Movie Info
Movie Name: Jurassic Park
Studio: Amblin Entertainment
Genre(s): Action/Adventure/Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Release Date(s): June 11, 1993
MPAA Rating: PG-13
I’m starting to hate dinosaurs
Welcome to Jurassic Park…It’s the world’s ultimate amusement park, where you can see creatures never seen by human eyes. Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) is contacted by rich industrialist John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) of InGen to advise on his new park with promises of funding for his dinosaur research team. Along with his assistant Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), Grant discovers that Jurassic Park is a haven for genetically engineered dinosaurs. As a chaos theory expert named Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) reveals, creatures die for a reason and shouldn’t be brought back. When a rival company hires Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight) to steal dinosaur genetic samples, Jurassic Park goes off line and now Grant must get himself and Hammond’s grandchildren Tim (Joe Mazzello) and Lex (Ariana Richards) out of the park while Sattler works to bring Jurassic Park back online.
Directed by Steven Spielberg, Jurassic Park was based on the best-selling novel by Michael Crichton, and similar to Crichton’s Westworld (1973) and became an instant success making it one of the top grossing films of all time. Generally liked by critics and fans, Jurassic Park has spawn a series of sequels that still continue with a new film scheduled for 2013.
This seemed like a good idea at the time
Jurassic Park was one of the last films to really benefit from the lack of internet. Spielberg was able to keep the dinosaurs a big secret until the film’s premiere so the viewers like Dr. Grant and Dr. Sattler were shocked by their appearance. The big dinosaur reveal actually I think is handled better in the movie than in the book which seemed to downplay the reaction.
At the time of the release, most of the dinosaurs (CGI created) looked very real, but some scenes haven’t aged well. The velociraptors still make great villains and tyrannosaurus rex almost becomes an antihero at the end of the film. Anytime real models are used in the film, the dinosaurs instantly become more lifelike…They might not move as smoothly, but they just feel real because the actors can really interact with them.
I wish we were still eating Jell-O
Jurassic Park is a fun ride but it sometimes suffers from “Spielberg-isms”. The kids are made a bit too cutesy and some standard events become a bit over the top. Events like the climbing of the fence just seems too much. In an action filled movie, those extra moments aren’t needed. The ages of the kids were actually reversed from the book and their abilities were a bit more split up to give them each things to do.
Jurassic Park is still a pretty entertaining popcorn movie. It is no great film by far but it is fun. It is one of those summer movies that you can pop in when you don’t need to think and just sheerly want to watch the stereotypical “rollercoaster” ride of a movie. It might be a cautionary warning, but I still want my real dinosaurs…lets get some of that DNA!
Related Links:
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
