Do We Really Need Another ‘Jurassic Park’ Reboot?

In the summer of 1993, something seismic happened: Jurassic Park blew open the gates of a new era of blockbusters. The roar of a T. Rex stalked theater screens everywhere, simultaneously freaking people out and blowing their minds. The world let the light of the silver screen wash over us as the Raptors chased and disemboweled everyone in their paths. I adored the movie. I was 12 and transfixed by the images of things that lived in my imagination, specifically when Dr. Grant and Dr. Sattler were speechless as they watched the scores of then-new CGI dinosaurs interact in real time in the modern world. And now, we get a probably shitty Scarlett Johansson remake, reviving the franchise for a third time.

Jurassic World: Rebirth, dropping in July, doesn’t ask, “Can dinosaurs and man co-exist?” It asks, “What’s another IP we can milk for cash?” Can’t you just picture some Hollywood exec in expensive socks and a blazer pitching this in a boardroom? They’ve got the theme parks, so they have to keep the experience relevant to sell tickets for the water ride, right?

In theory, I want to see a dinosaur in real life—it’s a lifelong obsession. Seeing even a tiny dinosaur the size of a chicken would send me into full-blown hysterics. So, I get the cultural lust to keep telling stories about an allosaur gone rogue who wants to protect their tract of land. But do we need another mission to yet another island to see how we’ve trained the most feral of beasts? The idea is exhausted, falling into the cliché zone of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Dinosaurs have always been humanity’s great equalizer–a mythology of once held power, extinction, and resurrection. This primal fascination, let us finally see our childhood museum skeletons clothed in flesh. The roar of that T. Rex wasn’t just a technical achievement–it was wish fulfillment for every human who ever wondered what it felt like to be small mammals in a world ruled by powerful giants.

Collectively, the Jurassic Park franchise has made almost ten billion dollars. That’s a staggering investment for an idea based on a mosquito trapped in amber. But the movies have gone from thrilling to goofy, to Chris Pratt being the raptor whisperer, which was unbelievably corny.

The formula never changes: a moment of awe as we imagine what it would be like to see a T. Rex in real life, followed by absolute chaos. A kid is in danger, they toss in a few one-liners and just before total disaster, our heroes escape in an army-grade helicopter while the dinosaurs reclaim their land—just as John Hammond “spared no expense.”

Studios are always looking to make a buck, and the world of Jurassic Park seems like a continual mine for stories, but are they all that interesting? Rebirth director Gareth Edwards promises his vision of the franchise will lean more into horror than its previous incarnations, but really, how gruesome can you get with a franchise that’s been primarily family-friendly, minus some steamy Ian Malcolm scenes, and in a world where Terrifier makes a few million ripping people’s heads off?

If it were my dog and pony show, there would have never been all the sequels, letting the original stand as one of the best action sci-fi movies of all time. But in a world of merchandising, that’s never the case.

This is the third riff on the franchise with all of the characters taking a different spin throughout the timelines of the series. But how much do we really need a re-expansion of a qualitative idea? One of the biggest issues with the Jurassic Park IP is the plotlines, sure, but there’s never a deviation from the broader idea of “everything will go wrong.”

In the trailer, we see them closing the exhibit of “When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth”, as if the luster and excitement of a dinosaur no longer moves the public. Now, to capture the DNA of a dinosaur could save some kids from dying of a disease or something. The idea feels so paper-thin that, essentially, the ticket isn’t for the plot—let’s be real, none of the movies have had much of a plot beyond the first one—it’s just a chance to marvel at the big creatures almost eating someone.

Also, when they rebrand everything from “Park” to “World”? The biggest claim to the new movie is that they left these dinosaurs that behind, that cages couldn’t hold them. But the trailer just feels empty, reinforcing the age-old gripe that Hollywood is still out of ideas and relying too heavily on nostalgia. It feels exactly the same—there’s nothing new under the sun, and now we have to rely on ScarJo’s star power to open a new set of stories in this growling universe.

Edwards directed the best of the recent Star Wars movies, Rogue One, so that’s reason for optimism, along with Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali, who are both generally excellent actors. Edwards has a penchant for omnipresent darkness within his work, as Rogue One worked based on a pure sense of emotion to the source material, considering that everyone died to make the push for the plans that ultimately took down the Death Star. He crafted a world based around one line: “Many Bothans died to bring us this information.”

Maybe Edwards understands that dinosaurs were never monsters – but mirrors. Each generation gets the dinosaurs it deserves. In 1993, we got creatures showing us nature’s sublime power. The Pratt era gave us lame domesticated partners reflecting tech optimism. Now, in an age of environmental collapse and institutional failure, Edwards promises dinosaurs as (hopefully) pure killing machines. The ultimate survivors in a world we’ve broken.

Edwards knows how to make spectacle feel intimate, but can he make dinosaurs scary again? His talent for tension (Rogue One’s final act) suggests he can, but Jurassic Park has lost that Spielbergian wonder. Hopefully, he leans into some full-on gore. Let dinosaurs eat people  en masse, show that nothing is safe, that dinosaurs are killing machines built for one thing: survival.

For this iteration to work, it seems like the world of Jurassic “World” has to be a lot darker, that these movies are almost big-budget horror instead of just people running from raptors. We’ve seen that show before, and really, what does it give us? Sure, a popcorn thrill ride can be a great escape, but for the concept to work, there’s gotta be something new for us to invest in again. Otherwise, it’s just another clear money grab into IP.

Me? I don’t want anything remotely close to Chris Pratt being best friends with a raptor. I want a dinosaur murder fest.

What we really need isn’t another Jurassic movie, but a reckoning. In 1993, we dreamed of resurrecting giants. In 2024, we’re the giants, stumbling toward our extinction. Maybe that’s why I want Edwards to give us a dinosaur blood bath – not for the gore, but for the humbling. In a world of AI, climate collapse, and endless content, we need to remember what it feels like to be prey. To be small. To be at the mercy of forces we unleashed but can’t control. The dinosaurs were never the monsters in these stories – we were.