Gotta ask yourself the question ...where are you now?

Rating: 5/10 (31 January 2011)

John Hammond is a PT Barnum style billionaire and as such wants to create the greatest show on Earth. Through the miracle of science and some preserved dinosaur DNA trapped in amber he recreates an entire range of dinosaur species. To check out his island he invites a number of scientists to endorse it for the brochure or something. Anyway after invoking Murphy's law (What can go wrong will go wrong) it all goes wrong and the Doctor's soon find themselves at the wrong end of the dinosaur experience.
At the time this was the most successful film of all time. I never really saw why? There were lots of other films before (Jaws, Star Wars, Raiders) and since (Matrix, Inception, Transformers, even) that are all better paced, acted, written special effects-ed. The beginning sequence when a worker is eaten and they try to shock it looks, well, cheap to be honest. Due to them using multi-coloured lights in the container it looks like a disco. This opening thrilling bit didn't work me, and then the pace of the film slows down even more as we then get a huge preamble until anything exciting actually happens as plot plot plot plot plot is explained over and over and over again.
Eventually we get to the good stuff and some actual dinosaur moments as the T-Rex finally appears, but then we get to the real killer, the thing that trashes the movie, the set piece with the car falling down the ravine that isn't there. We watch the dinosaurs walk out of a flat pen and then five minutes later that isn't a flat pen, but a massive drop ravine. It's just utter nonsense and from that point I had switched off as clearly the makers had so little regard for the viewer they thought that they could have anything happen and no-one will question it. This is no minor effect error or continuity blooper, it's an entire set piece that forgets where people have walked out of. For a movie this hyped it's just not good enough.
At the time it was praised by critics as being one of the best films ever. While it's sad that it's still far higher than it should be (try watching it again, folks. It's slow as hell)nit's good to see that some element of sanity has returned to this films rating.
That said it's a five alone for Bob Pecks thighs, they're stunning and they're not even an effect.