Decades later, 2018's Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom corrected an oversight the first Jurassic Park movie made in relation to the book. While Michael Crichton's namesake novel was a popular one, it's fair to say that without legendary director Steven Spielberg adapting it into a movie in 1993, the Jurassic Park brand wouldn't be nearly as iconic as it is today. A telling sign of that is Crichton's decision to resurrect Ian Malcolm in his sequel book, despite seemingly killing Malcolm off in print, due to the popularity of Jeff Goldblum's version.
The movie sequels and/or reboots to Jurassic Park have certainly been a mixed bag though, even the one Spielberg returned to direct. While The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park 3, Jurassic World, and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom all certainly have their share of fans, and were financially successful, their overall reputations aren't exactly sparkling. Still, the audience for the Jurassic Park/World franchise doesn't look to be disappearing anytime soon, whether or not Jurassic World: Dominion really does end the saga in 2022.
The current Jurassic World movies don't bear much resemblance to Crichton's books, and that's fine, as the movies aren't directly based on them. The books haven't been entirely forgotten about though, as evidenced by Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom finally taking the opportunity to make a big event from the original Jurassic Park novel happen onscreen.
Fallen Kingdom Corrected An Original Jurassic Park Oversight
At the end of Jurassic Park (the movie), survivors Alan Grant, Ian Malcolm, Ellie Satler, John Hammond, and his grandchildren, flew away in a helicopter from the monumental disaster the potential theme park had become. Isla Nublar, a Costa Rican island that Hammond had purchased to be the home for the park, was left standing though. The next film, The Lost World, would instead use an additional InGen site, Isla Sorna (aka Site B), for its primary location. Jurassic Park 3 did as well. It wouldn't be until Jurassic World that Isla Nublar became a focus again.
However, in the Jurassic Park book, Isla Nublar is destroyed via a massive military assault by the Costa Rican air force, who after learning of what happened, attempt to use any means necessary to neutralize the dinosaur threat. This comes after the surviving characters escape at least, and of course dinosaurs are revealed to have somehow made it off the island before its destruction. It's unclear exactly why Isla Nublar was left intact in the film adaptation, but removing its destruction robbed the film of a defining climactic moment from the book.
While having destroyed Isla Nublar in 1993 would've meant Jurassic World had to be set somewhere else, that's certainly something that would've been doable, albeit without the opportunities for fan service when revisiting the locations from the first film. Still, by destroying Isla Nublar via a massive volcanic eruption, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom finally realized a plot point that should've happened 25 years prior - even if a poor Brachiosaurus had to serve as the franchise's saddest dinosaur casualty along the way.
