Steven Spielberg has made hit after hit and fans constantly debate what is his best film to date. While "Jaws", "Indiana Jones" and "Schindler's List" get thrown around a lot, it's his 1993 blockbuster that is mostly bought up as the best of the best. Based on the best-selling novel, the film follows palaeontologist Dr. Alan Grant and his girlfriend, Dr. Ellie Sattler, are approached by John Hammond, an eccentric industrialist who invites the couple to endorse his brand new theme park while providing them three additional years of finances for their research. As the three, alongside mathematician Dr. Ian Malcom, lawyer Donald Gennaro and Hammond's own grandkids, the group travel to Isla Numbar, a remote island in the pacific that is home to Jurassic Park, a theme park that utilizes living dinosaurs thanks to cloning and scientific breakdowns. While Hammond is thrilled to soon launch the park to open for the public, the group is conflicted on the ethics and potential dangers of bringing dinosaurs back to life. Their concerns are made apparent when the safety measures are sabotaged during their tour and deadly raptors and a T-Rex are on the loose. While the story is for the most part really engaging with the world-building, the nonsense science, and the characters being fairly realistic in their reactions and concerns, the film has plenty of odd plot holes and concerns. From the massive pit that appears in the T-Rex habitat, the majority of the crew going off the island for no reason, raptors being smart to open doors, T-Rex's can't see non-moving targets, shotguns being loaded with slugs, and Sattler being separated from the tour due to an unresolved plot point of the sick triceratops, there are a lot of weird plot elements or conveniences in the story that prevents it from being perfect. Some might say that these oddities help aid the film in its charm or necessity for certain sequences, but it does feel scatter-minded at times. With that said though, the film has the excellent tone Spielberg's family films are known for. It's filled with wonder, amazement, adventure and light-hearted fun, but it also contains raw intense thrills, horror-esque visuals and jumpscares, haunting deaths that you can get away for the PG rating, and the overall ideological warfare and commentary the characters are engaged in with the idea of bringing dinosaurs back to life.
Sam Neill as Alan Grant is his best role to date thanks to his performance and how much range he has. He has the wonder of a child upon seeing dinosaurs, but he doesn't like children. He's pretty serious in regards to his work and studies, but likes to joke around on occasion. It's just a charming character all around. Speaking of charm, Jeff Goldblum as Ian Malcom is practically oozing charisma in every scene. Goldblum nails down this cool, swab cynical theorist that offers both great bits of humour and interesting themes in regards to his occupation and viewpoints. The late Richard Attenborough is iconic as John Hammond, who is eccentric in his dream project that it blinds his judgement on the ethics and morality of the situation. Laura Dern as Ellie Sattler is a mixed bag. While I do like her chemistry with the main cast and her caring nature for the dinosaurs, the film tries a bit too hard in making her some prevalent action girl and harms the character by her constant screaming and a weird moment where she calls Hammond sexist for wanting to turn the power on. The side cast on the other hand is just as prevalent as the main stars in their performances and memorability. Bob Peck is fun as Muldoon, the English game hunter who fears the intelligence of the raptors, Samuel L. Jackson as Arnold, the chief engineer who is trying to fix the power and security of the park, Wayne Knight plays both a comical and villainous role as Nedry, the computer programer who sabotages Jurassic Park in an attempt to make millions off of frozen embryos and leave the island undetected, and Martin Ferrero as Gennaro, the stick-in-the-mud lawyer who is excited for the massive profits the park will create. The last characters to mention are Hammond's grandchildren, Tim and Lex Murphy. While I do like the kids being involved to aid Grant's arc of overcoming his hatred for kids and Tim is enjoyable as wanting to talk to and be like his idol, Lex is a bit problematic. She screams too much, is constantly bullied by everyone, makes the dumb decision to use a flashlight on a T-rex, and her computer hacking skills are only brought up to use by the end in such a silly visualization in making the task to turn on the power of the island look like a video game. Overall, the majority of the cast is great with their memorable performances and characterizations, with the female characters taking the short stick of being on par with the males.
Spielberg's talent as a director reached his peak with this film. Aside of some odd editing by Micheal Khan that cuts scenes short, Spielberg excels in every level. The film offers both gorgeous daylight sequences with lush greens and blues, while also having horrific imagery of a stormy night with a T-Rex stomping about. The titular park itself looks and functions very much as if it can be a real theme park aside from the dinosaurs. The PG-rating does feel like it restricts some bloody deaths, but Spielberg knows how to create horror scenes from limited uses of gore and perfect use of the unknown, where the inability to see the threat is more scary than seeing it. The cinematography by Dean Cundey is great stuff from the aerial shots, pans, and building suspense little by little. The score by John Williams is simply iconic. While I personally like his work on the sequel, I love how he enforces the more majestic and wonder aspects of the film in the main theme, while smaller beats are used for action moments and horror scenes use literally no music to maximize on the terror. The ground-breaking CGI still holds up for the most part, with only a few fuzzy shots every now and then. It's the animatronics by the late Stan Winston however that really make the dinosaurs stand out. While the CGI helps in the more expressive sequences, it's the ambition of Winston to try and prioritize on animatronic dinosaurs that look life-like with the T-Rex being his biggest achievement in his lifelong career. As for the thrilling and suspenseful sequences, they all hit around the park for the most part. Aside from the screaming and weird contrived aspects such as the pit, door handles and hacking, the sequences themselves are still effective due to the effort put into the effects, performances and directing by the talented Spielberg.
"Jurassic Park" is not a perfect movie or even Spielberg's best film overall. The story does contains a ton of weird elements and questions and the female characters are not really well-written and manage to just make them annoying or weak. With that said, everything else about the film is excellent. The story is engaging despite the weird writing, the tone is the perfect balance of child-friendly and mature, the male leads are extremely likeable and charismatic, the side cast make just as strong of an impression as the leads, Cundey's camerawork is on sync with his director's key vision, the score by Williams is beautiful in its somber and upbeat renditions of the main theme, the CGI is still really good to this day, the animatronics are masterfully engineered by Winston, the action/suspense scenes are still thrilling, and Spielberg's direction allows both a visually endearing film that brings the park and the horrors it contains to life. I know some people might be upset that I didn't think this is a flawless masterpiece, but a film doesn't have to be perfect to be a classic.
Verdict: 8.5/10. A great film from the talented Spielberg that will continue to go down in history, flaws and all.
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