Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park (1993) - 5/5

What is there to say about Jurassic Park? It’s a timeless classic. Almost all of the special effects are practical and flawless, and the few CGI shots hold up surprisingly well. The tone impeccably rides the line between pop horror and family adventure with aplomb. The plot, dialog, delivery, and cinematography are each so masterfully crafted that almost every scene is culturally iconic.

Closest comparison: It’s like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory by way of The Lost World (1960).

Setting: Exploration
Plot: Horror
Tone: Adventure

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom - 3/5

This movie is a lot of fun, but also has a lot of flaws. Most of the scenarios don't make sense, but they provide the great action sequences we've come to expect from a movie like this. The dinosaurs are as fast, strong, and clever as the scene requires them to be to ensure that the heroes survive and the villains do not. But you still get to see lots of fun dinosaurs causing havoc, which is all the movie ever really promised. The whole thing ends up being a parody of itself, and I laughed as much in this movie as I did in Deadpool, but here I don't think some of it was intended.