top of page
George Burkert

'Jurassic Park' Review: One of the Best Blockbusters Ever


Courtesy of Universal Pictures


With Jurassic World: Dominion coming out soon and members of the original cast returning, we decided to back and revisit one of the best summer blockbusters of all time, Jurassic Park. Since the film has been out for nearly thirty years, there will be some spoilers. Jurassic Park was directed by Steven Spielberg and stars Sam Neil, Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern, and Richard Attenborough in the 1993 blockbuster film based on the 1990 novel Jurassic Park. In this film, John Hammond, played by Attenborough, tries to create a theme park called Jurassic Park and clones the dinosaurs using dinosaur DNA from mosquitos stuck in amber and frog DNA. He invites a few people to the park along with his grandchildren to test out the park, but things go wrong and the dinosaurs go loose.


The cast of Jurassic Park is incredible. Sam Neil is great as Dr. Alan Grant. He’s a paleontologist that believes dinosaurs are related to birds and doesn’t care much for children. During the film, he grows to care for them after saving Hammond’s grandchildren from the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Ian Malcolm, a mathematician that specializes in chaos theory, is entertaining and great. He provides some of the funniest lines of the film, as well as some of the most serious lines when it comes to why it might be dangerous to bring dinosaurs back. Laura Dern is great as Dr. Ellie Sattler, who is Alan Grant’s partner. The chemistry between Dern and Neil is great.


Richard Attenborough as John Hammond is great. In this film, he wants to make a park for all to enjoy. Despite his good intentions, he goes about it the wrong way. Joseph Mazzello and Ariana Richards play Hammond’s grandchildren and do a very good job for child actors. Other great actors that are in the film are Samuel L. Jackson and Wayne Knight. Jackson and Knight do a great job at portraying Jurassic Park Employees. Jackson’s character Ray Arnold is the park’s chief engineer. It’s Knight’s character Denis Nedry that the audience can consider to be the human antagonist since he tries to steal embryos, and it was his actions that caused chaos.


What makes Jurassic Park groundbreaking are the special effects. Spielberg uses a combination of CGI and animatronics to make the dinosaurs come to life. After twenty-nine years, the effects hold up. The dinosaurs look incredible. Every time I rewatch Jurassic Park, I always have a big smile on my face when we get our first look at the dinosaurs. Spielberg also does a great job at capturing the suspense. When the Tyrannosaurus Rex breaks out during a storm, the fear is captured well. When the dinosaur action happens, it’s fun and incredible to watch.


John Williams does the score for the film and like most of his other scores, remains iconic to this day. The theme song of Jurassic Park has a sense of wonder and adventure that fits the film. The setting of the theme park in the movie, Jurassic Park, looks great. They put a lot of work into designing the look of the park and its attractions.


The set-up of the eventual chaos also works. When the characters first see the dinosaurs, they are excited. As they learn about how the dinosaurs are created, the uncertainty begins. My favorite scene is the lunch scene when most of the characters are debating with Hammond on the cloning and recreation of the dinosaurs. This scene happens before they go on a ride that will lead to chaos. Then, an upcoming storm was mentioned as the characters were on the ride. The storm later happens during the ride. It's during the storm the chaos begins.


All in all, Jurassic Park is a fantastic film that holds up well nearly thirty years later. The cast works well together. The effects and animatronic work made the dinosaurs look real. Spielberg captures the suspenseful moments well. To this day, Jurassic Park is my favorite Steven Spielberg film. I’m looking forward to seeing Sam Neil, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum return in Jurassic World: Dominion. If you haven’t seen Jurassic Park yet. you are missing out on an excellent film, and I highly recommend you check it out now.


Final Grade-A+


What did you think of Jurassic Park? Let us know in the comments below.

18 views0 comments

Comments


Post: Blog2 Post
bottom of page