Well-made, but a typical action flick at its core.

Rating: 8/10 (3 March 2016)

Quality: 7.5/10 Content: 6/10 Before Jurassic World and two other sequels, there was Jurassic Park twenty-two years ago. It's good, to say the least, but not great -- well- made, but a typical action flick at its core. Though Spielberg really wished to induce amazement, he introduced the dinosaurs quite too early, mollifying the awe the characters - whom we have known for no more than ten minutes – display (and we should have felt). Based on the renowned Michael Crichton novel, Spielberg, David Keopp, and Crichton himself cut the story down to a simple and bloody nightmare.
We meet Dr. Grant, a dinosaur paleontologist (a power-filled performance by Sam Neil), and his fiancée and assistant, Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) working on a dinosaur excavation site. In a surprise visit, a mysterious, eccentric billionaire park owner, John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), asks the two renowned archaeologists to endorse his new yet-to-launch, live dinosaur park. As they arrive at the park situated on a private island, they are joined by a mathematician Dr. Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), the "blood- sucking" lawyer Gennaro (Martin Ferraro) representing Hammond's investors, and Hammond's two grandchildren, Lex and Tim. But then, just as a foreseeing Dr. Malcolm observes, the park goes amuck due to the betrayal of the only IT guy capable of running the park.
The whole film can be enfolded by an exchange with the mathematician Dr. Malcolm first declaring: "God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs." To which Dr. Ellie Sattler replies: "Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth." First, this story portrays man's destruction of God by creating dinosaurs; man became God and created and ruled their creations as a god, but what they created was superior to them. Secondly, Spielberg involves a forced female lead whose acting falls short of the magnitude of her role. Sure, strong female leads are great, but Laura Dern portrays Sattler as almost weak and gives overdone and exaggerated expressions radically different than her fiancé's near grim looks and demeanor. Even Dr. Malcolm could not see the chemical reaction between the couple.
Granted, this is considered one of the most frightening movies ever made. But deeper than the action and near escapes are the themes of paternal love. The grim Dr. Alan Grant never truly smiles, never has a genuine, good laugh over anything and above all, enormously despises children. However, chance intervenes when Mr. Hammond brings his grandchildren along to be the first visitors to the not-yet launched park. But when everything goes amuck in the park and Gennaro ditches the children in an act of cowardliness, Grant bravely but reluctantly takes them into his custody, who in turn treat him to the joys of parenthood.
Some of you may have even seen it in theaters in its release and noticed that the "theater shook." Not surprisingly, Jurassic Park was the first major movie to use surround sound (simply sound that surrounds), bringing the petrifying sounds of the Jurassic period to the screen. With cars smothered in blood and gore, bodies eaten as fast as anchovies and intense struggle of man against his creation, no wonder Jurassic Park has such a bloodstained name on it. The language is no better; expletives drop as fast as the bodies. But cowardliness is avenged, and Dr. Grant finds his own fatherly instinct. Definitely, Jurassic Park is satisfying and the events frightening, but it falls away from the strength and complexity of the original novel.