Aidan Reidy is a writer who’s currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in motion pictures screenwriting at the University of Miami. He is passionate about the entertainment industry and enjoys watching most genres. He is interested in every aspect of filmmaking ranging from technical aspects like editing and sound mixing to acting and directing styles. Hollywood Insider’s commitment to substance-filled articles rather than gossip columns attracted him to the website, creating an enjoyable environment for him to write in and aligning with his personal values, as well.
Jun 30, 2025
Sequels Upon Sequels
Since ‘Jurassic Park’ hit theaters and amazed audiences in 1993, there have been five sequels released, with the sixth, ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’ coming out this week. All of them have grossed ridiculous amounts of money at the box office, and the most recent, no doubt the weakest of the franchise, ‘Jurassic World Dominion’, earned just over $1 billion worldwide in 2022 despite being panned by critics. The previous entries in the ‘Jurassic World’ franchise each earned upwards of $1.3 billion, and while they weren’t truly awful, they never felt as magical, nor as creative as Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece. An easy way to describe them is cash grabs. What does this say about blockbusters in this current era?
General audiences love to see any variation of dinosaur on the big screen. They don’t care if the human stories and relationships are flat, they just care about the dinosaurs. ‘Jurassic World Dominion’ brought back veteran stars Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum but subjected them to a mediocre plot line that felt kind of unnecessary to the story at large. However, the idea of the original cast returning to the franchise probably got people excited to see this movie, especially in the dawn of all the legacy sequels we see and know today.
Despite all of these issues, those who have worked on the dinosaur designs have improved upon their work in every entry, combining a good mix of CGI with practical puppets that really do look good. I expect director Gareth Edwards to keep this pattern going; Along with being a director who has a keen eye for visuals, he plays a large role in the design of creatures in his movie, which can be seen in ‘Godzilla’ (2014).
The Magic of ‘Jurassic Park’
As soon as it arrived in Cinemas around the world, Steven Spielberg’s ‘Jurassic Park’ was a massive hit, going on to replace ‘E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial’ as the highest grossing movie of all time. Janet Maslin, former film critic for The New York Times, described the film as, “a true movie milestone, presenting awe- and fear-inspiring sights never before seen on the screen.” The first time I watched this in the mid-2010s, I was blown away, even though practical and special effects have improved dramatically since 1993.
Despite how dated ‘Jurassic Park’ may be, the effects are truly tremendous in today’s day and age. There’s still nothing like it, and there will be nothing like it. The direction, story, and overall scale of it cannot be replicated no matter how much money studios throw behind the sequels. They can only try.
Growing up in an era where blockbusters have virtually resigned themselves to name-brand IP or superhero movies, it’s easy to yell up at the sky, saying, “They don’t make them like they used to,” and wave my fist in the air. Taking original blockbusters that had a creative team and cared for what they were putting in theaters for granted has put us in the situation we are in today, but with the recent success of movies like ‘Sinners’, the industry may be going back in the right direction.
High Expectations For ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’
Spielberg was heavily involved in the pre-production for ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’, advising screenwriter David Koepp, one of the credited writers on ‘Jurassic Park’, and breaking the story with him. They wanted to return to some of the ideas that made the original so great, where humans find themselves in a dinosaur’s environment, not the other way around. Pairing a talented and experienced writer like Koepp with Edwards could get this franchise out of a creative slump and people may actually be excited for another legacy sequel.
Still somewhat underrated, Gareth Edwards is a director with some of the best visual storytelling in big-scale, big-budget blockbusters of the modern-era. His most recent endeavor, ‘The Creator’, received reviews running from mixed-to-positive, with most praising the direction and visuals, while criticizing the writing. These are common criticisms with Edwards’ movies, but I will always have a soft-spot for him just because of how stunning each of them look, especially since he directed ‘Rogue One’, which is the second best‘Star Wars’ movie released this century.
The cast of ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’ is the most stacked it has been in years (no offense to Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard), with Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, and two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali rounding it out. Both Johansson and Bailey have been a part of some massive movies in their careers (‘The Avengers’ and ‘Wicked’), so they are bankable stars, while Ali is somewhat of a newcomer to movies with this much scale, but I am excited to see what he brings to the table in a blockbuster. His work in ‘Moonlight’ is one of the most well-deserved Oscar wins of the century, so here’s to hoping he continues his success in ‘Rebirth’ and future endeavors.
The Premise
Set five years after the events of ‘Jurassic World Dominion’, ‘Rebirth’ follows a team going back to the main site of the original Jurassic Park, attempting to collect the biomaterials of the three largest air, land, and sea species left on or around the island. Quickly discovering that the island and the creatures are not what they seem, the team comes into contact with dangerous, mutated dinosaurs and other threats. The team members all seem to have their own unique set of skills, consisting of covert operative Zora Bennett (Johansson), paleontologist Henry Loomis (Bailey), and team leader Duncan Kincaid (Ali). In the theatrical trailer, audiences have been shown a sneak peak at the Distortus Rex, a deformed T-Rex that has six limbs, and it looks like one of the more horrifyingly-creative designs to come out of the legacy sequels.
‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ (2018, Directed by J.A. Bayona)
‘Jurassic World Dominion’ (2022, Directed by Colin Trevorrow)
By Aidan Reidy
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Aidan Reidy is a writer who’s currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in motion pictures screenwriting at the University of Miami. He is passionate about the entertainment industry and enjoys watching most genres. He is interested in every aspect of filmmaking ranging from technical aspects like editing and sound mixing to acting and directing styles. Hollywood Insider’s commitment to substance-filled articles rather than gossip columns attracted him to the website, creating an enjoyable environment for him to write in and aligning with his personal values, as well.
Aidan Reidy is a writer who’s currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in motion pictures screenwriting at the University of Miami. He is passionate about the entertainment industry and enjoys watching most genres. He is interested in every aspect of filmmaking ranging from technical aspects like editing and sound mixing to acting and directing styles. Hollywood Insider’s commitment to substance-filled articles rather than gossip columns attracted him to the website, creating an enjoyable environment for him to write in and aligning with his personal values, as well.
Aidan Reidy is a writer who’s currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in motion pictures screenwriting at the University of Miami. He is passionate about the entertainment industry and enjoys watching most genres. He is interested in every aspect of filmmaking ranging from technical aspects like editing and sound mixing to acting and directing styles. Hollywood Insider’s commitment to substance-filled articles rather than gossip columns attracted him to the website, creating an enjoyable environment for him to write in and aligning with his personal values, as well.
