Revolutionary CGI Effects...Simply Breathtaking Movie!

Rating: 10/10 (8 October 2008)

Michael Crichton, in his novel, tells us how it is possible for us to have dinosaurs walking along side us in today's time. Steven Spielberg ambitiously takes it on himself to showcase the idea of dinosaurs walking and running along with us. And my God, what a wonderful job he does! Jurassic Park is simply an amazing movie that makes us drop our jaws and look in amazement and bewilderment at the dinosaurs as they walk on the silver screen. No encyclopedia and no book can be as effective as this movie is when it comes to showing what dinosaurs were and how grand they were when they ruled the earth.
The photography in the movie is outstanding. There is a scene at the beginning of the movie where we get to see the helicopter land on the heliport near a waterfall. The very beauty of the nature puts a smile on your face. And to make this shot even more wonderful, there is a wonderful music score that further broadens the smile. It puts you in a different mood altogether. And it does not fail to reproduce the magic even when you are seeing it again and again. Till today, whenever I see this one scene, it still puts a smile on my face.
Finally, when you get to that part of the movie where the dinosaurs are seen for the first time, your jaws drop. You look at them in sheer amazement. You are almost convinced that somehow dinosaurs continue to exist and all the filmmakers did was to capture them on their cameras! No, not true. Dinosaurs do not exist and the ones we see in this movie are computer animations. Any man who does not have any idea about how effective computer animation can be, they are surely going to believe that these mammoth creatures exist. There is much realism in them.
Prior to Jurassic Park, you always have had movies which were based on the concept of man vs beast. Once the movie has revealed the dinosaurs to us, the movie essentially becomes a struggle of survival. The dinosaurs are no longer secured and humans are in danger. I did not have any problem in this typicality of the plot. Because, it is not always necessary to create new plots. You can try and improvise on existing ones and show them in a more creative and different way. The Jurassic Park does that. So, I would not call it a weakness in the movie since it handles the overall plot beautifully.
If there is one complaint I would have for the movie, it is with regard to the villainous computer nerd who tries to sell off the embryos for cold cash. This part of the movie is a little loose and could have been handled in a better way. Also, the man who gets locked up in the toilet and the hunter getting outsmarted by the dinosaur are some things in the movie that are lame especially in comparison to how the overall plot has been so beautifully handled. But I still cannot take anything away from the movie. Sometimes negatives can be ignored if the positives are overwhelmingly strong. And the positives of the movie are way too strong for these things to be taken too seriously.
The movie is meant to be exciting and exciting it no doubt is. Steven Spielberg does a wonderful job with the Jurassic Park and this movie is surely destined to be a significant part of cinema history. It will be remembered for its special effects which were so excellently done. Though produced in early 90s, this movie can still be used as a benchmark to evaluate the standing of even the newer movies. This movie gets a 10/10 from me. Highly recommended for both watching and adding as a part of personal collection.