Jurassic Park Review

 

        If you were to ask me what is my all time favorite movie, without missing a beat it’s Jurassic Park. Growing up I adored Dinosaurs, I was always fixated with the documentaries from the Discovery Channel. My first exposure to the franchise was through a tie-in arcade game for the sequel The Lost World (1997). What’s weird is that the movie I saw first was Jurassic Park 3. Make sense of the flawed entry to the franchise when I was young. It wasn’t until I finally saw the first one, and man, my childhood would’ve been better had I watched the only good Jurassic entry. 

1. Spared No Expense

        Now before I start, Dinosaurs and movies go back a long time ago. One of the first animated movies involved a dinosaur called Gertie the Dinosaur. It was a rare movie since well it was silent, but it had a live show like a circus. From there, the creatures were associated with stop motion animation with films like The Lost World and King Kong. Hell, there were movies that I talked about that had the creatures such as in Fantasia, duh King Kong, and in Godzilla. 

        The first minutes of the movie immediately set the tone of what we’re going to see. To explain what tone is again, it establishes the mood for the whole movie. An introduction to the actual creatures, but not showing off what they look like. Only shadows and the ferocity are what teases us. The music too is kind of mystical as well. It’s not booming or grand, but it has that unsettling mood to it.

        I always feel that when watching the movie, people tend to think the paleontologist Dr. Grant is the star. I mean, yes we follow him throughout the park. The only real reason he’s in there is to be the two approvals the park needs to be operational, but he’s not the actual main protagonist. Nor is his implied lover Sattler or the Chaos Theory hunk himself Dr. Malcolm. 

        That’s not to say that they aren’t good. All three of the doctors have distinct personalities and are at least believable instead of just being stick in the muds. Grant, out of all them has a character arc. It’s kind of obvious, but it helps that the child actors are put to the ringer when dealing with the dinosaurs. As well as Malcolm delivering a line about how I feel about the recent Jurassic movie.

        The real protagonist is the park owner Hammond. He’s the best representation of a protagonist who has good intentions. When we see him, he’s very jovial about the park and is proud of the fact that he is responsible for recreating and cloning dinosaurs. Hammond is also flawed; his pride is what gets in his way. There’s a scene with him that involves the scientists and I’ll get to it. 

        What makes the movie work is that everything goes wrong. The whole park that Hammond thought up turns out to be an absolute nightmare. Also, I feel that the movie is a spiritual successor to another Michael Crichton work, Westworld. I’ve talked enough about that one, but the idea remains the same. A good idea turns into a really, bad idea. 

        If there is one detail that I like, it’s the moment when it starts to rain. Since it happened on the actual day of shooting the memorable T-Rex scene. Hurricane Iniki slammed into the Hawaiian Islands during the filming of the movie. The rain even affected how the dinosaur “acted” when it attacked the jeep. That moment when it lunges to the kids wasn’t scripted, since the water got into the mechanics of the animatronic. 

2. Duality of Dinosaurs

        There’s really no way to simply put this, but the special effects for this movie still hold up. For being nearly 30 years old, it aged beautifully. From what I read; the whole film was supposed to be in stop animation. It wasn’t until special effects powerhouse Industrial Light and Magic had an employee who might’ve changed visual effects for the better. Phil Tippet created the Dinosaur Input Device, it was a figure that looked like a dinosaur but had sensors that was recorded on a computer that would provide the basis of what the dinosaur would look like in motion, without it looking choppy. 

        Anyways, back to the film. The way the dinosaurs were used in Jurassic Park reminded me a lot of Jaws. Moments where we see small cues or glimpses into the creatures, but not the whole body or scope of the animal. It doesn’t get that much credit but the best moment in Jurassic Park is that the creatures get a few screentime. From the beginning and when the main cast takes a tour of the park shows that idea. 

        That the dinosaurs aren’t a part of the ride, they’re animals. They act out of their own instinct. For instance, when the group stops to look at the Dilophosaurus, they see nothing. All of it ties into the central idea of the whole entire movie. Which I will talk about in the next tab I promise.  

        As far as presentation is concerned, they utilized two ways of doing it. The Brontasaurus scene is one of many highlights in the movie. We see the angle to show just how immensely massive the creature is. And to show the good side of the creatures. Then we have the horror element, just hearing the footsteps and the water moving sells the dread of what’s coming. There’s no other way to say it, seeing the T-Rex eat a goat, break out of the deactivated cage, and roar. Just plain cinematic magic. 

3. My Favorite Scene

        For as much as people remember the dinosaurs in the film, we only see them for just 15 minutes in total. I think people skip on this scene because I can understand that it’s boring. How could people sitting around, not touching their food, be that engaging. To put it simply, after the doctors digest what they saw, Hammond expects their approval. Malcolm questions the methods as to why Hammond brought back dinosaurs. 

        That whole scene trumps all the sequels, by squarely pointing out in a meta prescience why the franchise doesn’t work. It’s something to see Malcolm become upset since he figures out the owner by saying that the man is willing to merchandise a miracle that is a slight against nature.

        You could interpret the scene in one or two ways. The Doctors obviously voicing their displeasure at Hammond at the miracle he’s created. By pointing out that his pride obscures rational thinking. Another is that they’re sort of like gods. Like with the lights from the projectors behind them evoke a feeling like they’re gods. Tampering with something that they think is controllable. 

        This one scene is representative of the whole movie. The idea of man becoming gods, their ability to control nature. I might as well get it out of the way, but this is what the sequels are missing. As much as the dinosaurs are the stars, the succeeding films aren’t about anything. They lack the humanity and the ethical questions that make this film still the only great entry. I mean yeah, no one goes into a movie expecting to learn something, but the sequels should be more than just theme parks. Well, I got myself there. 

4. Legacy

        The movie was for a while, the highest grossing film of all time. It came out in 1993 alongside another Spielberg hit Schindler’s List. You can dub that year Steven’s year, because Jurassic Park broke the Box Office and Schindler’s List being his only film to win Best Picture in the Oscars. 

        I think this film is comparable to Star Wars when looking at the merchandise. I mean, you can’t walk anywhere and see someone with the iconic park logo with the fossilized T-Rex. Or a Jeep having the colors of the park. The merchandising was immense. Now with something that big of a money maker, a sequel is always obligatory. It’s one of those rare instances where the sequel of the book was made after the success of the movie. And the movie being adapted just as the book came out. 

        And you better believe that dino-mania was alive in the 90s. You had movies that had to put in a dinosaur due to the popularity of this movie. You had clunkers like Theodore Rex, We’re Back! A Dinosaur Story, and Carnosaur that tried to cash in on the admiration of the extinct creatures. And wouldn’t you know it, one of the best animated Dinosaur movies A Land Before Time, which predates this one, got a record 11 sequels. How’s that even possible?

5. Overall

        This is my favorite movie. I adore every minute of it. It balances adventure with horror without it feeling like whiplash. This movie is utterly timeless.