Pales in comparison to the novel.

Rating: 6/10 (3 May 2007)

Spielberg took a great novel and turned it into blockbuster cotton candy for children and young teenagers.
I couldn't believe what was unfolding before me when I watched this film. Crichton's book was so much richer in detail and much more edge of your seat suspenseful.
I hated the way it was rewritten for the screen and I didn't like how the characters in the film were pale shadows of their book selves. The characters in the book were easy to like. In the movie they were entirely peripheral to the CGI dinosaurs. The magic of the novel was that the characters were equally as important as the peril they faced. In the film it was all about the dinosaurs, the actors might as well have been cardboard cut-outs.
I know people who didn't read the book don't want to hear this kind of thing but trust me if you did read the book first you know what I'm talking about.
I can imagine if I didn't read the book first I would have maybe liked this film more. As it stands I didn't entirely despise it. The scene that properly introduced the first dinosaur for our pleasure was somewhat moving. Yet they didn't save the poor story telling and lousy translation from book to novel. Situations that made the book a great read were entirely omitted from the film in true Hollywood form.
I like Spielberg's work and he's proved his worth but this movie would have been better left to someone who wasn't so hell bent on getting the effects right, while almost completely ignoring the elements of the novel that made Jurassic Park great.