Quite a good film

Rating: Null/10 (26 May 2000)

I remember when this film was being mentioned for the summer sweeps. It was said that it was going to be like Jaws on land. Well that is unfair to put that kind of pressure on it. After all, nothing can really compete with Jaws when it comes to summer time terror. But having said that, Jurassic Park is a good movie with quite a few tense scenes in it. But what Jurassic Park lacks, and what would have made it a better film is something that I think we all would have liked to see.
Dinosaurs are amazing creatures. Being that it is the year 2000, we all know what they look like now. But picture this back in 1993. No one had seen a dinosaur on film. Not a good one anyway. There were a few old television shows where really fake and synthetic looking T-Rex's would chase down it's human prey, but that doesn't really count. The world had never been exposed to Spielberg's vision and therefore, we had never really experienced what a dinosaur looked like for real. But if you remember what Dern's and Golddblum's reactions were when they first saw the Brontosaurus' roaming in the field, that is probably what we all felt. A complete and utter sense of awe. Here is a species of animal that has been extinct for about 65 million years and we are getting to witness it for the first time on the big screen. I just wish we had more time and more shots of these magnificent beasts roaming the earth. I wish we had more time to just watch what they do, how they move, how they interact. I realize this isn't a National Geographic show about dinosaurs, it is big budgetted Hollywood summer film that has to contain action, suspense and humour, but it just would have been nice to see them in all their glory for just a little longer than what we did. I guess seven years later it really doesn't matter how I feel seeing as there have been countless other films with dinosaurs in them and Jurassic Park went onto become the biggest movie ever until James Cameron came along and decided to sink some ship. But at the time it was a legitimate gripe.
As for the rest of the film, it is an enjoyable romp through the jungle. It has enough scares and suspense to keep everyone happy. It also boasts of a very impressive cast. Newman and Jules have substantial roles in it as well as Dern, Neil and Goldblum. I am not really going to say much else about it. After all, it has probably already been said. It's not that I didn't enjoy the film because I did, it's just that I think they could have done more with it.
7.5 out of 10
Jurassic Park 3 should be interesting, especially now since Spielberg has traded in his director's hat for just a producing one.