I sat down with a friend to rewatch the entire Jurassic Park/Jurassic World series.
Jurassic Park: Still fantastic; still one of my favorite movies.
The Lost World: Terrible, but enjoyable. Unlikable characters and a script that is overwrought with inconsistencies and oddities. But it has so many good individual, moment-to-moment scenes that it's easy for me to turn my brain off and enjoy the silliness. But I appreciate that it's not for everyone.
Jurassic Park III: Very bad, but I'm surprised at how much more I enjoyed it this time around. Largely forgettable cast, nonsensical plot, and a plethora of distracting aesthetic callbacks to the first movie make it easily less enjoyable as a sequel. But on its standalone merits, many of the actual moment-to-moment scenes are great, and it still feels like it was made in the vein of a Stephen Spielberg film, even if it misses the mark. It's arguably aged a lot better than The Lost World, in that whereas that film was poor at the time and has only become more so over the years, this one is neither better nor worse than it was in 2001.
Jurassic World: I always have memories of this film being dreadfully boring but otherwise unnoteworthy by virtue of it being a retread of the first movie with a less talented cast. But upon viewing it this time, I found many of its decisions to be absolutely baffling. Its a film that undermines its own world building, insists that at least the first film is canon but also contradicting said film not just in terms of minute details that would only realistically upset obsessed fans like me, but in terms of the literal actual premise of the movie. And it's made worse by an entire cast of characters who are frankly insufferable.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom: I have to assume that the reason I had remembered the previous film as boring but largely inoffensive is because it seems a masterpiece by comparison to this film. Once again, a plot that frequently undermines itself, and which retreads quite a few of the major plot beats of The Lost World. The characters are boring with motivations that make no sense. The film frequently puts on the pretense of a conflict of ideology regarding our place in the natural world and the inherent value of life, but frames it in a way that is neither relatable to... probably anyone, really, and then just makes up arguments for one side without any thought or reason. And to add one final insult to injury, despite there being a myriad of events that ought to be exciting, something about the way the movie is filmed and framed just makes it... incredibly boring. I found myself constantly checking my phone for this movie more than any of the others on the list.
Jurassic World: Dominion: This was a struggle for both of us to get through. The movie is overtly long, and feels like twice its length. I've never seen a film that so very quickly just completely abandons its core premise only about five minutes in before instead choosing to focus on a considerably more boring plot point that features the return of the cast from the first film just... stumbling about like chickens with their heads cut off for much of the movie's runtime. Character motivations are some of the most flimsy I've seen in any movie, with antagonistic characters changing their mind seemingly just because. Also, a certain lack of a notable element in this picture... I can't quite put my finger on it, but...
Despite my complaints, I generally had a good time revisiting the series, if only to share in the memories with a close friend. But it's frankly a shame. The first Jurassic Park is one of my favorite movies. I still remember when the aged CGI looked real, when the scenes at night used to terrify me. And it's a film that still holds up well today. So it doesn't exactly bring me any pleasure to say that only one film in the series is really good. But the Jurassic World series is a uniquely awful experience. Such an inherently fun premise, even devoid of skillful writing, should still be at least entertaining, but it's frankly not. And I don't know exactly who to blame for it. Oh well. Back to being cynical about video games meant for children again.
