TravelingbeebryantRN & Flicks_withNick

Latest review is Steven Spielberg’s 1993 movie Jurassic Park. The movie stars Sam Neil as Dr. Alan Grant, Laura Dern as Ellie Sattler, Jeff Goldblum as Ian Malcom, Bob Peck as Robert Muldoon, Samuel L Jackson as Ray Arnold, and Richard Attenborough as John Hammond. Steven Spielberg also had Schindler’s List come out the same year as Jurassic Park. The movie is scored by his long time collaborator John Williams. The movie has a Rotten Tomato score of 93%, along with an audience score of 93%. The movie won 3 academy awards for Best Sound, Best sound Editing, & Best Visual Effects. 

Spoiler warning ahead!!!

The movie starts out on the Island of Isla Nublar where they are trying to unload a huge crate. All the workers seem to have a fear in their eyes, as this is no typical crate. We realize that they are unloading a Velicoraptor, and we first get an indication that these Raptors are to not be messed with. While unloading the crate the raptor gets a hold of a Jurassic Park employee and kills him. There’s a beautiful cutscene of Game Warden Muldoon that is leading the transfer yelling “SHOOT HER!”, while everyone is trying to electrocute the raptor.  The shot fades away with Muldoon losing the hand of the Jurassic park employee that has been taken by the raptor.   We cut away,  and then we are introduced to a lawyer named Donald Gennero. The family of the recently deceased employee is suing Jurassic Park, and now the shareholders for Jurassic Park want a safety assessment of the park. 

We are then brought to Montana, where we see scientists digging for dinosaur bones. We are introduced to Dr. Alan Grant and Dr. Ellie Sattler. We learn that Grant is well known in his field, but is not the biggest fan of kids. I always laugh when he describes in detail how a raptor would kill someone to a little boy. Alan’s biggest gripe with kids is that “babies smell”. John Hammond arrives at the location and convinces them both to visit his island, as he will extend their funding. 

We jump into a helicopter with Hammond, Grant, Sattler, Gennero, and are introduced to Mathematician Ian Malcom. Gennero has invited Malcolm along for their safety assessment. During this interaction we hear John Williams iconic score. I could just watch  this scene on unlimited repeat, with the score in the background. They are lowering the helicopter to the island, and the score matches perfectly with them landing on the island, and Hammond is excited to show his work. 

They landed on Isla Nublar,  and were escorted to the park via jeep. They stop in the park and everyone finally realizes what is actually in the park…DINOSAURS!! They see a mammoth Brachiosaurus. Everyone is in disbelief and shock. Grant can barely move, and this is when we get the famous movie quote “My dear Dr Sattler, Dr Grant…..Welcome to Jurassic Park” the famous score is still in the background, and becomes louder when everyone sees the herd of dinosaurs by the pond. 

We transition to the welcome center, and learn how the dinosaurs are made. We learn that they take the DNA from fossilized mosquitoes that got stuck in sap, and turned into amber. They find themselves in one of the labs with the scientists, and an egg is about to hatch. Grant handles the newly born dinosaur, and realizes it’s a baby velociraptor. He then gave an intrigued, but scared look on his face, while still holding onto the Raptor. Grant seeks out where the raptors are held, and we meet the game warden Robert Muldoon. We still have not seen what these Raptors look like, and we build suspense, while we see this raptor devour a bull cow in mere seconds. I love how Spielberg builds the suspense of presenting something scary, without showing it. He did the same thing by not showing the Shark in Jaws. After seeing this horrendous site of the cow now gone, and the cables that once supported the cow, are demolished, we get Hammond to ask the group “who’s hungry?

After lunch we meet Hammond’s grandkids, and they are about to join the entire group on the Jurassic Park experience. We also learn during this time that the park is controlled mostly by computers, and computer programs. The person who programmed the entire park is Dennis Nedry (played by Wayne Knight, you’ll also know him as Newman from Seinfeld). We learned earlier that he’s working  against Hammond and Jurassic Park, and is attempting to steal dinosaur embryos in a shaving cream container. He is getting paid by a rival company of Hammond’s to steal and deliver the embryos. 

The  tour of Jurassic Park is not going as planned, and none of the dinosaurs are visible, and even witness a sick Triceratops. They go to the T-Rex sight, and a goat is presented inside the paddock to lure the T-Rex, so the visitors can see. They eventually move on when nothing happens. Sattler stays behind from the tour, and stays with the sick Triceratops. The rest of the gang head back to the SUV’s and attempt to head back to the visitor center, as a tropical storm has ended their excursion. 

We transition back to the command center with the Jurassic Park employees. Dennis indicates that the systems will be rebooted, and some of the systems will go offline for a bit. We see Dennis initiate a program on the computer. This is so he can turn off the security cameras where the embryos are located. As he turned off the security cameras, he also turned off the vehicles to the tour. The vehicles stopped right in front of the T-Rex paddock. Dennis leaves the command center with everything still shut off, and the stolen embryos. 

We go back to the rest of the group that was on the tour. This is my favorite scene in the movie. We start to build tension and hear rumbling noise, while the ground shakes. It finally stops, but the young girl notices that the original goat is gone. When she asks “what happened to the goat?”, we get a flash cut of part of the goat’s body on the vehicle. The screen cuts back, and we see the T-Rex for the first time, as he swallows the goat hole. We then realize the electric fence was turned off, as the T-Rex’s hand wraps around the wire. He cuts off the strings, and hops out of the paddock with his huge iconic roar. I love the use of practical effects whenever we see the T-Rex up close, and then CGI on wide shoots. Helps the movie age great, as we are not over consumed with special effects. Everyone tries to escape the T-Rex, but unfortunately Donald, who was hiding in the bathroom, gets eaten by the T-Rex. Ian gets hurt during the process, and Alan along with the kids gets pushed into the park. 

Ellie and Muldoon take a jeep to go find the survivors. They come across Ian, and take him back to the Jeep. While still looking, they found the remains of the original SUV, but didn’t find Alan and the kids. While waiting, Ian is in the Jeep, and hears rumbling. Cuts back to a T-Rex footprint shaking. Ian knows what this is, as he’s already heard it, and tells Ellie and Muldoon to hurry. They hop in the jeep, and what emerges is the T-Rex. They drive off, while the T-Rex comes closer and closer again. We even get a cutaway scene of the T-Rex in the driver mirror with it saying “objects may appear closer”. Finally the T-Rex stops chasing them, and they drive away to safety. 

We go back to the visitor center, as we get a touching conversation between Ellie and Hammond. He went into the freezer to get the ice cream, as it was melting, and he discussed what he’ll do next time when the Park opens. Ellie gives him a reality check, as his grandkids are still out there missing. 

 Alan and the kids are making their way back to the visitor center, and in the meantime we get the crew at the visitor center completely rebooting the system, to cleanse Dennis’ system, so they can get everything back online again. It seemed to work, but now they have to reset each system at the control panel. Samuel L Jackson’s character Ray Arnold says he can get everything running in minutes. Time goes by, and Ellie and Muldoon attempt to see what happened. They walk out and see the raptor pad has been chewed out, and the raptors are free. Muldoon explains they are being hunted, but manages to give enough time for Ellie to get to the control panel. After she makes her way down, she completely resets the system, and everything is running again. Right when she cheers for joy, out of nowhere a raptor jumps at her, and we finally get our first sighting! Ellie learns that Arnold is dead after only an arm is holding her. She runs up the stairs, and the claws of the raptor make the clicking noise. She barely escapes, and leaves the raptor in the control center with the door closed. During this time Alan makes it to the visitor center, and leaves the kids behind, while he tries to find Ellie. While looking,  Ellie is finally reunited with Alan, and they head back to the visitor center. Muldoon is still trying to hunt the lone raptor, and has one in his sight. As he aims and gets ready to shoot, another raptor emerges from the bushes as they tricked him, and we get the iconic line “clever girl” as they kill him. I love how the camera still focuses on the raptor that was originally tricking him, while he is being attacked. 

The kids are at the visitor center feasting on all the food that was left out. While eating they see a raptor in the shadows and hide in the kitchen. We then get this tense cat and mouse game between two raptors, and the kids. They finally run out the kitchen, and end up leaving them in the freezer. The very same freezer that Hammond left open, to get his ice cream. 

Alan and Ellie are back at the center, reunited with the kids. They think they are in the clear, as long as raptors can’t open doors, but then the same two raptors in the freezer are chasing them. We get another tense scene where the adults are trying to lock the door, as the raptors are trying to open the door. The granddaughter hops on the computer, and takes what she learned from computer camp, and shuts the door. Again they think they are safe, till the raptors break through the glass, and chase them again. They run around the visitor center, till all of them are surrounded by the three raptors. Right when we think they are gonna get eaten, out of camera sight the T-Rex captures the raptor, and we get John Williams iconic score. The other two raptors attack the T-Rex, and the group run out of there, and Hammond along with Ian pick them up. Inside the visitor center the T-Rex kills the final raptor, and as she screams, we get the banner rolling down the screen saying “when dinosaurs ruled the earth” 

Everyone is taken away via helicopter, and Hammond takes one more look at the island, as he knows he can never open this park. As we pan out into the ocean, we see the kids sleeping on Alan, with a little smirk from Ellie, as his thoughts on kids have completely changed. The camera pans out to the window, as we see birds flying over the water, as we get the full circle of birds being a descendant of Dinosaurs. 

Spielberg is the best at creating tension and suspense in his movies. He sprinkles in some humor, where it’s not too much, but enough comedy to not just make it a straight up action movie. Special effects have come a long way, and yes some scenes look totally fake (ie when the  Gallimimus are chasing Alan and the kids), but I still think even for 1993, the special effects hold up. The use

practical effects along with the special effects blend beautifully, so you’re not crammed with all CGI. I think even Jurassic World suffers from too much CGI, as some scenes were cheesy.  The only other movie I can think of that has special effects that has aged this well is Terminator 2, and that came out a year before.  ( maybe a future review). 

I know John Williams is mostly known for Star Wars or Jaws, but there’s no argument Jurassic Park’s score is on top of any list. Any generic movie fan will know the score, just from hearing the scene of when they first arrived on the island. Ask my wife how she feels, as I play the soundtrack all the time in the car. 

As you can tell I love this movie, and consider it in my top 10 of all time. (Eventually all my top 10 movies will get a review) The only negative I have of this movie is the final scene with the T-Rex. They build up multiple times that you can hear the T-Rex coming, and the whole ground shakes. But now all of a sudden it was a huge surprise the T-Rex showed up, and saved the day for everyone. NOW,  NO ONE HEARD THE T-REX! I know I know, I’m nitpicking, but that scene always confuses me. 

Overall this should be on everyone’s movie watch list. Even the non movie goers should make it a point to see this movie, as even after 30 years, it has aged beautifully. I’ve even got my wife to see it multiple times, even at the movie theaters, and will be plenty of more times, as it’s one of the best rewatchable movies. 

Overall I give this movie a 4.8 out of 5.