Review of The Real Jurassic Park (1993) by Brandon M — 31 May 2015

Based on Michael Crichton's novel of the same name and nothing short of a filmmaking masterpiece, Jurassic Park was the modern introduction for cinemagoers to the long lost prehistoric world that was brought to life with the right mixture of animatronics and CGI from the mind of critically acclaimed director Steven Spielberg, as the film is further elevated by its spectacular performances. Going on to create a cultural obsession with dinosaurs and a franchise with everything from three sequels, comic books and video games, Jurassic Park was, evidently, a hit.

Employing themes and ideas that would largely go lost on children that watched it in 1993 - or even now -, and an array of dinosaurs, Jurassic Park appeals to a wide berth of audiences, from adults right down to the children who would go on to become infatuated with the prehistoric life forms (and the merchandizing that comes with them). Utilizing a proper mix of CGI - for certain dinosaurs or situations - and animatronics, Spielberg's Jurassic Park doesn't have much to do in terms of successfully suspending disbelief at a visual level when it comes to animating the wide variety of dinosaurs.

Standing apart from their fellow dinosaurs, the T-Rex and the Velociraptors have turned into a vicious mainstay of the franchise, as they consistently wreak havoc on the humans (and other timid dinosaurs) in all three movies through an utterly unpredictable and menacing nature. Like how the allure of strong horror movies lies on both the horror and human element equally, Spielberg's Jurassic Park doesn't singularly rely on just the dinosaurs, as the humans play a role just as important as their scaly co-stars in the central narrative.

Drawing on the immense talent of the adult cast of actors - from Sam Neill to fan favourite Jeff Goldblum -, Jurassic Park captures the thematic quandaries that comes with John Hammond's park and the genetic tampering of dinosaurs, as the characters either argue or project their varied thoughts on the matter, from Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler's initial gushing over the dinosaurs to Ian Malcolm's highly realistic projection of disdain towards Hammond's idealistic, primordial nonsense, as all characters help project the spectrum of thoughts from the audience in Crichton and Koepp's terrific writing.

While much of the grimdark and violent source material by Crichton were either removed or altered to fit Spielberg's vision of having Jurassic Park appeal towards a younger audience - with screenwriter David Koepp coming on board to rework the earlier scripts were also conceived by Crichton -, the core themes of the humans playing God through science persist and translate fantastically even in this day and age where they remain as relevant as ever.