Theme park ride of a movie

Rating: 7/10 (16 April 2003)

*****Warning, Spoilers*****
Jurassic Park, a movie about a theme park, really is a theme park ride in itself. There's no doubt the stars of the film are the dinosaurs, rather than the actors (indeed, by saving Sam Neil and co from the Raptors at the end of the film, the T-Rex is revealed to be the hero of the story), and Steven Spielberg uses all his expertise to showcase the remarkable creations of Stan Winston and ILM. 10 years on, the CG still looks great - obviously a quantum leap over earlier efforts from the likes of the Abyss and Terminator 2, but what's remarkable is how good it looks compared to more recent efforts. The Dinosaurs look completely realistic, lacking the cartoonish quality alot of recent CG has. Clearly a huge amount of care went into making the creatures seem like living, thinking animals. Credit must also go to Stan Winston for his fantastic animatronics - the sick Triceratops in particular is brilliant.
While this film lacks the heart of some of his other work, it's clear that few directors can do an action-adventure movie as well as Spielberg. I wasn't born when Jaws came out, but I can clearly remember my reaction in the cinema when I saw Jurassic Park 10 years ago, and I imagine that audiences in 1975 would have reacted in the same way - pressed back into the seat, heart pounding as, in this case the T-Rex pounds relentlessly after the heroes. Spielberg builds up the tension in these scenes masterfully, with the vibrations on the surface of the glass of water performing the same role as John Williams score in Jaws - letting the audience that something huge and extremely nasty will be appearing imminently. Speaking of John Williams, he of course turns in yet another instantly catchy score, even if its not quite on the same level as Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
In terms of performances, there's nothing particularly wrong with the film - Sam Neil, Laura Dern and the rest give perfectly creditable performances, but only Jeff Goldblum really rises above the ordinary, in part due to his character having all the best lines ("that is one big pile of Sh*t"). Where the film does fall down is in the inclusion of the awful annoying kids. Timmy in particular is like a prototype for Anakin Skywalker in The Phantom Menace, although admittedly Joseph Mazzello is a way better actor than Jake Lloyd. There was a time when Spielberg, and George Lucas for that matter, made blockbusters that didn't pull their punches, and appealed to millions of kids in doing so. Now it seems family entertainment means cute 8 year old heroes and FBI agents carrying walkie talkies instead of guns. Oh, well.
In summary Jurassic Park lacks the soul to be considered an all time great, but is still fantastic popcorn entertainment with some brilliant special effects.
Rating - 7/10