A well-made thrill ride with dinosaurs.

Rating: 8/10 (15 May 2008)

Of course they were going to make a movie based one this book, and of course Steven Spielberg, the king of the box office, was going to direct it. It did happen and the result is a spectacular vision of what dinosaurs really might have looked like when they lived on Earth. Of course, with Spielberg at the helm and ILM doing the special effects, everything here looks stunning, even by today's standards. The action sequences are very well-shot and the suspense hangs over us for the better part of the second half of the movie. The biggest flaw here is the human characters. They aren't developed nearly as much as they should be and only the Jeff Goldblum character is interesting at all. Still, we really aren't supposed to get close to these characters, just sit back and watch dinosaurs try to kill them. For film nerds, there is plenty to dissect and critique. For the average movie lover, this is simply a well-made thrill ride.. with dinosaurs.