Jurassic Park

Rating: 9/10 (16 March 2005)

Directed by Steven Spielberg (Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan), this film, along with Terminator 2, set the standard for advances in special effects, and it was a favourite film for me growing up, still is, based on the novel by Michael Crichton. Basically palaeontologist Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) are renowned for studying dinosaur bones, and are invited by the founder and CEO of bio-engineering company InGen, John Hammond (Lord Sir Richard Attenborough) to visit, certify and endorse the opening of his newly created theme park on Isla Nublar, an isolated Costa Rican island. Also invited are mathematician and chaos theorist Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) and lawyer Donald Gennaro (Martin Ferrero), the guests enter Jurassic Park, and are stunned by the sight of a living breathing dinosaur, a Brachiosaurus, plus two others and a herd of Parasaurolophus in the distance. Hammond takes them to the visitor centre where a laboratory tour explains that dinosaur DNA was extracted from the bodies of mosquitoes found trapped in hardened tree sap, called amber, and the incomplete DNA strains had sequences gaps filled by frog DNA, and to prevent breeding all dinosaurs have been engineered to be female, despite being initially stunned some of the guests question the ethics of bringing extinct (by selection) creatures back to life. The group are joined by Hammond's grandchildren, Tim (Joseph Mazzello and Lex Murphy (Ariana Richards), children being his target audience, to take the tour of Jurassic Park, with Hammond and his team watching from the control room, but it does not go to plan, as dinosaurs including the Dilophosaurus not appearing, and getting out of the controlled Explorer cars they find a sick Triceratops. It gets worse when a tropical storm has been reported as heading for the island, computer programmer Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight) uses this opportunity, he has been bribed by a corporate rival to steal dinosaur embryos, he deactivates security systems to gain access to them and escape, in doing this the guests in the cars come to a stop, and fences are failing all over the park. This leads to this escape of the most dangerous of the dinosaurs in Jurassic Psrk, the Tyranosaurus Rex, Gennaro is devoured, Malcolm is badly injured, and Tim is pushed off the embankment whilst in the car into a tree, but he and Lex are safe and rescued, and they and Grant climb into another tree to hide until the morning, Nedry meanwhile trying to get to the dock is killed by the Dilophosaurus, and the embryos he collected are lost in the mud. Sattler and game warden Robert Muldoon (Edge of Darkness's Bob Peck) search for the survivors, only finding Malcolm alive, they narrowly an attack by the T. Rex, during the night Grant and the children get close to a herd of Brachiosaurus, and as morning comes they come across broken shells of hatched dinosaur eggs, Grant concludes that the frogs used to complete DNA sequences must have been West African bullfrogs, which have been known to change sex in a single-sex environment, allowing them to breed. While the three of them encounter a herd of Gallimimus, and avoid the T. Rex again, Hammond insists that to get security and communication systems working again they should reboot the system, reluctant chief engineer Ray Arnold (Samuel L. Jackson) agrees, and it does work, he heads for the maintenance shed to complete the rebooting process. Arnold does not return after some time, so Sattler and Muldoon head out, they find that the shutdown has allowed the escape of the other dangerous dinosaurs, the Velociraptors, Sattler makes it to the shed and using walkie talkie communicates with Hammond and Malcolm to reactivate the power systems, unaware that Grant and the children are climbing an electrocuted fence. Sattler discovers Arnold's severed arm and escapes an attack from a raptor in the shed, Muldoon is killed in a raptor ambush, and Grant and the children make it back to the visitor centre, Grant goes to search for the others, leaving the children inside, but they have two Velociraptors searching for them. Grant, Sattler and the children go the control room, and Lex being a computer hacker is able to restore full power, allowing the group to call for help, they are cornered by two raptors, but escape when the Tyrannosaurus suddenly appears to kill both raptors. In the end Grant voices his intent not to endorse the park, Hammond concurs this decision, and all the survivors board the rescue helicopter and leave the island. Also starring BD Wong as Henry Wu (he returned in Jurassic World), Gerald R. Molen as Gerry Harding, Miguel Sandoval as Juanito Rostagno and Cameron Thor as Lewis Dodgson. The acting is fine by all the actors in it, but the real stars are of course the dinosaurs, brought to life by both brilliant CGI special effects and models, the story is simple and the action is exciting, and the script is well written when you think about it, it is definitely a film the whole family can enjoy, many sequels have followed, but (besides Jurassic World) they have cannot surpass this original blockbuster, a great science-fiction adventure. It won the Oscars for Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Visual Effects and Best Sound, and it won the BAFTA for Best Special Effects, and it was nominated for Best Sound. Steven Spielberg was number 56 on The 100 Greatest Pop Culture Icons, the film was number 35 on 100 Years, 100 Thrills, it was number 15 on The Ultimate Film, and it was number 12 on The 100 Greatest Family Films. Very good!