One of my first movies, still a classic

Rating: 9/10 (22 March 2015)

Jurassic Park is a film that gives a solid perspective of the old moral question of whether or not man should play God when dealing with other species on the planet. We are shown in various examples that man has little understanding of ecosystems (namely extinct ones) and the variables that arise that can completely alter the outcome.
The story centralizes around John Hammond's (Richard Allenborough) dream to bring dinosaurs into the modern day, and share the creation with the world by means of an amusement park. Initial problems arise with the park, which causes his company lawyer, Donald Gennaro (Martin Ferrero) to require experts to visit the location and determine it is safe. Between the two, Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill), a paleontologist, Dr. Ellie Satler (Laura Dern), a paleobotanist, and Dr. Ian Malcom (Jeff Goldblum) are brought to investigate the park's various systems. A combination of flawed practices by the geneticists and a greedy programmer, Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight) creates chaos when the dinosaurs escape into the park.
One of the first examples I noticed to show mankind's lack of understanding is when Dr. Satler notices some of the plant life near the visitor's center and identifies it as toxic, even going so far as calling it a life form that will defend itself, violently, if necessary. The plants were chosen simply because of their appearance, with little regard to their actual make-up. This plant variable also appears again when the group is examining a sick Triceratops and Satler is attempting to find the source of the poisoning by examining the dinosaur's droppings.
Another example is first shown when Drs. Grant, Malcolm, and Satler are going through the tour of the laboratory and are shown that dinosaur DNA is supplemented with frog DNA to fill in the gaps that are present in the amber samples they have. The dinosaurs are modified to be only female through Dr. Wu's (B.D. Wong) team of geneticists. Later on, it is discovered by Dr. Grant, Lex (Ariana Richards), and Tim (Joseph Mazzello) that the dinosaurs are in fact breeding, shown by the egg shells they find while making their way back to the visitor's center. Grant goes on to explain that some frogs are capable of changing gender in a single-sex environment, thus being able to breed. Since frog DNA was used to complete the dinosaur strands, it is a cause of the dinosaurs being able to reproduce.
Human greed also further creates chaos when Nedry creates a complex program to shut down the security and power systems throughout the park so he can steal dinosaur embryos for a rival of Hammond's. With the systems down, the dinosaurs escape their containments and begin to roam freely in the park. A highlight of the unpredictability of the dinosaurs is shown by the Velociraptors effectively hunting the team in various points. The level of intelligence of the raptors is completely underestimated by the humans, as they employed an ambush on Robert Muldoon (Bob Peck), and demonstrated the ability to problem-solve by opening doors and communicating.
Overall, it is shown that there is much about nature that man does not know. Exemplified here is an extinct ecosystem that man only knows about from fossil records. Though fossils give much insight into the past, it is not a complete picture. Also, there was a level of excitement on being able to accomplish the revival without looking into other methods that might have proved safer and more secure. The moral question is always present, that even though we have the capability to do a great act, it might not always be wise to actually do it. Especially when dealing with a living creature (plant or animal), as Malcolm stated in the movie, "Life finds a way."