Jurassic Park (1993)

Paddock Reviews

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When it comes to 'Jurassic Park,' I find it interesting to consider that the use of CG effects was so new at the time that it paved the way for some groundbreaking material. Sure, 'Toy Story' was the first full-length CG film by 1995, but I tend to consider 'Jurassic Park' to be what really, truly brought CG into the spotlight, bringing dinosaurs to life for us dino-obsessed kids at the time. Before this, if we wanted to make dinosaurs more "realistic," we'd have to use stop-motion animation and camera tricks.

Nowadays, the effects dealt with in this film are commonplace. Back in 1993, though, this was unlike anything anyone had ever seen before, and holds up today better than most straight-CG renderings of creatures, like in the later 'Star Wars' movies thanks to the effects artists using CG over models, giving these dinos the life we always wanted to see back then, an there was barely a soul alive that left the theater not feeling the thrill 'Jurassic Park' provided. This film was the box office equivalent of your average Marvel movie today.

The story begins when wealthy industrialist John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) invites paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) to an island he owns, off the coast of Costa Rica - Isla Nublar. Here, he hopes to have the two experts analyze what he has created and approve his attractions for opening his park. This is influenced by the park's investors insisting on a thorough inspection to ensure the park's safety. The investors' representative, lawyer Mr. Gennaro (Martin Ferrero), also attends, inviting mathematician and chaos theorist Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum).

Although the group is blown away by what Hammond has created (an interactive "zoo" that holds cloned dinosaurs as opposed to everyday animals), all manage to see the inherent danger that lies within the park. Still, the group is sent on a tour, accompanied by Hammond's grandkids, Tim (Joseph Mazzello), a young dinosaur enthusiast, and Lex (Ariana Richards), a young computer nerd (though she prefers to be called a "hacker"). As the group enters the Jurassic Park tour, however, little do they know just how right most of them are about the dangers of the park, thanks to the greedy Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight).

Nedry, the park's head programmer, has plans to steal fertilized dinosaur embryos and deliver them to Hammond's corporate rival in exchange for a bribe. This involves shutting down the park's security system and racing against the clock as a severe storm is approaching. As a result, the dinosaurs escape, chaos ensues, and the tourists get separated. While Ellie, Malcolm, Hammond and others work on restoring power and communications to the island, Grant, Tim, and Lex find themselves having to maneuver through a dangerous array of should-be-extinct wildlife - half of which is out for a good meal.

Nowadays, we can watch this and point out several flaws, be they nitpicks or genuine errors, but it was a perfect mix of action and thrills for us kids at the time (I was 10) to such an extent that a lot of it was legitimately scary to us, and it provided a lot of our first toe dips into horror, despite it not being a horror movie. For me, the T. rex escape and Raptors in the kitchen were particularly nerve-racking, but I was still in awe about how amazing the film looked. It was a roller-coaster ride, and provided a cautionary tale about what it means to "play God" to try and cash-in.

'Jurassic Park' remains hands-down my all-time favourite 'Jurassic' movie, and a lot of that is due to all of them repeating the same 'playing God' concept based on greed, which gets old fast. But I suppose the success of the series over the years mostly boils down to the same simple idea that got me into this film in the first place - wanting to see dinosaurs on the big screen, and there's a whole new generation of kids falling in love with dinos just as I did way back when. I'm not here to take any of that away from the fans, but as far as the 'Jurassic' series goes, it does not ever get any better than this particular landmark of a movie.

5/5

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