Review of Jurassic Park (1993) by Justin A — 15 Sep 2015

One of the biggest (and best) Hollywood blockbusters of all time. It's easy to nitpick the minor details about this movie, and overlook the little nuances showcased by Stephen Spielberg that made him one of the best directors of all time. This is probably the biggest movie at a time when he was at the top of his game.

The plot itself is silly. It's basic King Kong kind of stuff. The acting is negligible when you're basically required to run away from CGI dinosaurs.

But the visual effects, the shots, the pacing. It all wraps up so perfectly. The reason the CGI is still hailed today (even though it actually does look worse than modern CGI) is because they used it minimally and effectively. The t-rex looks amazing because most of the CGI is done in a night setting with tons of rain. There's a mix between animatronics and CGI that is edited seamlessly together to give the illusion of real dinosaurs. Spielberg also doesn't overexpose the dinosaurs. We see plenty of them, but the raptors for example don't even appear until over midway through the movie. The t-rex has big scenes, but only shows up at key scenes (three scenes only).

And to top it all off, it's actually better than the book. Okay, maybe not "better" (that's kind of subjective in this case), but the movie is much tighter and well paced than the book. And the changes made from the book are actually improvements. The ending is much more satisfying.

If you go into this movie for the story, you'll be slightly let down. It's good and imaginative, but it's very silly too. But if you go in this movie for the spectacle and to see one of the best directors of all time at his peak? This is a must-see.