This month Irish audiences will finally get to visit Jurassic World, and with the park now officially open and all of those new dinosaurs available for the visitors to see – including the top secret, and apparently genetically modified, Indominus Rex – things are surely to go swimmingly and nothing at all can possibly go wrong, right? Right! Until then, we’ve gone and ranked all of the dinosaurs from the Jurassic Park series to date, from our least to most favorite. We tried to keep it just on the major appearances, so anyone wondering why we didn’t list the Ceratosaurus from Jurassic Park III, it’s because he didn’t have any lines was only in it for a few seconds.
GALLIMIMUS
Appeared in: Jurassic Park
Well, this list has to start somewhere, and Gallimimus has unfortunately come in last place. Remember when they said “They’re just like a flock of birds evading a predator”? And then they flocked right into the path of an oncoming T-Rex? They did forget what “evade” means? Stupid Gallimimus!
TRICERATOPS
Appeared in: Jurassic Park, The Lost World
Only three-horn here almost took last place, as her appearance in the first movie amounted to little more than being sick and pooping a lot. Thankfully the sequel gave her a little more to do, as once she was released from her cage, she wrecked the hunter’s camp and sent an exploding jeep about fifty feet into the air. More of that please, Triceratops!
PTERADON
Appeared in: Jurassic Park III
These winged-beasts got their own massive aviary, one so large that its got clouds inside and everything! Unfortunately, those clouds prove to be a problem with the survivors try to escape the island through said aviary and don’t even see the Pteradon’s coming until they’re right on top of them. Points taken away because even with four of them pecking him to death, egg-snatcher Allesandro Nivola still managed to survive.
COMPSOGNATHUS
Appeared in: The Lost World, Jurassic Park III
Their appearance in JPIII was slight, but worrisome enough for people to go into hiding, but it was in The Lost World that these land-piranhas really showed their teeth. Starting off the movie by attacking a little girl who was kind enough to share her sandwich with them, later on they terrify the entire audience by slowly nipping Peter Stormare to death. Gross.
BRACHIOSAURUS
Appeared in: Jurassic Park
These are the first proper dinosaurs we get to see in the Jurassic Park movies, as we’re not counting those semi-glimpses of the Raptor at the very beginning. Brachiosaurus is the one we all remember, that sense of wonder we all felt when we (and Doctor Grant) see it for the first time. Makes a comeback later in the movie to sneeze on the teenage girl.
DILOPHOSAURUS
Appeared in: Jurassic Park
We don’t see it during the tour, but she makes an appearance later on to show off her fancy neckwear, eye-piercing screech and blinding, poisonous spit when hacker Nedry gets lost in the woods. Dino fact: in reality, the Dilophosaurus were closer in size to how the Velociraptors are shown in the movie, and vice-versa!
SPINOSAURUS
Appeared in: Jurassic Park III
They really tried hard to show us just how big a baddie this dinosaur was supposed to be. Taking down an airplane, killing a T-Rex, and being a constantly pursuing threat throughout the entire movie, the Spinosaurus was a great new addition to the series, but it just didn’t have the same inherent fear-inducing appeal as the top two on our list.
TYRANOSAURUS REX
Appeared in: Jurassic Park, The Lost World, Jurassic Park III
Even though he got his ass handed to him in JPIII, the T-Rex still takes it’s place above the Spinosaurus because, well, its just better! That first scene where it breaks out of the pen and attacks the kids in the jeep? Or when two of them team up to push the trailer over the edge in the sequel? Yeah, T-Rex, you still rule! But you’re not quite our number one…
VELOCIRAPTORS
Appeared in: Jurassic Park, The Lost World, Jurassic Park III
They don’t have size on their side, but they do have smarts. Plus that foot-razor! After that kitchen scene from the original, to the eerie hunt through the high-grass in the sequel, to learning to communicate in JPIII, the Raptors have always been the main menace of the Jurassic Park attendees. In Jurassic World, we see that Chris Pratt has them trained… but how long do you reckon they’ll obey their master?
JURASSIC WORLD is now showing in Irish cinemas
Words : Rory Cashin