Trite and overblown insult to collective intelligence

Rating: 5/10 (2 January 2014)

It's perhaps not fair to judge a film 20 years after it came out, but on the other hand, that's how people define classics. This film fails. Yes, stunning CGI effects. Great photography. But the script is horrible. First, Spielberg's standby dysfunctional American family is in full bloom, with smart aleck kids and incompetent adults who when faced by technical challenges and alleged science seem to have an attention span of a five year old. No one listens to anyone else, no one collaborates, and the only voice of reason philosopher Dr Malcolm is played by Jeff Goldblum as a caricature. Every conceivable corny camera set up or angle is exploited, every lush note of John William's heroic score is designed to substitute the lack of human chemistry among the cast, every character reacts in a stereotypical fashion. Granted, perhaps Spielberg wanted idiot-savants (kids and adults alike) to showcase the dinos' personality, but even here we are treated to ridiculously anthropomorphised creatures instead of nature in the raw. I mean, dinos opening doors? The T-Rex was scary because it was hunting, not playing. Even the park's UNIX computer system is given a ridiculously amusing and needlessly complicated graphics Next-Generation interface to heighten the drama of rebooting the system after it is sabotaged. Not that this interface wasn't doable in 1993, but no one-of specialised system would have anything but text commands for such a massively complicated park. So, humanised computers, humanised dinos, but one dimensional humans. If it wasn't for the massive publicity campaign that let it slip that the film was 'about' hubris and so worthy of being taken seriously, this wouldn't pass muster with any but the simple-minded. In the end, the script is completely predictable, and no amount of gorgeous camera work can substitute hackneyed plotting.