10 Movie Sequels That Got A Raw Deal

J.A. Bayona's bonkers mainland follow-up to Jurassic World was not a success. And there's little reason anyone who grew up with its predecessor would agree that its worth reappraisal. But many readers may not have been fully conscious or alive to appreciate just what a spectacle Jurassic Park was when it first hit theatres in 1993. Stan Winston's special effects, a blend of masterful puppetry and early CGI, had finally paid off after years of the artist honing his craft with triumphs like the Predator, Pumpkinhead and the Terminator.

For those who do remember, Jurassic World was a step down, completely lacking in the same sense of wonderment that accompanied the first film. It's an aesthetic that no amount of money or nostalgic callbacks could possibly recreate.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom announced that it would live to a promise Steven Spielberg made but abandoned in The Lost World: the dinosaurs would see the mainland.

How they get to the mainland haunted screenwriters for decades. When they finally get there, characteristic to the franchise's messy history of false starts, it's a mishmash of half-recycled ideas that barely cohere into a coherent film, mixing in subplots about cloning and hybrid-dinosaurs as old as John Sayles' abandoned script.

But we're talking about a franchise in which dinosaurs are set to rule present-day earth. If we are afraid of getting a little bats**t, we really aren't doing this right.