Not without a certain flair, and certainly a lot more than mindless creature-feature thrills, Jurassic Park is quite the involving little adventure film.

Rating: 7/10 (9 August 2011)

Jurassic Park is Spielberg theme park hijinks unfolding in that of a theme park; his film a cut and thrust escapade through varying B-movie traits, tracts and ideas totalling up into an experience akin to that of romping through an array of 'themed' locales within a park proper. By the time one has had a go on the dodgems and the ghost train, one has been there long enough and built up enough verve for the huge trademark roller-coaster ride; after that experience, we bring ourselves back down with a shooting range or some spinning tea-cups. There are some terrific scenes of terror, chase and thrills in Jurassic Park that essentially act as the park's "leaner, meaner" rides, and they are dotted around some other sequences that effectively act as a prelude to those "leaner, meaner" rides – the fun of the fair before we're strapped in proper for the big one.
There is one instance, at a heightened moment of distress, in which a character must sprint for her life toward a small building located out in the dinosaur infested jungle. In running for the door, Spielberg shoots her jog from an Evil Dead-inspired low angle alluding to something small and monstrous being right there and then on her heels. Of course, there isn't actually anything there and the angle rings false in this sense; the sequence, like most theme park rides, runs on prolonged adrenaline built out of the thrills and spills on offer: the placing of one in a predicament of peril and fear that is out of the ordinary, but without with the intense risk of injury or death, thats' somehow pleasurable for the onlooker, even if it perhaps shouldn't be.
Spielberg will begin the film in the mould of his 1975 monster-movie Jaws; here, rather than focus on a teen-aged girl mangled to death by an unseen beast, we observe a middle-aged employee caught up in a botched operation by a creature the film's poster, like Jaws, tells us is a dinosaur. It is arguably more striking here, everything is organised and not as spontaneous as it was in Jaws; there are several professional-looking personnel armed and trained to deal with something which still gets the better of them. The death brings about a law-suit from the family of the deceased, lawyer Donald Gennaro (Ferrero) arrives at an amber mine owned by the employer of the deceased, whom it's established cannot turn up for such a sombre occasion out of business, such is his nature. By way of his dress, Gennaro looks out of sorts where he is and struggles to negate the terrain; alluding to a wider extent of being unable to deal with what he's getting into. Things develop and the owner, a certain John Hammond (Attenborough) whose wealth might exceed that of anyone else's in movie history, enlists three experts in archaeological doctors Grant (Neill) and Sadler (Dern), as well as doctor of mathematician Ian Malcolm (Goldblum), to tour certain facilities before they go public so as to give it a proverbial "nod".
Those facilities form the titular Jurassic Park, a place in which dinosaurs come to life and strut around like zoo creatures as the paying customers gawk on; a bit different to that of travelling to Finkley Down Farm, a family spot located in the South of England, where your biggest risk was having the crude paper bag of 'feed' you were given snatched from your very hands if you took your eye off the goats. Spielberg has fun with his monsters and his sequences of peril, but deserves credit for not rendering the presence of his humans as not much more than action figures in a children's fantasy game. Sadler and Grant are in a relationship, their archaeological digs are crude but sweetly old fashioned; they drink champagne, but only on the special occasions. Grant cannot fathom modern technology, but through the wonder of Hammond's innovations, he will come to face his fears of what it is he studies brought to life via technology, as well as doing well to banish his dislike of children. There is some fun to be had out of his rapport with Malcolm, who's "always looking out for the next ex-Mrs. Malcolm"; his eyes are on Sadler, he loves children and she wants some – when he tries to explain Chaos theory to her, we wonder if it is a genuine discussion or whether it's a bogus exercise that provides him with an opportunity to flirt and stroke her wrist.
There is great energy and craft in most of what constitutes antagonism with the dinosaurs, let loose by a fun sub-plot to do with a corrupt employee looking to steal DNA. The rendez-vous with the T-Rex, as it breaks out of his paddock with everyone beside it, is a superb exercise in sound and fear; the audience allowing a good look at the automobiles the characters travel in prior to departure via a long tracking shot capturing the pristine nature of the things and their advanced touch-screen technology and roomy qualities: later reduced to that of the equivalent of a T-Rex chewy-toy as the beasties run amok. There is talk of the Rex prior to this engagement as a threat; its skeleton in the main entrance brings us aware of its size, a similar trait Spielberg implements unto that of the Velociraptor, whose methods are verbally reiterated by Grant early on and whose claw Grant carries around with him as a novelty charm shows us their weapon. From its character driven beginnings to its calm; peaceful and exhausted ride home akin to that of the driving back from a theme park experience with the kids, Jurassic Park combines meaty thrills with enjoyable film-making substance capitalising on some wondrous special effects for the time and studious direction from a man capable of delivering on as many fronts as possible.