Jurassic Park Review- By Michael J. Carlisle

 Title: Jurassic Park
Year: 1993
 Director: Steven Spielberg 
Country: US
Language: English

Based on Michael Crichton's novel of the same name, Jurassic Park is the first installment of the Jurassic film series which includes two awful sequels. With the backing of Universal Studios, Spielberg acquired the rights for $1.5 million before publication in 1990; Crichton was hired for an additional $500,000 to adapt the novel for the screen.It had an extensive an extensive $65 million marketing campaign, which included licensing deals with 100 companies. The marketing worked; Jurassic Park grossed over $900 million worldwide in its original theatrical run and became the highest grossing movie of all time until James Cameron's bloated Titanic in 1997.

 Huge advancements in scientific technology have enabled a mogul to create an island full of living dinosaurs. John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) has invited four individuals, along with his two grandchildren, to join him at Jurassic Park. During the preview tour, the theme park suffers a major power breakdown that allows its cloned dinosaur exhibits to run amok.

Jurassic Park won more than 20 awards (including 3 Academy Awards), mostly for its technical achievements. Brought in to create the unique look and movements of the dinosaurs were Stan Winston, who insisted that they be animatronic rather than stop-motion; motion superisor Phil Tippett; on-set effects supervisor Michael Lantien;  ILM animators Mark Dippé and Steve Williams and paleontologist Jack Horner. Together, they were able to make dinosaurs look more "realistic" than originally thought possible. The dinosaurs looked more animal-like than monsters.

Unfortunately, this is where the positive aspects of Jurassic Park ends. It's a rather tedious film which relies on jump scares and the blood curdling screams of children to create tension amongst its viewers. Jurassic Park throws a lot of dinosaurs at us, but doesn't have any convincing human characters. The acting is stiff and their emotions are a jumbled mess of "AHHHHHH!". How is Spielberg's "masterpiece" any different from a B-monster flick? Aside from the establishing shot of the park, there is nothing worth any amount of awe or excitement. Pity, because the movie had all the potential to be a remarkably intelligent journey.

A great mess of cliches, Spielberg succeeds in technical production but fails in providing any kind of depth and ultimately undermines the intelligence of his audience. Jurassic Park is yet another film that reminds us not to play God. Such a shame, because Spielberg does know how to tell great stories (like Schindler's List, which came out the same year) but this is just mindless entertainment at best.  3/5