Your Scientists Were So Preoccupied With Whether Or Not They Could That They Didn't Stop To Think If They Should

Rating: 8/10 (3 October 2011)

Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler are two paleontologists who are invited by reclusive tycoon John Hammond to visit a theme park he is building on an island near Costa Rica. When they arrive they are astounded to discover Hammond seems to have recreated creatures which haven't existed for sixty-five million years
In 1993, Jurassic Park did for monster movies what King Kong had originally done in 1933. It combines the new (at the time) visual effects technology of CG with a fantastic story and great characters to create a dizzying exciting movie packed with action, scares, intrigue, drama and humour. After a few too many years (in my view) attempting to win acclaim, this is Spielberg doing what he does better than just about anybody - creating pure cinematic entertainment which is visually stunning and emotional dynamite. He sets up the story with brilliant flourishes, like the opening killing of the park worker where all we see of the monster is a closeup of its eye, then moves on to show us the dinosaurs in a perfectly judged mixture of awe, wonder and terror. The eight minute sequence where the T-Rex attacks the children in the rainstorm is for my money the best monster scene in the whole of cinema, sustaining an incredible level of suspense throughout. The entire movie is filled with such brilliant scenes though - the juxtaposition of the kids on the electric fence with Ellie trying to turn the power back on, the hide-and-seek with the raptors in the kitchen. Even the quiet moments where Alan and the kids hide in the tree or when Hammond tells the melancholic story of his flea circus are all charged with emotion. The whole cast are excellent, with Neill and Dern great non-star leads and Goldblum stealing all the best lines ("I'm always on the lookout for a future ex-Mrs Malcolm"). Peck is terrific as the warden Muldoon, complete with big game hunter outfit and a memorable two-word final speech. There are some detractors who claim Michael Crichton's book is a retread of his earlier Westworld, substituting dinosaurs for robots, but this misses the point - the twin ideas of finding dinosaur DNA in mosquito blood and then housing the monsters in a theme park are spectacularly brilliant and original. If I have one thing that irks me in the story it's the industrial espionage subplot, purely because I'm not sure it needs it, even if it is the kicker for the power shutdown, and Knight is a bit too obvious as a fat guy slob villain who does everything wrong. These are minor quibbles though in a movie which is breathtaking from start to finish. The photography by Dean Cundey (John Carpenter's old cameraman) is stunning throughout, and John Williams contributes an extraordinarily beautiful score full of choral tones and delicate brass motifs. The visual effects are stunning (the shot of the T-Rex chasing Goldblum down the rain-soaked road is my favourite I think); Dennis Muren redefined what CGI could do for this movie and the late great Stan Winston built some amazing mechanical dinosaurs (including a 6000 kilo T-Rex) - both men deservedly won an Oscar. This is the best kind of Hollywood blockbuster; a rich, eye-popping, scary entertainment extravaganza from a tremendous fantasy story, lovingly crafted by one of the greatest filmmakers of all time.