Not always great....but very entertaining monster movie!

Rating: 7/10 (24 October 2005)

Like most kids back in 1993, I couldn't wait to see Jurassic Park. The fact that I was already interested in Dinosaurs made the film even more of a holy grail. Jurassic Park was the film that dreams were made of for yours truly, and despite my massively over-inflated expectations - the film really DID deliver. I saw it in cinema several times, and, at the time, couldn't ever see anything topping Jurassic Park. Of course, this was just the simple view of a child and, having seen many other films by now, as well as several subsequent viewings of this one; it's clear that this isn't the film that I once thought it was. But don't get me wrong - the fact that I now understand that films do indeed get better than this don't mean that Jurassic Park isn't a brilliantly well sculpted piece of entertainment. The plot is taken from the Michael Crichton book of the same title, and follows a new theme park, where the attractions are Dinosaurs. We follow a group made up of palaeontologists, other experts and the owner's children as they visit the park. Naturally, everything goes wrong and the lot of them are thrust into the world of the dinosaurs!
Steven Spielberg can win a million Oscars for Schindler's List, but it doesn't change the fact that entertainment is his forte when it comes to film-making. The debate as to whether or not he's a great director can rage, but he definitely does know how to entertain if nothing else - and he shows that brilliantly with this film. The build up to the main action can be a little dull at times, but you're always on the edge of your seat due to the fact that you know it's not going to be all rosy. The film really comes together in the scene that sees the 'king' of the dinosaurs - the Tyrannosaurus Rex break free from it's cage. This scene is incredibly well directed - so much so that the rest of the movie never comes close to outdoing it. Spielberg tends to cast his movies with likable actors, and he's done that here. This does make the movie easy to like, but the resoundingly 'good' characters are often as flat as something that the T-Rex has stood on, and that doesn't do the movie any favours. I'm a big hater of CGI - except when it's done well, and I've got to say that it largely is here. Some scenes look very fake indeed, but the monster effects give it an old-school monster flick feel, and to be honest I'm glad that not all the dinosaurs look absolutely great. On the whole - this wont impress the people looking for great acting and the like; but Jurassic Park really is a first rate thriller, and if you like your films to be fun - you'll like Jurassic Park.