My Favourite Movies: Jurassic Park (1993)

After seeing Jurassic World last weekend I had a deep urge to see the original(s) again so picked up the trilogy boxset for a song in my local supermarket and watched it this Saturday after accidentally dropping one of my gardens trees into a neighbour’s garden!

Anyway…. I remember seeing this at the movies back in ’93 and hope much I liked it. With what was state of the art CGI and animation (to say nothing of up to the minute scientific knowledge) this wowed audiences across the planet and that most certainly included me. For those who don’t know the story – obviously living under a rock or actually having a life back then – it’s quite a simple one. Millionaire John Hammond (played by Richard Attenborough) wants to open a theme park but needs the sign off of three scientists before his backers will endorse his scheme. So he brings them back to his private island to show them what he has produced. The three are chaos mathematician (and scientific rock star apparently) Ian Malcolm played in suitably over-the-top fashion by Jeff Goldblum, and two initially bemused palaeontologists Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and Alan Grant (Sam Neil). Of course all becomes clear when they see their first living dinosaurs and realise why their opinions matter so much. Thrown into the mix are Hammond’s ‘target audience’ in the shape of his niece and nephew played by Ariana Richards and Joseph Mazzello who succeeded (mostly) for the whole movie in not annoying me although Ms Richards seemed to be their just to scream at things and look scared. Mr Mazzello amused me a great deal with his incessant questioning and made some good points – for one about the Yucatan meteor that Dr Grant managed to avoid answering.

Of course not long after we’re introduced to the marvels of genetic engineering things start to go wrong care of a tropical storm and he attempted theft of embryos by computer whiz Dennis Nerdry played by Wayne Knight. Once the animals start escaping there’s much running, screaming and a fair bit if crunching noises and a bit of blood – though nowhere near as much as in the new film. By comparison the original is rather tame although both seem to be PG-13. With so many good actors – I can’t forget Bob Peck as the almost reluctant game keeper Robert Muldoon – there’s only so much each one can do to shine. I was already a fan of Sam Neil who I think is a very good actor so I enjoyed seeing him on screen. I liked the chemistry with Laura Dern who I enjoyed watching and not just for her legs prominently on show through the whole film. She also had some of the best lines including an excellent put down when Hammond wondered if he shouldn’t go turn on the power instead of her to which she said: We can discuss sexism in survival situations when I get back – to which I howled with laughter. Goldblum was, I thought, rather wasted and too creepy to really like very much. I remember he came across much better in the book. The dinosaurs themselves, even looking back with the advantage of present day CGI and general SFX, stood up well to the passing of time. The CGI had dated a bit but not enough to make it cringe worthy or even amusing and the animatronics wasn’t that bad. OK, not a patch on the new version but 20 years in this technology is probably at least four generations.  

If you have forgotten about the original movie – or maybe you were too young to see it – and enjoyed Jurassic World in the last week or so then this is definitely worth a viewing. Take its age into consideration and just go with it… and you’ll be OK as long as they don’t learn to open doors.