Spielberg and the Film That Changed Cinema Forever

Rating: 10/10 (7 August 2005)

Twelve years ago at the age of four, my uncle offered to take me to see Jurassic Park in theaters. My mom thought I'd be too scared, so I didn't go. Today though I own the film and have watched it multiple times not only for its gritty action and great suspense, but to analyze a film that successfully broke the rules and paved the way for all later cinematic big budget box office movies to follow.
The opening scene in the movie is very well done, foreshadowing the horror that would later be the plot of the film. However the movie truly doesn't start until after the main characters arrive to the island in a helicopter, while trumpets blast part of John Williams theme from the movie. The filming is simple, but the effect is great in preparing people for a heart pounding thrill ride through human imagination.
Throughout the movie there is great action. The suspense is gripping. In the movie, the dinosaurs are intelligent antagonists (or protagonists depending on the character's point of view) that can be gentle and yet many times deadly and terrifying. Spielberg created so many memorable scenes in the movie using different settings, dinosaurs, and action.
Should this movie have had any Oscar nominations for best acting? No, the acting in this movie was good, but not anything revolutionary. However, everyone stayed in character well. Sam Neill was good as the serious Dr. Grant, and was pretty serious the entire movie. Laura Dern's acting as Dr. Sattler was probably one of the weaker performances. Richard Attenborough as John Hammond shined in some areas and in other areas was stale. The best performance had to go to Jeff Goldblum for playing Dr. Ian Malcolm. He is very energetic and humorous, thanks to the many one-liners and unique situations his character was given.
Captivating is the only way to describe the scenery and sets in the movie. Everything is done in a large scale manner and is just so believable. Also, the music in the movie is a triumph. The score was one of John Williams best.
What made this movie a ground breaking achievement however? Originally the movie was suppose to use all mechanical dinosaurs and miniatures.. However, that changed one day when Spielberg made a visit to ILM, which showed him a computer generated dinosaur. All the miniatures were replaced. The result was something people had never seen before. ILM put on the big screen images that were made by computers. Not all of the scenes using computer were great and sometimes they looked fake, but yet other times it was impossible to judge what was computer and what was real. The CGI in the movie, twelve years later, is still considered some of the best in any movie. With a blend of mechanical dinosaurs and CGI, the visual effects were something that took the world by surprise and blew audiences out of the water.
All in all, Jurassic Park is a working piece of art and a cinematic achievement. It is also one of Spielberg's many all time great movies. The CGI craze started with Jurassic Park and has now taken big budgeted movies by storm. In decades to come, Jurassic Park, unlike dinosaurs, will not die out as just another film.
Oh and to sum this all up, this movie deserves much more than a 7.4 here.