The “Jurassic” Saga: A Retrospective
With the final chapter of the second trilogy taking the global box office by storm , I revisited the previous five Jurassic Park and Jurassic World films. Here, I review and rank them all and give my thoughts on the future of the franchise (and my thoughts on whether it should have ever been a franchise in the first place).
A Brief History of the Jurassic Franchise
I still remember seeing Jurassic Park in theaters on its opening weekend. I had just turned 9 years old and my cousin was visiting. The promotional media blitz had won us over and my parents relented and took us to see it despite their concern that it would be too violent for us.
I remember that the theater was so packed that we had to sit in the second row, our necks forced into a sharp and uncomfortable angle. I vividly recall an extraordinary amount of previews that I became increasingly frustrated during. But, most importantly, I remember the utter majesty of what unfolded on screen. Particularly, I still recall how my jaw dropped when Dr. Ellie Satler (Laura Dern) and Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) saw the prehistoric inhabitants of Jurassic Park for the first time. It was pure movie magic unlike anything I had ever witnessed before.
My experience was not unique. Within weeks of its release on June 11, 1993, it had become a formative…
