Raptors in the kitchen

Rating: 10/10 (18 February 2016)

To me, a really great movie is one that is both consistently entertaining and has something profound to say. One that has vivid imagination and gorgeous visuals, offering a spectacle you have never seen before. (Of course, it has to have at least some internal logic that does not insult your intelligence, as well.) One that has you glued to the screen from start to finish. One that has iconic moments you'll never forget.
Jurassic Park ticks all these boxes. It is endlessly rewatchable, great entertainment, with a meaningful message about Man playing God. When I first saw it at the theatre, for a dinosaur fan like me, it was pure heaven, a dream come true. It is not a children's movie, however (I was about twenty at the time). It is violent, sometimes gory, very suspenseful and has some genuinely scary moments involving child characters. (I seriously thought at the time that at least one of them would not survive the T. Rex attack, for example. Of course I knew it would not happen – after all, it's a Spielberg flick – but up to that point I had never seen children thrown into such deadly perils scene after scene in any movie.)
Highlights (those 'iconic moments'): the water in the plastic cup, the goat, the T. Rex attack, Tim in the mud under the belly of the car, the T.Rex in the rear-view mirror, Arnold's arm, the green jelly, the raptors in the kitchen (my favourite shot is that of the raptor's claw knocking on the floor) and many many more.
PS. I saw the 3D version, as well, and it works surprisingly well in several scenes. I still find post-conversion totally pointless (even movies originally shot in 3D rarely exploit the true potential of 3D technology), but for a post-converted movie, Jurassic Park 3D is pretty good.