Synopsis
John Hammond brings guests to his new park to experience the wonders that have been created. When an employee sabotages part of the system to aid in a heist everyone is put in danger as the park's residents start to take their place in the pecking order.
Review
The Jurassic Park franchise is right up there amongst my favourites and it's one that, despite a few flaws, really does endure. It's probably also one of the only ones that upon mentioning it gets the theme tune going round my head.
With worries about Hammond's new park being dangerous it's decided that experts will be brought in to give their approval before it opens before the public. With Dr Ian Malcolm already onboard John Hammond decides to recruit archaeologists Dr Alan Grant and Dr Ellie Sattler, he's sure they'll be won over by the majesty of Jurassic Park and approve the site.
Accompanied by Hammond's grandchildren the party ventures out into the park for a safari tour. Feelings in the control room are cautious as a storm moves in. While most are focused on the visit going well their IT expert is setting a plan in motion to cover his theft from the lab. As his program starts running it disables several systems and causes a cascade effect that leaves everyone on the island vulnerable.
It's difficult to know where to draw the line when it comes to talking about cast in Jurassic Park, there are a lot of key actors in it and I don't want to exclude anyone. They do a great job with a couple of exceptions, which I'll mention later.
Jeff Goldblum. He is the most magnificent creature in this whole film. Just amazing. I don't feel like he'd reached peak Goldblum at this stage but it was close. We also get a fleeting view of Mr MF himself, Samuel L Jackson, a very tame role compared to what we're used to these days. Sam Neill is pretty flawless and he's great when he gets to switch from stuffy archaeologist to fun "dad" with the kids. I don't care how dumb it is I love the electric fence joke. Then we've got Joseph Mazzello as Tim who you might recognise more recently from Bohemian Rhapsody. He was a great child actor and is much better in this than many young actors generally are in their roles.
Briefly on to my disappointments in the cast. We only have two female characters in this, Laura Dern as Dr Ellie Sattler and Ariana Richards as Hammond's granddaughter Lex. Both annoyingly suffer from a mild case of overacting. Lex is generally frustrating, possibly it's the child aspect of her character coming through but if that was the case I'd have expected Tim to be a lot more annoying. Ellie has such a swing throughout the film, strong scientist to flailing woman more than once. Despite the obvious unexpected peril they encounter I really don't find the change believable in her.
You get swept along with the action and it's punctuated by character story throughout. Despite the continuity faults (which I don't notice if I'm honest) everything in the film makes for good viewing. My favourite part of the film starts with the T-Rex attack. Our cast gets split up and Grant and the kids have to try and make it back to the centre, you meet some more dinosaurs and there are some nice bonding moments... let's just ignore the fact that they could have climbed down the other side of the tree and not nearly died... that time.
John Williams' score is spectacular and atmospheric... as if you'd expect anything different. I don't understand how "Best Original Score" nominations work but the fact this wasn't on there seems a bit ridiculous. The film did however win Best Visual Effects, Best Sound and Best Sound Effects Editing, so there's some justice.
The effects are definitely something to behold. The sheer ingenuity of them and the scale is so impressive. It's a shame we don't see more practical effects like these in newer films. Just because we have the ability to CGI something doesn't mean we always should.
Jurassic Park is something I will never stop loving. It may be a little dated but I feel like it still stands up pretty well compared to modern films. I would love to see this one on the big screen, fingers crossed it gets a retro release at some point.
What you should do
Surely everyone who has a TV has seen this film, right?
Movie thing you wish you could take home
I took home a sexy Ian Malcolm Funko Pop. I think that's sadly going to be the nearest I get to the real thing.
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