Movie review: Jurassic Park

Finding someone who hasn't seen the mega blockbuster Jurassic Park at least once is a near-impossible task. In 1993, Spielberg's film invaded movie theaters with its special effects and an extremely engaging story, which then gave rise to a prolific and long-lasting franchise as well as numerous sequels, the latest of which will be released this year with the title "Jurassic World Dominion".

Adapted from the novel of the same name by Michael Crichton, a cinematic phenomenon of the 1993-94 season and a generational cult, Jurassic Park is the first and most successful film in a successful saga that successfully spans the last decade of the 20th century.

Jurassic Park was released in 1993 and confirmed Steven Spielberg's already well-known talent as well as his business acumen, becoming an immediate success and grossing over a billion dollars at the box office. In fact, it is the highest-grossing film of all Steven Spielberg's films, given its budget of 63 million dollars.

I couldn't help but love a film like this. I think I saw it in the theater when it came out when I was 11 years old and immediately after I also read the book of the same name written by Michael Crichton. And in the three decades that followed I continued to watch it again and love it even if, it must be said, with age (not to call it old age) I notice its flaws more and more. But let's start with the plot. Really, doesn't anyone know the plot of this film?

John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) is a wealthy millionaire who has managed to create a Jurassic theme park on Isla Nublar, 200 km off the coast of Costa Rica, in the Pacific (inspired by the real Isla del Coco). Thanks to advanced cloning techniques, the scientists of his enterprise have recreated not only the plants of that era, but also the legendary dinosaurs, both herbivorous and carnivorous.

After a worker is devoured by a velociraptor, Hammond is forced to test the park's safety with outside experts. So he invites paleontologists Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Ellie Suttler (Laura Dern), mathematician Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), bloodsucking lawyer Donald Gennaro (Martin Ferrero), and even his two young nephews Lex and Tim (Ariana Richards and Joseph Mazzello ). Of course, everything quickly goes haywire, all thanks to the greedy Nedry ( Wayne Knight ) who blows up the park's defensive perimeters. So the story becomes an adventure to survive on an island populated by veociraptors, dilophosauruses and even a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Aside from the brilliant idea of making a Jurassic zoo, I would say without fear of being contradicted that the secret of Jurassic Park's success lies in the special effects, which are exaggeratedly beautiful. Stan Winston worked miracles with the practical effects by recreating the raptors, the T-Rex, the triceratops with animatronics.

And even the dinosaurs made with CGI of the time are still valid today (I'm thinking of the brachiosauruses, the first dinosaurs seen by Hammond's guests upon arrival on the island). Why? Because Spielberg was smart enough to understand that he had to minimize their appearances, and to use them without having them interact with the actors. Moving in the background of the screen, even with dated digital effects, they are not annoying at all (the herd of gallimimus is perhaps the one that is most out of place when watching the film today).

But of course, special effects aren't everything. John Williams' music does a good part of the job, creating a remarkable sense of wonder in the scenes of discovery of the creatures, and building tension in those in which humans must escape to stay alive. Dean Cundey's photography is perfect.

And the entire cast was in top form, each perfect for the part, each capable of leaving their mark. Of course, if we want, one of the weak points of the film is the two-dimensionality of some characters... While I appreciate Grant's evolution, however simple (from "I hate kids" to "I love kids"), it is undeniable that what we remember about Malcolm is Goldblum 's overacting more than his explanations of chaos theory that border on the ridiculous. And Hammond is almost touching in his positivity at all costs (in his shining white, he is contrasted with the negative Malcolm, dressed entirely in black).

The lawyer of course (and rightly so) lasts the time of a coffee, and is one of the few victims, along with the bad guy Nedry , the only African-American (Samuel L. Jackson), and the hunter Muldoon (Bob Peck). The latter gets one of the most remembered lines of the film, that Clever Girl (You're smart, eh) said before dying. Unlucky, Peck, who died a few years later, in 1999, at only 53 years old from cancer.

Few people die in the film. Even Tim stays alive after receiving a 10,000 volt shock to his body, in one of the least successful scenes of the film. Among the defects that I cannot help but see with each new viewing is in fact the excessive do-goodism of a Spielberg who, if he had made this film during the period of Jaws ( Jaws , 1975 ), would have filled it with blood and deaths, indeed!

And then, of course, there are many mistakes that were overlooked during the creation of the film to maximize the spectacularity of some scenes. An example? Grant and the two children fall into a huge ravine where until a moment before there was normal vegetation, so much so that the T-Rex had come from there. And do we want to talk about the ending? In which the T-Rex enters silently and politely from the door of the visitor center just in time to devour the two velociraptors that are hunting our protagonists?

But I'm the first to admit that despite its flaws, Jurassic Park remains one of the best blockbusters ever made, fun from start to finish, a film for a young audience but that still doesn't give up on showing a bit of violence (and even using swear words!), and it's a film that clearly bears Spielberg's signature at every moment. An example? The chase between the jeep and the T-Rex contains what is called a signature shot of the director (a typical shot), the one in which we see the T-Rex from the rearview mirror.

One thing I have never understood is whether the final shot of the pelicans should be reassuring or not. The theories explained by Grant make it clear that birds are the real modern descendants of dinosaurs. Should we breathe a sigh of relief to see some of them after understanding the destructive power of their ancestors, or should we be afraid of them?

Anyway, Jurassic Park, ladies and gentlemen, a film that also spawned a disproportionate number of sequels, (two direct sequels, in 1997 and 2001, and then those from Jurassic World, 2015, onwards, released in 2018 and 2022). Will I write about the missing ones here on the blog? We'll see... Bye!