Any franchise that kicks off with one of the greatest blockbusters ever made really has no other direction to go but down, so it’s not exactly earth-shattering to claim that the extended Jurassic World universe has never really come close to recapturing the magic of Steven Spielberg’s 1993 original.
That being said, the drop-off in quality between Colin Trevorrow’s first and third installments is alarming to say the least, with the Rotten Tomatoes scores for the sci-fi spectaculars plummeting from 71 percent to 29, giving Dominion the distinction of being the worst-reviewed Jurassic movie ever, and it’s not even close.
Of course, the brand is virtually bulletproof at the box office, with the sixth chapter in the saga less than $6 million away from joining the billion-dollar club, even if audiences around the world were left crushingly disappointed. To that end, Redditors have been suggesting innumerable ways the sequel trilogy could have been vastly improved, and there’s not a single locust in sight.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes is mentioned as a touchstone, which is fair enough when it’s essentially the benchmark for how to reinvent a classic fantasy brand for the modern age, gaining both critical and commercial acclaim in the process. Reign of Fire is also mentioned, and we’d be lying if we said the prospect of a post-apocalyptic Jurassic World featuring all-out war between humans and giant prehistoric lizards doesn’t sound awesome, because you bet your ass that it does.
Reincorporating the actual themes of greed and misguided ambition from Michael Crichton’s source material is another worthy shout, and all ideas that should be firmly on the table when the inevitable next chapter is announced.