What happens when you build a biological theme park by reanimating 100 million year old creatures and introducing them into a modern ecosystem without knowing much about them?

Back in the 1990's, Micheal Crichton wrote a book called Jurassic Park. He actually wrote two novels, but this film focuses on the first story. The premise is simple. John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) broke ground by building a biological preserve. He hired scientists to discover a way to genetically engineer dinosaurs from traces of DNA left in fossils. As intriguing as this all is, John had no clue what to expect.

Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) are well known paleontologists. They receive a personal invitation from Hammond to visit his island. Although Hammond doesn't reveal what's on the island, he convinces the two with his check book that a weekend excursion would be worth the trip. Upon arriving, they encounter the excessive personality of Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum). Malcolm not only seems near insane, but the random nature and incessant talk of his beloved Chaos Theory make him an interesting addition to the crew. Adding to the mix are Hammond's grandchildren, Tim (Joseph Mazzello) and Lex (Ariana Richards).

After a build up of the “How You Make Dinosaurs”, the team gets a brief outing in the park. All seems to go smoothly until a storm hits the island. Then all hell breaks loose. The dinosaurs find ways out of their pens and begin taking culinary liberties with the island staff and visitors. As the casualty count starts to raise, the survivors must find a way to escape Jurassic Park.

Ok, out of the three Jurassic Park films, this has the most story and character development. First off, in the early 1990's, we weren't thinking about genetics to the degree where we could just accept the fact that you could engineer a creature from scrapings off of a rock. Because of Ninja Turtles, we understood mutation, but genetics wasn't that big in science fiction. Jurassic Park's explanation of how to use fossilized DNA helped the audience understand that this IS POSSIBLE. Once they developed the feasibility of the plot, they could take liberties with the action.

The action was definitely a large part of the film. First off, you have dinosaurs (the largest of beasts to ever walk the earth). They're uninhibited in their behavior, so they're going to do what comes natural. Too bad the majority of the time what they want to do is eat. As such, people are always being hunted by these creatures. In one scenes, the crew must use a jeep to escape a rampaging T-Rex. The chase is unlike anything I've seen in Hollywood before that time. Overall, this is an action packed flick.

The cast of characters fits very well. Dr. Grant is your voice of reason, and Neill does a good job at bringing this out. Sattler seems to be along for the ride through much of the film, but does put her neck on the line when it comes down to it. Finally, there's Malcolm. Malcolm is just annoying, but if you listen to what he says, he's the most foreshadowing character.

The DVD is packed with special features. Unlike most DVD's, they included a making of featurette. This tells a lot about how they brought the dinosaurs to life. There are also some DVD-Rom content for your PC. Since my system is fairly old, I couldn't access it. In addition to the making of featurette, they included several paleontological documentaries on various dinosaurs. Even if you never wanted to know anything about dinosaurs, the special features here will definitely be worth more than one pass.

The bottom line here is that you're in for a very ground breaking film. Not only are the dinosaurs very realistic, but they merge well with the scenery. I give credit to ILM (founded by George Lucas) for their visual work here. Jonathan Williams (best known for Star Wars) adds his artistic flare to the soundtrack of Jurassic Park.

Altogether, you have a really good film. It may be a little scary for younger viewers, but Jurassic Park really is an adventure for the family. I recommend adding this classic to your library.



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12