Jurassic Park 7: Jurassic World Rebirth

Jurassic Park 7: Jurassic World Rebirth (2025)

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Surprisingly, this resurgence of this series is still going strong with this latest addition. Time has moved on enough that dinosaurs are largely back to being forgotten outside of no-travel zones where the majority that still survive live, surroundings the island where the mutations who weren't deemed good enough for public viewing at the parks are housed. It's been long enough now that we have a new cast heading out for research, though anyone familiar with the series won't be expecting all of them to return home. Half of the group intentional head to the restricted zone on a mission to collect DNA from three colossal dinosaurs in the hopes that this DNA will hold the key to needed heart medication for the human race. The other half of the group consists of a small family and a lazy boyfriend caught out at sea. While the group starts off as rather cutthroat and out for their own benefits, it seems there's more than a few good ones mixed in with all that ambition. Of course, it isn't a Jurassic movie without a t-rex, too. 

Jurassic Park 6: Jurassic World Dominion

Jurassic Park 6: Jurassic World Dominion (2022)

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


With 2 kids that love Jurassic Park and have probably watched these movies more times than we can count I'm amazed I hadn't actually sat down to watch this all the way through until now. Not only do we have Owen and Claire who have been the face of Jurassic World, and Malcolm who has been the one constant through all of the films so far (on the good guys side, not counting Dr. Henry Wu or any of the park bank rollers), but this film also brings back the original characters and actors who played Ellie Stattler and Alan Grant in the first Jurassic Park movie. Blue continues to play a pivotal role as well, though we mostly see her at the beginning and the end as there's a bit of handing off the guard where we could see future films focusing more on Maisie and Beta. Though with Dr. Wu even seeming to finally be able to acknowledge things are out of control and they need to wind back the clock, curious to see how far that might go. The dinosaurs still live and are in the wild, with a good concentration of them remaining in the Biosyn facility. How long will that hold though or would more changes potentially come in the future? Maisie's story especially turned out to be far different than what Fallen Kingdom originally portrayed, and clearly for the best overall. If anything, it's nice to see her settle into her own skin a little bit and get some answers so she no longer feels like she's just a clone and can accept the family she's found for herself.

LEGO Jurassic World: 5-Minute Stories Collection

LEGO Jurassic World: 5-Minute Stories Collection by Random House

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


If you have a child who loves Jurassic World and/or LEGO, this will be a hit. Even bigger if they happen to love both. Follow Owen and his trusty dog, Red, in several adventures. Of course it isn't a Jurassic World collection without Blue and the other raptors showing up as well. Story titles in this collection include the following:

Drone Delivery
All Part of the Plan
Dinosaur-in-Training
Real Treasure
Tour Trouble
Roaring Roundup
A Day at the Park
Safety First

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Jurassic Park 5: Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom

Jurassic Park 5: Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom (2018)

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars


If you want a film that will keep your adrenaline up, this is it! Between the mercenaries, the dinosaur island missions (inevitably leading up to many unwanted dinosaur encounters with the deadly kinds), another new breeding program (back in human territories no less), dinosaur island literally blowing up, and bringing the dinosaurs back to human's land (because we all remember how that went The Lost World went), there is no shortage in high action or tension part to this movie. 

I did decide that I like Blue, however. She might be kind of scary, leading the raptor pack, but she is also insanely intelligent in what appears to be a very good way, including loyalty to her human if the way she goes after this new indoraptor hybrid (who is insanely intelligent in a very creepy way) to protect that human and even sticks around after the stampede to see him again is any indication. Still a deadly creature, but endearing in her loyalty and unique behavior in the dinosaur kingdom (though that's largely due to Owen having raised and trained her back on the island, but still not sure many, if any, of the other breeds would have even had this option let alone impact). 

The other two significant dinosaurs seen or the mosasauras who we see twice (once at the beginning with the helicopter and again in the end swimming up on the surfers along some mainland; that was one heck of a swim). The other is Rexy/Roberta, the t-rex star of the series which has been confirmed to be the very same t-rex that has starred in literally every Jurassic movie to date. That is one well traveled and long lived t-rex!

Of course, what is a Jurassic movie without an Ian appearance, even if it's brief. The only remaining character from the very first movie, Ian is once again forced to attempt explaining to people why these creatures are so very dangerous. Fitting that he is the one to welcome them all to the new "Jurassic World" once they are all let lose on the mainland. Very few seem to survive these territories, and even fewer ever return to them and survive a second encounter (though there have been two now specific return expeditions that involved the same cast we are now aware of with this installment).

There are even more references to the previous films besides just familiar characters, human and dinosaur alike. There's a scene where Maisie is running away from the indoraptor and she climbs into a service cupboard that is very reminiscent to when Lex hid in the kitchen cupboard from the raptors in the original Jurassic Park. Not to mention the many scenes where you just know a dinosaur is going to creep on someone and more than likely some person, or at least another dinosaur, is going to end up a meal. It more often then not starts that way since the original park opened, and this movie was no exception.

Just enough of new mixed in with old to keep this high suspense and thoroughly entertaining. Hope you like dinosaurs if you're watching this one, because you can't escape them!

Jurassic Park 4: Jurassic World

Jurassic Park 4: Jurassic World (2015)

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


For a reboot of an old story line, this was well done. There are little kick backs to the original movies scattered throughout the film, like the little DNA cartoon. Given it's a theme park about dinosaurs, it's impressive how much more "modern" they've managed to make it as well as the advancement in breeding (as frightening as those end up being) to keep it successful. The idea that a human could also be the "alpha" of a raptor pack was also intriguing. Overall it's a similar story to what's already been done, but really, how many ways can you realistically have dinosaurs get loose somewhere and terrorize the population. Short of the T-Rex in L.A., this is probably the most mayhem on a human population scale in any of the films so far. Not bad for what limited options they really had to work with.

Jurassic Park 3

Jurassic Park 3 (2001)

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


If the second video didn't make much sense as a sequel, this one falls even farther down the ladder. Not only does the original group willingly get as close as they can to the dinosaur infested island, but the boy's parents then fake being rich adventurers in order to kidnap dinosaur specialists in a hope of finding their boy alive on the island. By some miracle, the parents and the boy do survive. A small miracle given the intelligence some of these creatures possess and the number of near-misses their "specialist" has already had with their kind.

Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World

Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World (1997)

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


If the first one wasn't crazy enough, we now learn that there's a second "breeding island" inhabited by the DNA manufactured dinosaurs from the original Jurassic Park. Not only do they send out two separate teams to end up stranded and mostly dead on the island while "studying" and capturing the creatures for a new park on the mainland, but they bring back the biggest and most deadly of their kind, the T-Rex. If you thought going to a dinosaur island was crazy, try having said monsters loose in New York instead. The scene with the hydraulic doors malfunctioning prior to full release when the dinosaur is fully released always gives me chills.

Jurassic Park 1

Jurassic Park 1 (1993)

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars


I can still clearly recall the first time I saw this movie shortly after it came out on VHS. I was in grade school at the time, ended up getting a call from a friend down the street for a movie night while her parents were out for dinner. Despite attempts to warn or avoid the "scary" scenes, we still ended up watching the entire thing rather wide eyed and after T-Rex eating a man off the toilet, nightmares were guaranteed. The scene now teeters between cringing or laughing at the memory. The technology is very well done, setting the standard for live action dinosaur films despite being older than some. It doesn't matter how many times you watch it or how well you know the story either; there are still parts that will always give you a knee-jerk reaction every time.