Masterpiece hardly describes it

Rating: 10/10 (12 March 2009)

Story time! I remember that, as a little kid, at a friend's house one day, everyone started watching a Jurassic Park movie (I now know it was the second one). Anyhow, I managed to get scared out of my wits within the first 10 minutes. Long story short, Jurassic Park was one of the movies my mom would never let me watch as a kid. So it kind of sucked, me "playing the home game" while the other kids talked about how amazing Jurassic Park was (ah! I miss the grade school days). I miraculously managed to not have the movie spoiled (or not to remember having it spoiled). So when my film teacher announced "we're going to watch a movie that, like Terminator 2, really developed special effects: Jurassic Park", I was really pleased that I would finally get to see just how good the film all the kids way back when loved was. I was not disappointed.
Have I mentioned how much I love Steven Spielberg? Well, I will now. Spielberg is an amazing director, without a doubt my favourite. He has yet to let me down. First of all, the graphics in Jurassic Park are amazingly believable, even though it's obviously fake watching it today. Second, Spielberg's direction style is just amazing. Many shots were reinforced and made really powerful thanks to his handling of the camera (combined with a heavenly score from the great John Williams).
Prior to Jurassic Park, I couldn't remember many thrillers where I was genuinely thrilled. Things don't explode to provide a moment's excitement in Jurassic Park, it is a pure roller-coaster of thrills from beginning to end. I also genuinely cared for what happened to the characters. Terrific acting took care of that. How good was it? Let's put it this way: I have a terrible habit of biting my nails. I never once did this while watching Jurassic Park.
The movie's main villain, Dennis Nedry, is one of the most interesting villains I've ever seen. Spielberg purposely makes his intentions unclear. Was he planning to return and put the park back to normal? Or was he going to leave with the boat, and abandon everyone? Either way, as much as I hated the idiot for shutting down the electrical fences, I didn't hate him enough to want him to die. I was genuinely frightened for the guy when he confronted the dinosaur.
"The human characters are a ragtag bunch of half-realized, sketched-in personalities, who exist primarily to scream, utter dire warnings, and outwit the monsters", Mr. Ebert? I think not! I don't know just what it was: John Williams' music, Spielberg's direction, or fantastic acting, but every character, from Richard Attenborough's to the two kids, was fully developed in the movie. This is a thriller that genuinely thrills (I'm happy to say I've been desensitized as to the disturbing bits).
Apparently, when Jurassic Park came out, my uncle bought tickets and saw it thirteen times. Before I saw it, I thought to myself, "How could you see a movie so many times?" Now that I've seen it, I see why. Jurassic Park is a masterpiece, and a groundbreaking achievement in technology as well. Thank you, Steven Spielberg! The least I can do is give this movie a very enthusiastic 10/10.