PaulRom Revisits: Jurassic Park

As a kid, I've always loved dinosaurs. As a result, I got my hands on every dinosaur film I could find - Disney's Dinosaur, The Land Before Time, and of course, the Jurassic Park series (except I never cared for the second film, The Lost World). Recently, I rewatched the original film when it was airing on ABC last week, and it only reminded me of how much I enjoyed it.

Jurassic Park tells the tale of a scientist (played brilliantly by director/actor Richard Attenborough) who creates a park of dinosaurs that were recently revived through the discovery of dino DNA. When visitors arrive, however, things go terribly wrong, and the consequences are very severe (SPOILER ALERT: a T-Rex escapes his exhibit and goes on a rampage, killing both humans and raptors).

The acting in Jurassic Park is solid. Sam Neill is perfect as paleontologist Alan Grant, the protagonist of the film (and 2001's Jurassic Park III). Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum are both good as Ellie Sattler and Ian Malcom, respectively, while Samuel Jackson makes a smaller role as the chief engineer of the park (he's still one of the best actors ever, IMO).

The dinosaurs are also very fun to watch on screen. Even watching things such as the Dilophosaurus spitting venom into a guy's face (and later attacking him brutally), a T-Rex swallowing a man whole, and the raptors attacking various humans (the final sequence between two raptors and the T-Rex has to be my favorite part of the film), the overall CGI is incredible, especially for being released nearly 20 years ago. Visually, it's definitely a groundbreaking film visually and I enjoyed nearly every moment.

When it comes to the flaws, it's hard to find any. If there was one, however, it'd be that the film sometimes seems a bit too long (rarely clunky, but still seems to drag at times). Also, I would've liked to see a bit more variety in the carnivorous dinosaurs (i.e., a Carnotaurus on the big screen in live action would be amazing), but it's not something that I would count as a major flaw.

When all is said and done, Jurassic Park is easily one of the most groundbreaking films ever made. Steven Spielberg can proudly chalk this up as one of his best films to date, and definitely one of my favorites as well. Hopefully the announced fourth installment would come out of development hell soon, as it sounds rather promising (director Joe Johnston has stated that it'll be nothing like the previous films). In the meantime, we have Spielberg's two films and Johnston's film.

I give Jurassic Park a 5 out of 5 star rating.