Stomping, chomping dinosaur action par excellence.

Rating: 9/10 (15 November 2008)

I was raised on a diet of dinosaur and monster films, and so when Steven Spielberg gave us Jurassic Park in 1993 promising unbelievably lifelike prehistoric reptiles, I was at the head of the queue (metaphorically speaking of course, since I pre-booked my tickets!!). Needless to say, Steve's amazing big screen version of the Michael Crichton bestseller not only delivered on the promises, making the film a deservedly huge box-office success, but it also redefined special effects for years to come.
Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum play three scientists who are invited to a multi-million dollar theme park featuring cloned dinosaurs, which the owner (good old Dickie Attenborough) hopes the trio of boffins will endorse. However, when one disloyal employee sabotages the park's computer system in order to try and steal valuable embryos for a competitor, the guests get to see the exhibits extremely close-up, and must fight for survival against the mighty T-Rex and a pack of intelligent and voracious Velociraptors.
The film's plot is a somewhat stripped-down version of the book, and the narrative suffers occasionally for the lack of detail, but with Spielberg at the helm, the result is still a juggernaut of an action film that provides enough thrills, spills and adventure to make it unmissable for fans of creature features. The director manages to pull off some spectacular shots that are amongst the most memorable of his career (such as the simple yet iconic 'water-ripples' as the T-Rex approaches), and with the industry's top FX wizards at his disposal (including ace animatronics expert Stan Winston), he has made a film that still looks amazing a decade and a half later.
The best of the trilogy (although part IV is currently in the pipeline, so we shall have to wait and see what happens with that one), Jurassic Park is an excellent piece of cinematic escapism, and way better than anything Spielberg has given us in recent years (I'm still reeling from the latest Indy film and the debacle that was War of the Worlds).