I caught a double feature today: “Jurassic World: Rebirth” and “Superman.” The takeaway? The dino movie was a slog, and unfortunately, I can’t say anything about Superman yet — the embargo lifts tomorrow afternoon.
‘Rebirth’ is terrible. Flat writing, over-the-top visuals, and a tired plot that feels stitched together from leftover scraps of past sequels. Watching it made me think about the ‘Jurassic’ franchise as a whole.
It’s been 32 years since “Jurassic Park” came out, and frankly, that’s still the only worthy film in the series. Yes, ‘The Lost World’ wasn’t great when it came out, but compared to the nonsense we’ve been getting since, its stock has quietly risen. At least Spielberg was still behind the camera and there were some interesting ideas, even if the execution was messy.
Every sequel since has been chasing the original’s magic without understanding what made it work — wonder, tension, and restraint. Instead, we keep getting bigger dinosaurs, louder set pieces, and thinner characters. It’s been a creatively bankrupt series for decades.
“Jurassic Park “III was forgettable filler. Then came the ‘World’ trilogy, which leaned hard into spectacle over story: “Jurassic World” had some novelty but felt like a corporate reboot with cardboard characters; ‘Fallen Kingdom’ was a tonal mess, trying to be both haunted house thriller and extinction epic; ‘Dominion’ was pure chaos — bloated, incoherent, and more interested in locusts than dinosaurs.
And yet people keep showing up. The reason is simple: dinosaurs. That fascination, the childhood awe, the idea of real-life monsters walking the earth — it’s hard to shake for many. That’s what keeps the IP alive. Not the writing, not the directing, certainly not the characters. Dinosaurs are the star. Always have been.
And as long as audiences still want to see dinosaurs roar on the big screen, these movies will keep getting made — no matter how hollow or repetitive they’ve become. Which brings me to a question for readers…
It’s obvious at this point that Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park” stands far above every other film in the franchise, but if you had to pick a #2, what would it be? For me, by default, it’s ‘The Lost World.’ It has plenty of issues, sure, but compared to the rest, it at least feels like a real movie.