Jurassic Park is one of my all-time favorite movies, but I also believe it’s one of the most important films in the history of cinema.  It ushered in a new era of filmmaking and box office blockbusters, where anything an artist could envision could appear convincingly on the screen, while setting a standard for visual effects that is still unmatched.  It was also one of my most memorable moviegoing experiences, and to an entire generation of people my age it was our Star Wars.  It inspired us and filled us with wonder, while delivering a story, characters, and a universe that captured our imaginations and dominated the pop culture landscape.  It also had dinosaurs.  Jurassic World was seemingly inevitable, particularly in today’s nostalgia-obsessed world.  Take one of the most popular franchises of all time and update it, bringing the most modern visual effects and most popular stars to the series, and the result has been the biggest box office smash of all time.  It’s also a mess.

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