A child's fantasy, but the world's nightmare.

Rating: 10/10 (30 April 2016)

When man messes with the secrets of nature, they are going to live to regret it, that is if they live to see it. "Think of it as a big cow", scientist Sam Neill tells the kids he's trapped in the jungle when a herbivore visits the tree they are sleeping in a tree that the friendly dinosaur grabs a ton of leaves from to make a huge salad. But even big herbivores can crush a small human with their gigantic feet, and then there are the carnivores which come in all sizes, and even a small one can devour a full grown man in a matter of minutes, bones and all.
If the shark of "Jaws" was frightening, the T-Rex and other species recreated at Richard Attenborough's mysterious island compound that he has set up as a possible amusement park. But there is no amusement when every species of meat eaters go after human prey.
Impressive and cinematic, this was a huge blockbuster that came the same year as the film that won Steven Spielberg his very first Oscar, "Schindler's List", and it is a total contrast from that now classic drama about surviving the worst real event in modern history. "Jurassic Park" is about survival, too, and one that we pray never comes true with human involvement.
Between Neill and Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Attenborough, this is pretty star-studded. The kids get grating at times, but the mixture of tense action and humor makes for a thrilling film. Once again, composer John Williams creates a classic score, adding to the many he's already done for a Spielberg film.
For me, this is a reminder why science needs to keep its corrupt fingers off of the mysteries of nature. Dinosaurs are fascinating, but there is a reason why civilization has thrived while they became extinct. I look at this as just one possibility of how they lived, how they looked, and possibly how they interacted with whatever human beings looked like when these not always friendly giants roamed the earth.