One of the most well crafted sci fi flicks in the history of cinema, and not just because of the special effects.

Rating: 9/10 (6 February 2005)

A lot of people degrade this film my saying it has bad acting and a bad screenplay. I tell you what, it's far better than a lot of action adventures before and after it.
First of all, the acting and character development is good here, and is just about all we need from this kind of movie and should have been nothing more in my opinion. The kids aren't annoying, they actually play there parts very well, especially in the kitchen scene, and they don't overact, seeing as they just escaped death by been eaten alive more than a few times. Wouldn't you scream at least a bit if a giant 35 foot carnivorous reptile proceeded to eat it's way through your jeep, knowing your probably gonna die if someone doesn't do something about it from the outside, or if you had your foot a hair's width from the clapping jaws of an unrelentless man sized expert in ripping you limb from limb? I know i would. Plus a lot of people say that all the actors do is basically just scream and run all the time, which is so far from the truth it's docking with the Hubble telescope. Besides the kids, who are allowed to scream, there are only a couple or three at max screams from the title roles. And who wouldn't be running for there lives any way considering the circumstances. These actors portray their characters in a life like and honest manner. Alan Grant is quite conservative socially, hates kids but cares about them none the less. Ellie Satler is Grant's opposite, but shares the same love for kids more openly, and cares about the safety of everyone. Both her and Alan care a lot about their work and this park seemed to be a childhood dream come true, at first. Ian Malcolm is a sceptic, a lady's man, a little eccentric philosophically and loves kids, shown in quite a foolish stunt (the whole idea) in the T-Rex attack. Donald the lawyer is all about the money, a coward, likes to take the easy way out and not very good with kids at all. Finally John Hammond has a good heart, but is too obsessed with his own visions to let them go easily without jeopardising the former. These are characters! And i liked them and wasn't bored by the bits in between the dinosaur scenes because of it. Sure the dialogue is a bit simple at times, but it doesn't hurt the film or it's characters. In fact, it's all very authentic and down to earth, as apparent in the scenes inside the jeeps during the tour.
The story is also underrated. For one, do we really need anything over indulgent here. Jaws didn't. Alien sure as hell didn't. Both films rely on the bizarre circumstances that the characters are in to provide the interest. For Jaws, a rampaging shark that's on a killing spree, with a bunch of sailors out to sire it's death bed. For Alien, a cargo ship crew that docks with a lethal extra terrestrial that needs to be destroyed. There. Not so brain numbing is it. The same with JP. VIP entries to a one of a kind theme park strive for survival as dinosaurs try to rip them apart. I don't see what the huge deal is with dumping this film on it's story, when the others are sired as complete masterpieces not based on that same issue (they are masterpieces). It's all about how well the films are able to render their "monsters" in a believable fashion, and have them also scare the s*** out of ya at the same time. All the films deal with something that is unknown to a lot of people, but conveys them to the audience in a form that you could see them resembling if you imagined them yourselves.
Jurassic Park does this to great effect, and was the first dinosaur film to actually portray it's creatures as animals. This gives you a higher degree of respect for them, something that you'd give a bear or a lion. The film fully realises how dangerous these things are and presents them as a living breathing threat that demands respect. In the T-Rex scene when Sam Neil lights up a flare to distract the beast from the jeep is a tremendous example of how these's creatures are animals, not monsters, reacting only on basic survival instincts, in this case sight. This makes the intelligence of the raptors, therefore, far more intimidating and really sets in the feeling of terror when they're at work, knowing what they're capable of. But unlike the third JP film, this intelligence doesn't border on ridiculous. It's there as a survival and hunting tool, which keeps them believable as animals, no more than that as the third would have you believe. This nurtures that primal fear we all have of things that are out there that can kill you if they had the chance, only dinosaurs aren't out there, but that's what makes this film so masterful.
One of the main flaws with the two sequels was the fact that the dinosaurs were now becoming more like monsters than animals, and so the campy, silly factor drew in to make itself fully realised in the third film, which, while been a solid action film, is a joke compared to the original, having these majestic creatures made a mockery of.
This is my all time favourite film, and the first that got me into a cinema. Its still got the stuff today and no matter what people think, still has one of the best screenplays for a sci-fi movie.