worth seeing for its special effects

Rating: 1/10 (24 April 2003)

Who has ever dreamt of making a movie which the action would take place during our era with dinosaurs in the main roles. Steven Spielberg must have had the idea by thinking: "it would get a huge commercial success...". He aimed straight. Indeed, a few months after the launch of the movie in 1993, the movie beat the record of the box-office takings so far hold by E.T. by the same Spielberg. But this commercial triumph is especially due to a great marketing campaign organized around the movie. Like "Batman", "Jurassic Park" ranks among the movies that made a dramatic commercial way, mainly due to a strategic marketing campaign but which the movie, in itself, is devoid of interest.
The movie, actually, is worth seeing for its dramatic special effects (thanks to them, the movie won three Oscars in Hollywood in 1994). They can only encourage admiration and take the breathe away. Spielberg only intervened the most famous species of dinosaurs such as the tyrannosaurus and I think it's a pity that you don't see many other species. For example, you don't see the pterodactyl. Besides, you could say that dinosaurs were the sole attraction of the movie for an important number of spectators and it's why the movie attracted masses of people in theaters when the movie was released.
But if you take away this quality, the movie appears devoid of interest. The scantiness and the lack of inspiration of the screenplay are something that you feel. The screenplay follows an outline quite predictable: it starts with the explanations concerning the creation of the park and especially the dinosaurs ( well done, nevertheless to he scriptwriters who could show cleverness concerning the artificial birth of the dinosaurs. Then, the movie goes on with the visit and the discovery (inconclusive as dinosaurs don't appear) of the park and this is where problems appear (otherwise the movie wouldn't have existed): a storm is breaking, a bad engineer is switching the current off to steal dinosaurs embryos for his personal interests. More serious, dinosaurs are getting away and spreading panic among the visitors....
You can also notice that the screenplay contains several silly cues and characters appear colorless. They are overburden by dinosaurs that are real stars of the movie. it also doesn't succeed in hiding a few unlikelinesses: Tim, one of the two children is victim of a strong electric shock and however Sam Neil manages to save him! Moreover, Tim's sister succeeds in locking a dinosaur up in a room thanks to a code which is however, hard to get. So, children are in the depths of these unlikelinesses and it probably reflects Spielberg' tender look of childhood.
At the end, "Jurassic Park" is definitely one of Spielberg's worst movies.