Jurassic World

I'm told those are the only decent movies to come out of that franchise. I haven't seen Lost World or Jurassic Park III.

Anyway... I saw Jurassic World (several times) before seeing Jurassic Park. I'm not going to comment on which one was better, per se. I'm just going to say this: Jurassic Park had surprisingly few dinosaurs.

That was my takeaway - really. I think we waited half an hour for the first dinosaurs to show up, and then... well, there weren't many dinosaurs. Even with the scenes with dinosaurs in them, you can't see the dinosaurs! Mostly you can just hear them.

I know for it's time (22 years ago) it was incredible and unprecedented, and the effects on the brontosaurus (bracchiosaurus? The ones with long necks that ate leaves) were fantastic. They were, by far, my favorites.

Okay, one more thing. Having seen JW's velociraptors first, and having freaking fallen in love with them, I was waiting on the edge of my seat for the velociraptors to do velociraptor things. This really got under my skin, because the main scientist guy has this little monologue in the opening about the significance of the -raptor part of their name. Unfortunately, they completely forgot about the veloci- part of the name. Velocity is speed. Being fast. Running like the wind! In JP, they remind me of the beavers in the first Chronicles of Narnia movie. Awkward, slow, and kinda making things drag a little bit. Except for the scene where they jump out and surprise the lady doctor - that was freaking awesome!

Anyway, that was what I liked best about Jurassic World. Once they put the dinosaurs in there, they stay. I think it's safe to say there is a dinosaur in over half the scenes, maybe even two-thirds. The other thing was that the velociraptors were just so freaking incredible! You can feel their power and their hunger in everything they do - they are scary, but in an awe-inspiring way. I mean, wow.

So, if you haven't seen Jurassic World yet, I recommend you do. If you're too young to drive a car, then you should get your parents' permission to see the movie, because there is some language in it and general other things that parents get the say on, But otherwise, it's a good movie, and the dinosaurs do some fantastic things! Needless to say, I really enjoyed it.

To be honest, the first time I went, I went because of Chris Pratt. He's a fun actor and is an outspoken Christian, so it struck me as a completely justifiable splurge, even though I had zero interest in the dinosaurs. The last six times I went, I went for the velociraptors.