on screen with the right technology. With its sweeping score and intricate, unparalleled practical effects that brought dinosaurs to life, Jurassic Park is more than just a summer blockbuster – it's a cultural milestone in its own right.

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'Jurassic World Dominion' Review: Messy Franchise Finale Is Streaming Now

The last Jurassic Park movie is all over the place, and you can check it out on Peacock.

Bryce Dallas Howard gets some of the best scenes in Jurassic World Dominion.

I was in a toy store the other day, and I saw a toy for tiny tots: a cutesy dinosaur with a Jurassic Park sticker on it. It struck me that the kids the toy is aimed at probably weren't born when the last Jurassic World film was released, let alone when Steven Spielberg's original '90s classic came out. And that sums up Jurassic World Dominion -- a familiar logo slapped on a toy that makes no sense at all.

Released in theaters in June, Jurassic World Dominion is streaming on Peacock now, having been released Sept. 2 with extra footage. It's the sixth and final film in the franchise (for now) and unites the stars of the original movies -- Laura Dern, Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum -- with the stars of the more recent Jurassic World films: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard and, er, some other people. It should be the culmination of a series that for decades has delighted fans and inspired people's interest in dinosaurs.

And sure, this hyperactive, overstuffed widescreen blockbuster is certainly a T. rex-size bucket of popcorn. But if you're emotionally invested in these characters, this world of dinosaurs and humans co-existing, then Dominion doesn't know what to do with you.

The last time we saw the Jurassic World crew was 2018. Fallen Kingdom led to the biggest cliffhanger in the whole franchise, finally fulfilling the threat that's hovered over the series since the beginning: The dinosaurs are out! That promised a sixth and final Jurass-equel that would be the biggest and most bananas yet. Forget about reality, dinosaurs rule the Earth! The gloves are off! Look out, humans!

Exit, pursued by a dinosaur.

Except not really. Dominion boasts some cool opening images, like dinosaur cowboys and pterodactyl nests atop skyscrapers. But the film wimps out on that bonkers premise, rowing back the dino-plague to just a few isolated locations and a dark web of breeders, poachers and heavily tattooed cockfighters. Instead, a whole new and unexpected menace is introduced that gives the film a startlingly scary early image, but feels like kind of a sidestep from what should be the main peril. Which is that dinosaurs rule the frickin' Earth.

Co-writer Emily Carmichael cameos as an autograph hunter fangirling over Jeff Goldblum, and you can at least sense the giddy love for the Jurassic series in the whirlwind of action and jokes. But in the hands of co-writer and director Colin Trevorrow that giddiness pinballs all over the place in a script that can't seem to concentrate. It's a Western (with dinosaurs). It's a spy movie (with dinosaurs). It's a Westworld -esque corporate sci-fi conspiracy chiller (with... actually, that bit could've done with more dinosaurs). Dominion tries to be not just a climax to the Jurassic Park series, but also some kind of frenzied culmination of every blockbuster ever. Only with dinosaurs.

No time to dinosaur

The first half is a James Bond film, with globe-trotting undercover agents and shady brokers and a Jason Bourne-esque Mediterranean motorcycle/rooftop chase. Dominion does eventually turns into an actual Jurassic Park movie, with stars dangling precariously in crashed vehicles while a Doyouthinkhesaurus sniffs them out. Bryce Dallas Howard in particular gets a couple of creepily tense scenes. But the whole thing suffers from genre whiplash, struggling to grasp onto the kind of nerve-shredding set pieces that made the original movie(s) so unforgettable. Watch the first Jurassic Park and tell me it would've been improved by a knife fight. 

In the hands of director Steven Spielberg, the first Jurassic Park was a glossy blockbuster full of suspense and action, while underpinned by unforgettable characters. And it also had a sly B-movie sense of gallows humor, like that bit where the snivelly lawyer got eaten on the toilet. Dominion doesn't have either the characters or the sense of black comedy. By this point, the characters are all basically the same heroic good guy, with no selfish or untrustworthy or cowardly characters adding texture and suspense. When all the characters are people we know and supposedly love, the action scenes turn into an unwieldy scrum of a group of eight or nine people shuffling around together, with little sense that anyone can do anything unpredictable or that anything unexpected will happen to any of them. If only the film had the conviction to show the heroes being warped by their experiences, or even the courage to have the core cast get eaten. Anything to add some conflict, some unpredictability, anything.

Kayla Watts, Maisie Lockwood, Claire Dearing, Dr. Alan Grant, Dr. Ellie Sattler and Owen Grady meet a smiling Giganotosaurus.

The film also doesn't really know how to unite the two generations of Jurassic stars, shoving them into a room together and letting them awkwardly stare at each other. There's a lot of "I read your book!" and an eye-rollingly shoehorned "I knew your mother," but really only Goldblum sparks in these overpopulated scenes. The film just can't think of a compelling reason these people need to meet. Compare it with Spider-Man: No Way Home , another nostalgia play merging former generations of a long-running franchise. No Way Home at least came up with affecting emotional problems and cathartic payoffs for Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire. By comparison, even with Laura Dern gamely giving it her best shot, the encounter between Park and World stars is disappointingly inert.

One welcome addition is B.D. Wong, the scientist from the first film who's popped up in enough of these things to become a tragic figure, tortured by his mistakes. He's the closest thing to an actual human person, and carries the original film's themes of scientific folly and hubris on his shoulders. We don't see much of him, though: As if the cast wasn't padded enough with old faces, there's also a ton of new characters. 

DeWanda Wise's swaggering Han Solo-esque rough diamond pilot is entertaining but never going to do anything unexpected, and oddly sidelines Chris Pratt during the action stuff. Meanwhile, there's no need for not one but two icy evil women villains, or a succession of nothing-y henchmen -- especially as they all have a habit of just disappearing from the story.

But then there are the real stars: the dinosaurs. Dinosaurs will never get old. Still, one of the strengths of the first film was the way it set up certain dinosaurs and their traits, leaving us watching through our fingers as we waited for those lethal traits to be employed against our heroes. Whether it was T. rexes seeing movement or velociraptors getting behind you (clever girl), each action sequence was given a nerve-shredding jolt of tension because we knew what the dinosaurs were capable of. In Dominion, dinos are just kind of there. Paleontology fans will no doubt get a kick out of the assorted creatures (especially the ones with feathers) but it's a missed opportunity to layer in suspense for the average viewer.

By this point, dinosaurs from all different paleontological eras are crashing about the place, with spinosauruses and giganotosauruses and tyrannosauruses going nuts at each other. If you learn anything from the Jurassic Park series, it's that mixing eras is madness. And yet Jurassic World Dominion splices nostalgic eras and movie genres and just about any other DNA it can lay its hands on. The result is a primordial soup of a few entertaining scares, but it's 65 million years away from making any sense.

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Jurassic Park

1993, Adventure/Action, 2h 6m

What to know

Critics Consensus

Jurassic Park is a spectacle of special effects and life-like animatronics, with some of Spielberg's best sequences of sustained awe and sheer terror since Jaws. Read critic reviews

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In Steven Spielberg's massive blockbuster, paleontologists Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and mathematician Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) are among a select group chosen to tour an island theme park populated by dinosaurs created from prehistoric DNA. While the park's mastermind, billionaire John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), assures everyone that the facility is safe, they find out otherwise when various ferocious predators break free and go on the hunt.

Rating: PG-13 (Intense Science Fiction Terror)

Genre: Adventure, Action, Sci-fi, Mystery & thriller

Original Language: English

Director: Steven Spielberg

Producer: Kathleen Kennedy , Gerald R. Molen

Writer: Michael Crichton , Michael Crichton , David Koepp , Malia Scotch Marmo

Release Date (Theaters): Jun 11, 1993  wide

Rerelease Date (Theaters): Aug 25, 2023

Release Date (Streaming): May 18, 2015

Box Office (Gross USA): $415.3M

Runtime: 2h 6m

Distributor: Universal Pictures

Production Co: Universal Pictures, Amblin Entertainment

Sound Mix: DTS-ES, Dolby Digital, Surround, DTS, Dolby SR, Dolby Stereo

View the collection: Jurassic Park

Cast & Crew

Dr. Alan Grant

Dr. Ellie Sattler

Jeff Goldblum

Dr. Ian Malcolm

Richard Attenborough

John Hammond

Robert Muldoon

Martin Ferrero

Donald Gennaro

Chief Geneticist Dr. Henry Wu

Joseph Mazzello

Ariana Richards

Alexis "Lex" Murphy

Samuel L. Jackson

Wayne Knight

Dennis Nedry

Steven Spielberg

Michael Crichton

Screenwriter

David Koepp

Malia Scotch Marmo

Kathleen Kennedy

Gerald R. Molen

Associate Producer

Colin Wilson

John Williams

Original Music

Dean Cundey

Cinematographer

Michael Kahn

Film Editing

Janet Hirshenson

Jane Jenkins

Rick Carter

Production Design

Art Director

William James Teegarden

Jackie Carr

Set Decoration

Christina Smith

Makeup Artist

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Critic Reviews for Jurassic Park

Audience reviews for jurassic park.

This universally loved adventure hit is the perfect movie. From the great action scenes to the beautiful scenery shots, there is nothing not to like. Every scene has been put together with care and it really shows.

An extremely important film. This movie pioneered CGI and it still holds up to this day and looks better than most films nowadays. Jurassic Park has well written characters, great plot and concept. This film has beautiful stunning visuals as well as having suspenseful sequences. Two Thumbs up, thank you Spielberg!

"Jurassic Park" is another one of "Steven Spielberg's" classics. "Jurassic Park" is an amazing Sci-Fi/Fantasy movie of 1993. The plot to "Jurassic Park" is that a group of miners discover a mosquito frozen in tree sap from millions of years ago. Later a group of scientists get a hold of this they suck out the blood that the mosquito took from animals. The scientists discover that the mosquito had been carrying dinosaur D.N.A. The scientist then uses the D.N.A. to create living dinosaurs. But what the scientists don't know is shortly all hell will break loose. The plot to the movie is superb; the intro to the film is a thrilling and suspenseful opening to what will happen. During the movie we get to love "Alan Grant" portrayed by "Sam Neill" who is a caring person. "Jurassic Park" uses humour to make the movie even better; it is very successful at this. The acting in "Jurassic Park" is superb, "Richard Attenborough" and "Laura Dern" are perfect actors, the don't oversell their performances or have weak performances. "Steven Spielberg" and "John Williams" constantly work together to create some of cinema's very best music. The music "John Williams" created was extremely suspenseful. It may not be the very best he's done but it's still is great to listen to. For a movie made in 1993 using C.G.I. everywhere it would be expected that the special effects would look horrible to today's standards. The C.G.I. is excellent it's barely noticeable. "Steven Spielberg" is the master at directing and filming movies; "Jurassic Park" was filmed exceptionally. The scene where the dinosaur is chasing the car looks magnificent. If you are a person who enjoys "Spielberg" movies or Sci-Fi movies than I highly recommend you watch "Jurassic Park" as it is a classic, with amazing acting and stunning visuals. I give "Jurassic Park" a 9/10. The movie did have some issues, some scenes dragged on for a while, C.G.I. was great but a bit out of date.

A masterpiece. No other words needed to describe this movie

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Jurassic park, common sense media reviewers.

Terrifyingly realistic dinos run amok in sci-fi landmark.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Through teamwork, determination, and intelligence

The two children, Lex and Tim, are smart and brave

Female characters Dr. Ellie and Lex are portrayed

People and animals are eaten and attacked by reali

Women in bikinis are seen on a computer screen. Fl

Infrequent swearing includes "s--t" (one related t

A few brands are seen -- Barbasol, Ford, Apple, Ni

A character smokes cigarettes regularly. Adults dr

Parents need to know that Jurassic Park is a landmark sci-fi adventure film by Steven Spielberg, based on the novel by Michael Crichton, that spawned a franchise including several sequels and videogames. Kids will see people and animals being hunted and eaten by realistic-looking dinosaurs. While there's…

Positive Messages

Through teamwork, determination, and intelligence you can survive the most dangerous situations. It's important to learn and change.

Positive Role Models

The two children, Lex and Tim, are smart and brave; the adults protect them and one another at every turn. Flawed characters seem to learn from their mistakes.

Diverse Representations

Female characters Dr. Ellie and Lex are portrayed as smart, strong, and practical problem solvers. B.D. Wong and Samuel L. Jackson play supporting characters with few scenes, though Jackson gets to deliver one of the most iconic lines in the film ("Hold on to your butts"). The lead characters are all White. Not much body diversity; Wayne Knight's character, who is larger than the others, is used as comic relief.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

People and animals are eaten and attacked by realistic dinos. Multiple deaths. Not too much blood and gore, but the scare factor is high, and one gruesome scene involves a severed arm. Jump-scares. Scenes of the kids being hunted by dinosaurs are particularly intense. Chases, crashes, constant peril.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Women in bikinis are seen on a computer screen. Flirtation between adults.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Infrequent swearing includes "s--t" (one related to dinosaur feces), "hell," "crap," "damn," "son of a bitch," "goddamn," "stupid," "butts," and "oh my God." Some potty humor.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

A few brands are seen -- Barbasol, Ford, Apple, Nike, Reese's. The Jurassic Park franchise includes video games, toys, and lots of other merchandise.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

A character smokes cigarettes regularly. Adults drink in a few scenes.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Jurassic Park is a landmark sci-fi adventure film by Steven Spielberg , based on the novel by Michael Crichton , that spawned a franchise including several sequels and videogames. Kids will see people and animals being hunted and eaten by realistic-looking dinosaurs. While there's little blood and gore (although one scene gruesomely involves a severed arm), there's tons of suspense, many "jump-scare" scenes, and some chases/crashes. Expect a bit of swearing (including a few instances of "s--t"). Adults smoke and drink. The film shows how teamwork, determination, and intelligence can help you survive the most dangerous situations. Female characters are shown as strong and capable problem-solvers, but all of the lead characters are White and the only one who isn't thin is used as comic relief. Younger tweens may be able to handle the fright factor with an adult at hand, but sensitive children should wait a bit longer. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (88)
• Kids say (425)

Based on 88 parent reviews

A classic film...

What's the story.

Brought to a secluded island, three scientists discover a wondrous jungle paradise called JURASSIC PARK where dinosaurs again walk the Earth. Dr. Ian Malcolm ( Jeff Goldblum ) warns the creator of the preserve that nature won't be corralled into a theme park, and things go terribly wrong when a tropical storm strikes and a corrupt computer programmer shuts down crucial security systems. During a night of terror, Dr. Grant ( Sam Neil ), Dr. Ellie ( Laura Dern ), and two children ( Joseph Mazzello and Ariana Richards) are pursued by an escaped Tyrannosaurus Rex and several other dinos (including vicious velociraptors). After many devourings and frightening chases, a showdown ensues.

Is It Any Good?

This film boasts Academy Award-winning special effects, lots of frightful moments, and some good laughs. In Jurassic Park , director Steven Spielberg and his effects team deliver stunningly realistic dinosaurs. The movie also has a superb soundscape; hear it with a top-notch sound system to get all the thrills. Of course, actually seeing the monster isn't always the best thing. In Jaws , Spielberg's early masterpiece, viewers didn't get to see the shark until well into the movie -- and the suspense was excruciating. That kind of storytelling elegance is missing here. And for all of its technical achievements, Spielberg occasionally sacrifices three-dimensional characters and real human drama for the thrill of the effects.

Jurassic Park 's terrifying realism is something to take seriously. Sensitive younger kids may want to avoid this one, and parents may want to watch ahead of time and gauge their children's likely response. It's worth noting that, amid all the thrills, the movie has some very funny moments, including a scene where a T. Rex runs toward a vehicle and you can read: "Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear" in a side mirror. It's just one of many iconic moments that ensured this film's place in cinema history.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how movies like Jurassic Park blur the line between science and science fiction, sometimes giving out misinformation in the process. Since it's not really possible to clone dinosaurs, why use cloning as a plot device?

Does the use of headline-grabbing scientific concerns make a story more believable -- and thus more thrilling? How can you find out which parts of a story are really based on science and which are made up? How can children learn about media literacy?

What makes Jurassic Park scary? What's the difference between horror and suspense? Which has more impact on you, and why?

How do the characters in Jurassic Park demonstrate perseverance and teamwork ? Why are these important character strengths ?

Movie Details

• In theaters : June 11, 1993
• On DVD or streaming : April 23, 2013
• Cast : Jeff Goldblum , Laura Dern , Sam Neill
• Director : Steven Spielberg
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Universal Pictures
• Genre : Science Fiction
• Topics : STEM , Dinosaurs
• Character Strengths : Perseverance , Teamwork
• Run time : 127 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : intense science fiction terror
• Last updated : March 15, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

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New ‘Jurassic World’ Movie Gets 2025 Release Date, David Leitch in Talks to Direct

By Katcy Stephan

Katcy Stephan

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“Bullet Train” director David Leitch is in talks to direct a new “ Jurassic World ” film for Universal. The currently untitled project is slated to release on July 2, 2025. 

David Koepp , the original screenwriter of “ Jurassic Park ” and “The Lost World: Jurassic Park,” will write the script for the film, which will be executive produced by Steven Spielberg through Amblin Entertainment. Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley will produce and David Leitch and Kelly McCormick will also produce through 87North.  

Popular on Variety

Universal’s executive VP of production development Sara Scott and creative executive of production development Jacqueline Garell will oversee the project for the studio. 

Since the June 1993 release of Spielberg’s original “Jurassic Park,” the six-film franchise has earned more than $6 billion worldwide. The most recent entry in the series, 2022’s “Jurassic World Dominion,” surpassed $1 billion worldwide. 

David Leitch’s directorial credits include “John Wick,” “Atomic Blonde,” “Fast & Furious” spinoff “Hobbes & Shaw,” “Deadpool 2″ and this year’s Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling-led action comedy “The Fall Guy,” out May 3. He is represented by CAA, Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole and 42West. 

Deadline was first to report this “Jurassic World” news.  

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Screen Rant

Only these 4 dinosaurs have been in all 6 jurassic park movies.

Jurassic Park has grown into the world's biggest dinosaur adventure franchise, but only a few dinosaurs have appeared in all of its six movies so far.

• Triceratops is a social and gentle dinosaur that appears in all six main Jurassic Park movies.
• Velociraptors are crafty and intelligent, evolving to have a more accurate portrayal in the Jurassic World films.
• Tyrannosaurus, or T-Rex, is a dominant force in the franchise, showcasing intelligence and strength throughout.

The Jurassic Park franchise introduces an array of wacky and interesting prehistoric creatures throughout its installments, but only four dinosaurs consistently appear in every single movie. 1997's Jurassic Park, based on the Michael Crichton novel of the same name, is still a huge success years later and has since spawned several movies and TV shows in Jurassic Park 's franchise , entertaining audiences through multiple exciting adventures. So far, there are six main movies in the franchise, with the most recent being Jurassic World 4 , which is due to be released in 2025.

Dinosaurs are the selling point of the Jurassic Park films, and many of them appear in more than one. While the selection is always diverse, there are also some bizarre dinosaurs Jurassic World 4 needs to use that have yet to make their debut in the franchise, such as the Gigantoraptor, which was originally meant to be in Jurassic World, only for the plan to be scrapped. Although Jurassic Park teaches the world about multiple dinosaurs, both fictional and factual, it's worth noting which of the prehistoric creatures appear in all six of the main movies.

4 Triceratops

A sweet and social species.

The Triceratops is one of the more commonly seen dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park franchise, easily identified by its three horns and huge frilled head. The Triceratops is also one of the most commonly found fossils by researchers, so it makes sense that they appear so often throughout the movies. Unlike some of Jurassic Park 's dinosaurs, which are wildly inaccurate , the Triceratops is relatively factual in comparison to the real-life prehistoric creature.

In all six movies, the Triceratops are a rather social species, although they were much easier to approach later on in the franchise, especially in Jurassic World .

In 1997's Jurassic Park, Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) encounter a sick Triceratops and attempt to help it. However, because of the tropical cyclone, they are unable to do so, and it ends up being released. It has been implied that the Triceratops lost its life during the Tyrannosaurus' rampage, although it was never clarified. In all six movies, the Triceratops are a rather social species, although they were much easier to approach later on in the franchise, especially in Jurassic World.

In Jurassic World, the Triceratops species are split up according to age. The baby Triceratops live in the Gentle Giants Petting Zoo for children to pet or even carefully ride, whereas the adults roam the Gyrosphere Valley for visitors to get up close and personal with them. Unfortunately, when the Gentle Giants Petting Zoo is attacked by the Aviary, one of the babies is snatched away by a Pteranodon because of its small size.

Luckily, the Triceratops are one of the key species that Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) aims to save from the island in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. At one point, she and Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) find themselves in close proximity to three Triceratops, two adults, and one infant, who had been saved from death by Maisie (Isabella Sermon). This moment truly shows that the Triceratops were victims of some terrible treatment , and their natural docility was taken advantage of.

3 Velociraptor

Crafty and intelligent, yet vicious.

The crafty Velociraptor often takes up screen time in all the Jurassic Park movies and is known for becoming one of the franchise's most iconic symbols. The Velociraptor can also be brutally violent and can cause deep, bloody, fatal wounds with its sharp claws. Jurassic Park 's interpretation of the Velociraptor is a combination of several other genera, and compared to the actual dinosaurs, it looks very different. This is because they are mainly based on the Deinonychus species in the original novel, from which the film was inspired.

However, this changes as the franchise progresses. For example, in the first Jurassic Park, the Velociraptors are significantly larger than the real thing and missing feathers on their heads. In the Jurassic World movies, however, the Velociraptors are given more focus and redesigned to be smaller and truer to their source, which is a much more fitting appearance for the creature. The Velociraptor is the first dinosaur to ever appear in the series, and in the opening scene of Jurassic Park, one is seen transported into its enclosure, setting up the tone of the entire film.

These scenes are a great example of why the Velociraptors are so dangerous, as even when left alone, any sign of life can trigger them into attacking.

In The Lost World: Jurassic Park , the escaped Velociraptors from the first film inhabit a small town evacuated by Hurricane Clarissa. However, the remaining humans are left to fend for themselves against the dinosaurs as they attempt to escape and reach a helicopter. These scenes are a great example of why the Velociraptors are so dangerous, as even when left alone, any sign of life can trigger them into attacking.

In Jurassic World, much like the Triceratops, the Velociraptor is significantly more domesticated than in previous films, having been trained and given names such as Echo, Charlie, and Delta. However, Blue is the absolute favorite of trainer Owen Grady, and the Velociraptor's strong bond with him is essential to his survival throughout the film. Blue is also the first Velociraptor to be a recurring dinosaur character in the franchise and she returns in both Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Jurassic World: Dominion .

2 Tyrannosaurus

The titan of the jurassic park series.

The Tyrannosaurus, also known as the T-Rex, dominates each and every Jurassic Park movie. This is not just because of its size, which is factually accurate, but also because of the sheer fear factor it brings to its scenes. The Tyrannosaurus is another dinosaur that has fictional elements in its design in the books and movies, and according to researchers, they never had any issues with their eyesight. In Jurassic Park, it is established that the T-Rex can only see things that are moving, which makes the characters' attempts at survival even more tense, but it's not scientifically accurate.

Before all chaos breaks loose in Jurassic Park , a large T-Rex skeleton can be seen on display in the visitor's center, which is to an accurate scale and demonstrates just how easily it could destroy anyone passing with the stomp of a foot.

Before all chaos breaks loose in Jurassic Park, a large T-Rex skeleton can be seen on display in the visitor's center, which is of an accurate scale and demonstrates just how easily it could destroy anyone passing with the stomp of a foot. There is also a paddock for the Tyrannosaurus, and in one scene, a female T-Rex, also known as Rexy, rejects a feeding, which is a sign of the incoming destruction rumbling in the distance. However, when she does escape, she doesn't hesitate to feed on the nearby humans with her bone-crushing bites.

Not only is Rexy a titan-sized force, but she is also amazingly clever and knows how to protect herself in a fight.

Rexy returns once again in Jurassic World, this time happily chomping down on a goat. After the Indominus Rex escapes, Rexy is used to fight back in an attempt to recapture it. This scene brilliantly shows all the Tyrannosaurus' best features. Not only is Rexy a titan-sized force, but she is also amazingly clever and knows how to protect herself in a fight. Although the Indominus Rex eventually overpowers Rexy, she allows Blue to assist her, another sign of her incredible intelligence.

This isn't the only time a Tyrannosaurus pushes itself into battle, however. In Jurassic World: Dominion, a T-Rex teams up with a Therizinosaurus to destroy the Giganotosaurus, and they manage to kill it. Although this was done in the name of protection, that particular Giganotosaurus is the last of its kind, implying that its death brought the species back to extinction once again. After the events of this film, it seems that the Tyrannosaurus species is relatively safe for now, with Rexy reaching the Biosyn sanctuary and reuniting with Buck and Doe from The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

1 Parasaurolophus

A herd of herbivores.

The Parasaurolophus is easily identifiable because of the shape of its head, its incredible speed, and being one of the few herbivore species in the Jurassic Park franchise. In the opening scene of Jurassic World: Dominion, Owen Grady is herding a group of Parasaurolophus in the wilderness of the Sierra Nevada mountains. This scene proves just how insanely fast the Parasaurolophus are, leaving behind a flurry of snow in their wake as they sprint by. According to paleontologists, the actual species could achieve speeds of up to 25 miles per hour, although it feels even quicker in the films.

The Parasaurolophus are generally peaceful, at least until they feel threatened, which occurs in every single Jurassic Park movie.

The Parasaurolophus are generally peaceful, at least until they feel threatened, which occurs in every single Jurassic Park movie. As they are herbivores, many scenes that feature the Parasaurolophus see them sticking as a flock and grazing together or playing with one another. At a glance, the Parasaurolophus species are harmless, and even when the security system is disabled in Jurassic Park, they continue to roam happily. Because of this, it's unclear what happens to this specific herd after the events of the film, although the species does reappear.

The Parasaurolophus' relaxed nature is also seen in The Lost World: Jurassic Park .

The Parasaurolophus' relaxed nature is also seen in The Lost World: Jurassic Park. When Hurricane Clarrissa hits, a handful of them survive and start peacefully co-existing with other species, such as the Brachiosaurus and the Stegosaurus. It is also the same in Jurassic World, as the Parasaurolophus spend their days slowly wandering around the Gyrosphere Valley or the Gentle Giants Petting Zoo with the Triceratops. Although the Parasaurolophus aren't violent, they always have a brilliant determination to prevail.

In Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom , one can be seen trying to escape the erupting volcano and desperately swimming away. This scene, where the dinosaur slips on a rock and presumably falls to its death, was simply heartbreaking, especially as this particular creature hadn't contributed to any human deaths or damage to the park. Although the Parasaurolophus species aren't as prominent in Jurassic Park , mainly as they don't cause as much damage as the others, they are an important reminder that not all the creatures are dangerous.

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Huge advancements in scientific technology have enabled a mogul to create an island full of living dinosaurs. John Hammond has invited four individuals, along with his two grandchildren, to join him at Jurassic Park. But will everything go according to plan? A park employee attempts to steal dinosaur embryos, critical security systems are shut down and it now becomes a race for survival with dinosaurs roaming freely over the island.

Scarlett Johansson in Talks to Lead New ‘Jurassic World' Movie

Scarlett Johansson is taking a bite out of a new blockbuster. The actor is in talks to join Universal's new Jurassic World movie, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

Universal is moving quickly on the film, which has a July 2, 2025 release date. Gareth Edwards is directing the new Jurassic World , which has a script from Jurassic Park scribe David Koepp. Edwards stepped into the role after David Leitch exited following a short attachment to the project.

The film returns Johansson to the world of franchises. She starred as Black Widow in a number of Marvel Studios movies, including the Avengers features, but unlike some co-stars in the superhero world, has had no trouble breaking out in other projects. She has earned two Oscar nominations, for Marriage Story and Jojo Rabbit . She has a voice role in the upcoming animated feature Transformers One , and has a big budget Apple feature co-starring Channing Tatum also due out this year.

The new Jurassic World film is the latest in the 30-year old franchise, which began with Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park , the 1993 hit based on Michael Crichton's novel. It spawned a Spielberg-directed sequel, The Lost World (1997) and Joe Johnston's Jurassic Park III (2001). Universal revived the franchise with the $1.67 billion grosser Jurassic World (2015), which spawned sequels Fallen Kingdom (2018) and Dominion (2022). Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard led the most recent trilogy of films, which filmmaker Colin Trevorrow oversaw.

More from The Hollywood Reporter

• 'Jurassic World' Loses Director David Leitch
• David Leitch in Talks to Direct New 'Jurassic World' Movie

The Next Jurassic Park Movie Needs to Embrace Horror

If the seventh Jurassic Park movie is going to fix the mistakes of Jurassic World, it needs to go back to basics and embrace the horror of the series.

The original Jurassic Park film from 1993 is one of the most essential science-fiction films to come from the 1990s. It is a cornerstone of director Steven Spielberg’s career, and it has launched one of the most successful film franchises of the last thirty years. Over the course of six movies, the Jurassic Park franchise has grossed over $6 billion, with 2015’s Jurassic World being the most successful entry in the series with a total global gross of $1.67 billion.

Although the franchise seemingly came to an end with Jurassic World: Dominion in 2022, it’s no surprise that Universal is already back at work developing a new entry in the much beloved dino franchise.

The new film, which is interestingly being referred to more frequently as Jurassic World 4 than Jurassic Park 7 , will seemingly be the start of a completely new era for the franchise. None of the stars from the previous entries, such as Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard and Jeff Goldblum, are expected to return, as the story will shift in a new direction and be guided by new characters.

David Koepp, who wrote the screenplay for the original film and its 1997 sequel, The Lost World , is returning to the franchise as screenwriter for the first time in over 25 years. On board to direct the film is Gareth Edwards, who most recently helmed the original sci-fi outing The Creator but has also worked in franchises before with films like Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and 2014’s Godzilla .

With the ambitiously soon release date of July 2, 2025, this new Jurassic film is looking to breathe new life into the series sooner rather than later. If this movie is going to succeed, it needs to learn from the mistakes of the series’ past. While the recent Jurassic World films were box office juggernauts, they were flawed films that saw diminishing returns with each new entry.

While there are a few different ways that Edwards and Koepp could take the Jurassic franchise in a new direction, the most promising would be to go back to basics and embrace some of the more horror-oriented approaches of its earliest entries. Here’s why:

Differentiating Itself from Jurassic World

The Jurassic World franchise came at the perfect time. It had been almost 15 years since Jurassic Park III hit theaters, audiences were hungry for a new film in the franchise, and nostalgia was playing a bigger role at the box office than it ever had before. 2015’s Jurassic World was able to capitalize on all of that, reminding its viewers of much of what they loved about the original film while also bringing a new approach to the table. When combining that with up-and-coming stars like Chris Pratt, it was an incredible recipe for success.

However, the good will for the Jurassic World films faded more and more with each new entry . By the time that Dominion hit theaters in 2022, interest in the franchise was waning pretty heavily and they had to resort to doubling down on nostalgia by bringing back Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum once again.

Even with that, Dominion was running on fumes. It may have grossed over $1 billion worldwide – though it just barely managed to cross that line – but the long-term impact of the film has been essentially nonexistent. Despite releasing just under two years ago, nobody is talking about Dominion anymore, and by extent essentially nobody is talking about the Jurassic Park franchise.

With that in mind, the most clear option would be to take a long break from Jurassic Park and then bring it back at least a decade down the line (if at all). This would give audiences time to miss the series again. However, Universal seems to be keen on bringing it back as soon as they can. If that’s the road they want to go down, the only way to do so successfully is going to be to clearly differentiate this new Jurassic film from the Jurassic World movies. If it just feels like more of the same, then audiences aren’t going to be interested. There has got to be a new approach or new idea to hook viewers.

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Related: Gareth Edwards Breaks Silence on Directing Jurassic World 4: 'This Opportunity Is Like a Dream to Me'

Taking the Series Back to Its Roots

Although the Jurassic World franchise has already used the franchise’s nostalgia card by bringing back the original cast and reintroducing a new park on Isla Nublar, that doesn’t mean that this newest revival of Jurassic Park can’t pull from its previous entries in any way. It just needs to take a different approach to how it does it. Specifically, we believe it would be best for this new film to evoke much of the same atmosphere of the first three Jurassic Park movies, rather than directly building on them with familiar characters and plot lines.

While the characters were obviously a key factor in the original three Jurassic films, especially the first film from 1993, much of the success of those films was the result of their general aesthetic and approach to spectacle. They were sci-fi thrillers, not blockbuster action flicks. By going back to this approach, the Jurassic Park franchise will be able to more thoroughly recreate the magic of the original films, hopefully regaining some of the respect that was lost in the Jurassic World films.

This wouldn’t be the first time that the modern Jurassic Park franchise has returned to this aesthetic, as it was embraced to incredible effect in the short film Battle at Big Rock that was released in 2019. That short film, which was directed by Colin Trevorrow, told the exact kind of simple story that this franchise so desperately needs. It centers on a family who is on a seemingly-peaceful camping trip in a National Park in Northern California. However, everything turns on its head when a Nasutoceratops wanders into camp and is subsequently (and violently) attacked by an Allosaurus.

The story then becomes one of this family merely trying to survive their encounter with these dangerous dinos. This simplicity works wonders; it feels very reminiscent of the first few Jurassic Park films, and it’s exactly the kind of approach that is needed in this new film from David Koepp and Gareth Edwards.

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Related: A Look Back at the Jurassic Park 4 Script That Was Never Used

Bringing in a New Audience

Finally, the most important thing that this new Jurassic Park film needs to do is introduce new viewers into the franchise’s passionate fan base. The further along the Jurassic World series went, the more self-referential it became. This peaked with Jurassic World: Dominion , which was entirely reliant on its audience having seen and loved pretty much every preceding film in the series.

By simplifying its story and embracing the horror and thriller elements that were most prevalent in the original films, this new Jurassic Park film will be able to entice new audiences and perhaps even win back some of the fans that have been lost along the way. This approach has already proven to work wonders for other franchises. One great example is the Predator series , which had essentially run out of life by the end of the 2010s. However, then Dan Trachtenberg came in with a simple, refreshing and more horror-oriented story that became 2022’s Prey , the best film in the series in decades, which has also significantly revived interest in the franchise.

Many of the most famous and iconic moments from the original Jurassic Park film are also the most horrifying, whether it's the T. rex escaping its captivity, the children hiding from the velociraptors in the kitchen or Dennis Nedry's encounter with the venom-spitting dilophosaurus.

The Jurassic World films shifted the franchise to be much more sci-fi and action-oriented, which worked for a little while, but then it quickly devolved into producing the same generic legacy sequels that every franchise seems to be chasing right now. The issue with that is that audiences don't go to Jurassic Park for its wack science and action, they go to see people being terrified of loose dinosaurs. It's honestly pretty simple. If Koepp and Edwards are able to recognize this and build their new film around this idea, then perhaps this seventh Jurassic Park film might finally be able to recreate some of the magic of the original.

Stream Jurassic Park on Netflix and stream Jurassic World on Max.