Spielberg's exemplary dinosaur adventure holds up like it was released yesterday

Rating: 10/10 (13 April 2018)

I was 9 years old when Jurassic Park came out in theaters and I looked forward to seeing it for months. I read the novel, I bought the toys and trading cards, and asked my parents every single day what day we were going to see it. Sunday of opening weekend, we drove to our nearest theater to see it. Sold out, we drove up Wisconsin Ave. in Washington, DC until we reached a multiplex in Bethesda, Maryland that was showing it on half of its 10 screens. My dad parked on the side of the road and ran into the theater, came back out with tickets that were starting in five minutes. We parked in the garage and I ran into that theater just as the previews were starting in a dark, packed theater.
For the next two hours I was transfixed, terrified, and entertained. As soon as it was over, I wanted to see it again. At nine years old, it's hard to make your parents take you to see a movie for a second time, but somehow I did talk them into it, and then late in the summer I was able to see it a third time for a friend's birthday.
As soon as it came out on VHS, I bought it and watched it every single day for a good year.
Flash forward twenty years later during the 3d re-release and I had a day off in the middle of the week. My wonderful wife talked me into going to see it in IMAX 3-D by myself in the middle of the day and as the movie started I was so thankful to have agreed. I was nine years old again in that dark theater all by myself on a tuesday at 12:00. The opening credits shook the theater just like the THX sound did back in '93. The T-Rex was awe-inspiring and terrifying, the Raptors had me jumping in my seat.
This is what the magic of movies is all about and why going into a dark room to watch a story that could never actually happen on a big screen is my favorite thing to do.