Jurassic Park directed by Steven Spielberg

Rating: 8/10 (13 February 2016)

Jurassic Park is an adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and stars Sam Neill, Richard Attenborough and Jeff Goldblum. I tried to watch this film not too long ago but I wanted to watch a film that had the big blockbuster thrills of Jurassic World (the only Jurassic Park film I had seen at the time) and didn't want to go through the slow-burn beginning. But when I became a little older and a little wiser I put in Jurassic Park once again and viewed it with a lot of pleasure. The slow-burn beginning I now appreciate for the scientific ideas it raises to how a dinosaur could be brought back to life-though I do understand that was from the book. The beginning also sets up the characters who are all well realised by actors subtle and realistic performances and the beginning also has moments that are awe-inspiring still today with the timeless music and blend of amazing practical dinosaurs and CG that still makes me believe that I am seeing a real-life dinosaur moving. But even though I do love the beginning I love the rest of the movie ten times more. Every scene after that is memorable scene whether it's a car falling through a tree or velociraptors trying to kill kids in a kitchen or even just innocent scenes with herbivore dinosaurs. Steven Spielberg's direction and unique camera techniques I could go on forever but you already know what he's like. His direction strongly elevates the film to such a higher level than if the film was directed stalely and stiltedly like a very intense kitchen scene that instead of just cutting to close- ups every ten seconds pans for long amounts of time. Now that might sound that it doesn't mean much but it really gets you more invested in the situation. Now I don't want to make too many comparisons between films but what elevates the dinosaur aspect of Jurassic Park from Jurassic World is that Jurassic Park uses practical aesthetics whenever it can which gets you much more into the scene than if it's complete CGI. But just for clarification I thoroughly enjoy Jurassic World as a blockbuster monster thriller but it's clear which film comes up on top. Now as for the cast they have to be well-acted and likable for you to root for them and hope that they don't die. The two children, the brother and sister aren't annoying and stupid but are genuine kids who are terrified but don't just stand there wide-eyed in front of the dinosaur waiting to be pushed out of the way by an adult. They're genuine kids who would certainly be terrified but they get on because just because they are kids in a movie doesn't mean they shouldn't have the basic human instinct of survival. Sam Neill plays a solid, grounded and kind character that tries to protect the kids and while doing that learns something about him, Jeff Goldblum could be deemed the funny guy but he really is just a good character with some very witty dialogue and Richard Attenborough is excellent as the excited Park manager. My only flaws with the film is that I would have liked a tiny bit more of T-Rex action and I could sort of tell a disposable character would die but the T-Rex action bit I think will be fulfilled in the sequel when I get around to watching it and the disposable character death's while predictable had a brutal pay-off. But apart from those nit-picks I was immersed into the situation and looking back on it I don't think that there was one disposable scene. I was in awe at Spielberg's direction, the practical aesthetics and ground-breaking CG that created the dinosaurs and impressed by the really good performances so for that I am going to give Jurassic Park an A