Jurassic Park

Filed Under: Film, Reviews | Article Tags : DVD review

By: The Dweeb

June 2002

DVD Features

Video: 1.85:1 Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1,FRENCH: Dolby Digital 2.0

Direct Hotlink to the Set of Jurassic Park III
The Making of Jurassic Park
Early Pre-Production Meetings
Storyboards, Production Photographs, Design Sketches, and Conceptual Paintings
Phil Tippett Animatics: Raptors In The Kitchen
Theatrical Trailers: Jurassic Park, The Lost World, Jurassic Park III
Dinosaur Encyclopedia
Production Notes
Cast & Filmmakers
DVD-ROM Features Including Live Web Events

Theatrical release: 1993
DVD released on 10/10/2000 by Universal
Running time of 127 minutes

Starring: Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Richard Attenborough, Joseph Mazzello, Ariana Richards, Wayne Knight, Samuel L. Jackson

Director: Steven Spielberg

Plot: Multimillionaire John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) has a plan for a spectacular new theme park: a secluded island where visitors can observe actual dinosaurs. With the latest development in DNA technology, scientists can clone brachiosaurs, tricerotops, velociraptors and a Tyrannosaurus Rex, using the blood preserved in amber from insects that bit the dinosaurs long ago. Paleontologists Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill), Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) are duly impressed with the living results during an advance visit. But when a devious employee tampers with the sophisticated security system, the dinosaurs escape, forcing the visitors to fight for their very survival.

Based on the best selling novel by Micheal Crichton, Jurassic Park blew away audiences in 1993 with its amazing breakthrough computer animation that opened the film world up to endless possibilities. This enjoyable film has made its transition to DVD with okay results, but it will not show its age for a long time. Spielberg is a director that likes to gamble and take many risks with some of his film projects. Some of them fail, and others like this one turn out pretty good. Jurassic is one of the many mainstream pap films that are Stevens bread and butter, taking a very dark and complicated novel and making it easily digestible for the filmgoing masses. This is excellent popcorn material, but not without its annoyances.

In this movie the dinosaurs are the main attraction, but since all they can do is run around, make noises and eat people, they don’t make for good actors. So we need some humans in the film to make a story. The main beef I have with this film is the way some of the characters are portrayed. Why does he reduce the women to stereotypical dumb screaming annoying whiners? It grates on my nerves, and the Velociraptor’s nerves too I’m sure. Especially Dr. Grant’s niece (Ariana Richards), who is an idiot with the flashlight in the car, and next becomes this Unix hacker at the end of the movie. Give me a break puhlease!

OK, aside from that, I think the computer animation still looks fabulous even today. The first time out and they manage to get it right, especially since they had no idea of what they were doing in the first place. Great job Dennis Muren! You now have gainful employment for the rest of your life.

The DVD itself is a very good transfer. The colors are sharp, the sound is decent, but not spectacular. It feels like there is something missing in some of the scenes. It still gives my sub a good workout, but I have to crank it up in order to get that earth to shake. As usual John Williams comes in with a musical score to match the epic proportions of the dinosaurs.

This disc also comes loaded with the typical extras found on most movies. The making of documentary is interesting for the background on the animation process. There is also a nice interactive feature to educate you on the different dinosaurs, the kids love that stuff I hear. Also included are story boards and trailers, nothing too earth shattering.

Overall, this is a decent release, but not good enough for the permanent collection.