A breathtaking summer blockbuster, and the ultimate creature feature

Rating: 10/10 (7 December 2014)

Wonder and terror. These are the words to describe Steven Spielberg's masterpiece Jurassic Park. Wonder at the size, beauty, and majesty the creatures on the screen, and the idea that men have created this. And terror upon seeing just what these creatures are capable of, and how badly the dream has gone awry.
The creatures I'm talking about are of course dinosaurs, and the dream is that they can be brought back to life and everyone can see them. If you didn't know this coming in, you've obviously spent the last 17 years living as a hermit in the wilderness. How else could you not be familiar with the movie that spawned two sequels, an entire section of a major theme park, and countless toys? So I'm trusting that if you can work this computer you already know the story of how John Hammond brings experts from multiple fields, plus his grandchildren, to get a sneak peek at his new dinosaur park, and how everything goes wrong and people get eaten.
Good. Now that we have that out of the way, let's get down to why Jurassic Park has done so well and become so well known. Basically, it's just awesome in every sense of the word. This is one of those movies that frightens, excites, amazes, and even delivers a clear, meaningful message. It works on every level, which is a testament to writer Michal Crichton, director Steven Spielberg, and the army of technicians and animators who worked to bring this story to life.
The whole selling point of this enterprise is the dinosaurs. Dinosaurs have captured the public's imagination since their discovery, and drawn countless visitors to museums worldwide. Seriously, who doesn't like, or at least have some interest in these long dead beasts? That's why there have been so many previous films about dinosaurs, starting with Thomas Edison's The Lost World in 1925. Some of these movies, like King Kong, have been quite good. Others, like King Dinosaur, not so much. But all these movies have suffered from a serious problem: the dinosaurs just don't look real. Whether they be stop-motion puppets made of clay, men in rubber suits, or lizards with fins strapped to their backs, it's difficult to make yourself believe they're actual living dinosaurs.
Jurassic Park changed this completely. The filmmakers understand that we've come to see dinosaurs, and they've spared no expense in showing them to us. The animatronics and CGI used to create these dinosaurs is so convincing that the difficulty here lies in reminding yourself that they're only an effect. The scene in which we first catch sight of the brachiosaurs is one of the most awe-inspiring ever put on film. The characters in the movie are left speechless by what they see, and so were the audiences in the theater. And when the T.rex pursues the jeep in the famous "Objects in mirror" sequence, it's an absolutely heart pounding adrenaline rush.
But at the same time, the movie understands the power of the unseen. Probably the scariest part of Jurassic Park is right at the beginning, when the raptor nearly gets lose as its being moved into the holding pen. We get no more than a few fleeting, poorly lit glimpses of the beast, but that's all we need. Between the hair-raising noises coming from inside the crate, the terror on the actor's faces, and the fact that this thing is still fighting despite repeated shocks from a dozen tazers, we can tell that whatever's in there is something extremely powerful and incredibly deadly.
Jurassic park has a major asset in its excellent screenplay. Screen adaptations of major novels can be a dicey propositions, as Sphere and Congo have shown, but here the novel has been adapted wonderfully. In fact, I would go as far as to say that this screenplay is in some ways an improvement on the original. Extraneous characters and a rather unnecessary subplot have been removed, and I for one find Hammond far more interesting as a kindly old man who slowly realizes what a terrible mistake he's made than as a ruthless venture capitalist who dies blaming everyone else for the park's failure.
Important as what the screenplay has removed is what it's left intact. Nearly all of the book's most exciting parts have been included, and the characters are still well drawn, especially Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) the outspoken, womanizing, rock star mathematician who serves to convey the film's message.
Although many have taken this to be a warning against cloning, its message lies deeper than that. It's about the difference between what science can do and what it should do, and the need for advancement and innovation, but also caution. And, as Malcolm says more than once, nature will find a way. This means that not only will nature find a way around all of man's attempts to control it, but that it will make a comeback from even the greatest devastation. The latter point is made clear in the book, when Malcolm calls the idea that man could ever destroy the earth "unbelievably arrogant." This is one thing that I wish could have been expounded on further, but overall Crichton's ideas are conveyed very well. And it's not every day that you see a movie explain chaos theory in a way that's both understandable and scientifically correct.
The little touches are also done well, like the ripples in the water that announce rex's approach, or the delightfully cheesy intro video at the welcome center. And the musical score is one of John William's best. My favorite line in the movie is when Grant tells Hammond "After careful consideration, I have decided not to endorse your park", and Hammond replies "So have I."While I would highly discourage travel to this fictional park, I have no reservations in endorsing this movie.