My Movie Review on Jurassic Park · 12:12am Oct 22nd, 2021
Greetings and salutations, my friends.
This is your friendly film, TV show, and episode reporter here with another review.
Today, for the 5th installment of this year's "Spook Spectacular", I'm gonna give you guys my take of "Jurassic Park".
Here's the rundown of it:
Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler are two paleontologists who practically live for digging up dinosaur bones and making discoveries, their most recent find being the skeleton of a raptor. However, when the two of them are approached by a wealthy businessman named John Hammond, he offers to take them on a personal tour of an island theme park he's created as a request by its investors. The park in question is called "Jurassic Park". They also find themselves in the company of a mathematician and chaos-theorist named Ian Malcolm, who was invited to attend the tour by Donald Gennaro the lawyer.
Upon visiting the island, Grant, Sattler, and Malcolm are surprised the island doesn't just house a theme park...but dinosaurs too! Living and breathing dinosaurs that were created through the use of genetic-engineering by the park's scientists. Despite being amazed by all that was accomplished and Hammond's assurance that everything is under control, though, the three visitors are critical of how careless Hammond and the scientists have become over their use of genetic engineering, one reason being because humans and dinosaurs might not coexist as well as anyone hoped.
However, during a terrible storm, the park mysteriously loses power. With the electrical fences made to keep the dinosaurs in their enclosures off, the dinosaurs themselves are free and everyone's lives is put at risk; and with the phones down, the tourists and remaining employees are stranded and don't have anyway of contacting the mainland.
Will the people stuck on the island survive and manage to get the power back on? Or will they be doomed to extinction?
Before I reveal my thoughts on this movie, I'd like to tell you guys a little secret:
The "Jurassic" series is a franchise that I've been acquainted with for as long as I can remember. My experiences with the films are ones that I'm particularly fond of, and as a guy who's a very big dinosaur fanatic...well, it's hard to deny that I fell in love with the series hook, line, and sinker.
I've been interested in reviewing members of the franchise for a long time, of course. But, I ultimately put off doing so based on my interest in seeing other things. Until now, that is. I thought that the Halloween season would be the perfect time for reviewing the first film based on it being a thriller with scary and intense moments, and it was the time I always had in mind for the occasion anyway. I was originally going to review the other "Jurassic Park" movies during this month, but as you can see I wasn't able to fulfill that desire due to time reasons.
So, want to know what I think of this movie in words?
Well, I really can't deny it, "Jurassic Park" is as awesome as I recalled it being!
For instance, the direction by Steven Spielberg, and the screenplay by Michael Crichton and David Koepp, were amazingly well-done.
Having often remembered that co-writer Michael Crichton was also the author of the book this movie was based on, I could tell that he, Koepp, and Spielberg were obviously wanting to be as faithful to the book as possible while also taking risks. In this case, finding ways to strengthen the story more and make it better than the book. Even by changing things up. Plus, Steven Spielberg was the perfect choice for directing this movie, because whether a movie is an epic adventure or a suspenseful thriller he has this incredible ability to give a film he directs a sense of human personality. The film had tons of surprises, an unpredictable nature, and genuinely suspenseful moments, of course. But, it also contained emotion and heart that was deeply soul-tugging, and there were witty and humorous moments that balanced the overall tone and proved to be entertaining to watch. The film had great themes and morals about greed and ambition too, as well as on what happens when humans try to play God.
The special effects used to create the dinosaurs were astonishing, if I may add.
Even from a 21st century standpoint, the dinosaurs looked so real that it was like the filmmakers went back in time to incorporate them in this movie. They carried no signs that they were created through computers, that's for sure. The effects team's use of puppetry throughout the movie was wonderful too, and the hard work that they put into making sure the dinosaurs didn't look like puppets made the presence of them all-the-more appealing.
The music by John Williams was magnificent as well.
No matter what sort of scene the movie came to, Williams created a melody that was instantly memorable and enrapturing. His music carried an emotional resonance that helped it feel like something made by a human, and the way his score reflected the overall tone and direction was heart-stopping. A prime example comes from the part featuring the brachiosaurus and parasaurolophuses, because the melodies for that moment reflected the astonishment of the guests and brought a sense of wonder to the presence of the dinosaurs.
Finally, the acting, casting, characters, and character development were outstanding.
Having previously read that some film critics didn't think the characters were as well-worked as everything else, I really must say that I completely disagree. All throughout the movie, I noted that every character had a personality that helped them stand out, and the performers looked like they were having the time of their lives being there! The characters themselves weren't without development, and they all carried a sense of something incredibly human. On top of that, the characters drove the story to a tee, and the dialogue the filmmakers gave them was both enjoyable and natural.
In my opinion, the characters who had the greatest developments were Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler, and John Hammond, and the performances of Sam Neill as Alan, Laura Dern as Ellie, and Richard Attenborough as John were outstanding. Jeff Goldblum and his character of Ian Malcolm were likewise quite the scene-stealers, and the performance of Bob Peck as Robert Muldoon was so incredible it was award-worthy.
As an honorable mention, I'd like to add that Wayne Knight did an excellent job portraying Dennis Nedry. Despite his character not being the most recurring, Knight portrayed Dennis with brilliant personality, comedic-timings, and commitment, each of which helped the character stand tall with the others and not fade in their shadows. With how much of an essential part Dennis played in the story, it was nice to see him have as much development as possible before his unexpected death.
In conclusion, "Jurassic Park" is what I'm happy to classify as one of the all-time best movies. Not only does it represent history in the making, but it has everything a movie needs to be enjoyable.
So, I rate "Jurassic Park" a solid five out of five stars.
I love Jurassic Park and it's one of my favorite movie of all time
Jurassic Park, as you know, is my all-time favorite movie along with the sequels, and I'm writing a crossover of it only it was portrayed as a reboot.
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Neat. Speaking of, I enjoyed the Jurassic World movies
I grew up on Jurassic park. Literally. I know the(first 3) films by heart. When I was a child, I had a collection of the toys and could recite the films, line by line, word for word. To this day I have both official books, read both, and all 5 movies. I regret selling off my toy collection though... Had full on dioramas of the T-Rex breakout, raptors attacking jeeps, etc.
Jurassic Park is one of those “lightning-in-a-bottle” moments that changed cinema forever going forward. I think the next film to do that was either the 2007 Transformers movie, Batman Begins, or Iron Man.
As a fanatic on dinosaurs, especially how much more strange and bizarre the actual animals were compared to the media’s frankly dated depiction of them, I am curious about what a remake of Jurassic Park would look like with more contemporary depictions of the dinosaurs featured.
Some of the dinosaurs featured in all the films were at times, much more frightening than the movie monsters they sometimes are depicted as. It also would have been all the more terrifying for the people involved if there was more of an “unpredictable” element in their behavior, like the Tyrannosaurus could see the people just fine even standing still, but was curious about them and ultimately decided to ignore them once it was done investigating the screaming creatures. Velociraptor is another dinosaur that could benefit from this kind of mindset (swap for Utahraptor, Achillibator, or Dakotaraptor if they have to be that size). Velociraptor could be just as terrifying (if not, more so) if it plays on the whole “looks-can-be-deceiving” trope. If Alfred Hitchcock could make plain old birds terrifying, then a Velociraptor the size of a turkey, and just as feathery, then that just proves my point.
It's an interesting thought experiment, imagining a Jurassic Park with our modern understanding of dinosaurs. How different things would play out in that kind of movie.
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Same…
Jurassic Sneed.
5599909
What?
5599920
I was sharing my screen with a friend of mine on Discord and I had a tab open to your review. There's a joke we share about saying "Sneed" to each other (it's from an episode of The Simpsons) and to make her laugh, I left that comment. Sorry if it confused you
The one that started it all
Life ALWAYS finds a way…..
-Robert Muldoon
I also liked very much Jurassic Park. Unlike other dinosaurs films, and for the animation of the time, it really felt like I was watching real prehistoric creatures.
Not only that. Jurassic Park boosted the interest of people on dinosaurs & paleontology. It's a shame the sequels didn't acomplish the success of the first movie and it would have sunken into oblivion if not for Jurassic World.
A classic of all time, no doubt about it.