The quintessential Dinosaur movie will likely never be topped

Rating: 10/10 (20 August 2008)

It's true that few people can create a visual story and spectacle like Stephen Spielberg. I can almost remember seeing Jurassic Park as a kid in the movie theatre for the first time and if you asked me then if I liked it I probably would have told you that it was the greatest movie I had ever seen and meant it. Years later, seeing it again, it has perhaps some of that youthful exuberance I once felt for it but that doesn't make it any less powerful and brilliant and wonderfully created. I think just seeing the film outside of a movie theatre takes away some of the magic because the dinosaurs just aren't as enormous and terrifying and jaw dropping as they are on a 200 foot movie screen. Still I did pick Jurassic Park to be the first movie I watched on my beloved new 42 Inch Plasma which helped a great deal. The characters are intricately created and you become enthralled in their adventure. Spielberg has always had a way of making characters come to life and you become completely attached to them which makes the story even better. On top of that Jurassic Park coins the thrill a minute phrase giving you a non stop jaw dropping riveting story about action and danger and of course dinosaurs of all kinds. The film is just quite simply a modern day classic. One of my favourite scenes in movie history is the scene with the Tyrannasaurus Rex attacking the jeep for the first time with Tim trapped inside. That scene has stayed with me for years along with the Raptors in the kitchen later on in the film. The movie is not soft enough for really little kids but it's not too edgy for the pre-teen/teen crowd but definitely edgy and intelligent enough for any adult or movie lover to watch again and again.
Jurassic Park started me on a brief love affair with Sam Neill. His dry and often snarly performance as Dino genius Dr. Allan Grant was perfect. I think his performances in other films as well as this one could be interpreted as an acquired taste but there is something just perfect about the way he interacts with the cast and the script for the movie. Laura Dern is also good as Ellie Sattler. Although she wasn't my favourite character she added a tone of emotion and a strong female lead and had good chemistry with Neill. Jeff Goldblum was just terrific, possibly one of his best roles as he too tends to be an acquired taste, as Dr. Ian Malcolm, a mathematician who warns right from the beginning of playing God. Goldblum is level headed and definitely delivers some of the best lines in the film as the comic relief in a serious deadpan kind of way. Legendary actor Richard Attenborough returned to acting after fifteen years away to portray Billionaire John Hammond, the creator and mastermind of Jurassic Park. He is terrific in many ways and just really captures the character and his conflict with what he's created. Joseph Mazzello and Ariana Richards play Tim and Lexi Murphy, Hammond's grandkids. Both are terrific and really capture the teen audience very well and have some really hair raising scenes. Neither of them unfortunately went on to much else but they were terrific in this film. One of the most under used characters that I really thought could have also been a leading role was Bob Peck who played Robert Muldoon. He had a mysterious hero quality about him and I really wanted to see more of him as he ended up facing his greatest fears in the raptors when they escape. He was terrific in the small role he was given. The top notch supporting cast is also amazing including the legendary Samuel L. Jackson, Wayne Knight, B.D. Wong, and Martin Ferrero as the "blood sucking lawyer" as Hammond refers to him.
This is just one of those films, especially by Spielberg that was destined to be a classic and it is one you can watch over and over again which I have done frequently. The movie has an amazing story, riveting action and everything that makes an epic film amazing. Perhaps they dropped the ball by serializing the films (although the second book by Creighton was amazing) and I will get to reviewing the sequels too but no matter how you look at it, the first Jurassic Park is a movie that every single person must see period. 10 out of 10
***Update*** Had the amazing opportunity to see Jurassic Park in its (unfortunately 3D) Re-release. While the 3D changed nothing and wasn't even that impressive, seeing the movie on the big screen was amazing...again. I even got a little bit emotional seeing a few of the scenes again that shaped my movie going as a youngster. This movie is still a modern day epic classic.