Jurassic Park was an iconoclastic movie that challenged Hollywood’s outdated notions about movie-making. Not just another dinosaur movie, it marked an important breakthrough in…
Jurassic Park was an iconoclastic movie that challenged Hollywood’s outdated notions about movie-making. Not just another dinosaur movie, it marked an important breakthrough in special effects technology. A huge hit and now considered a benchmark among other dinosaur flicks alike, its massive success necessitated great storytelling as well as jaw-dropping visuals to sell its ambitious concept successfully. But making such a film wasn’t an effortless task: production required both amazing storytellign and striking visuals in order to realize this visionary concept successfully.
Story follows John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), an ambitious businessman who uses cloning technology to bring alive dinosaurs that live on an isolated island called Isla Nublar. Visitors can view them through tall steel fences marked “10,000 volts.” But after a Velociraptor kills one of Hammond’s park handlers, investors require that his park undergo an independent safety certification by an external observer; so Hammond invites paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and mathematician Ian Malcolm to travel there despite this being potentially conflicted given that Hammond finances both of their work despite this being funded by him as an investor himself!
As soon as they arrive, the group is shocked to find out the dinosaurs have escaped from their enclosures and taken control of remote-controlled utility vehicles. When their tour is interrupted by an unscrupulous employee named Nedry (Wayne Knight), who shuts down a computer program critical for maintaining order within the park, allowing dinosaurs to flee their enclosures and cause havoc across it all.
As they flee, visitors are pursued by an aggressive Tyrannosaurus Rex and deadly velociraptors. Finally escaping by climbing through a crawlspace in the visitor center skeleton display room but only after being attacked by Dilophosaurus and being trapped beneath its jaws; Grant shoots down both dinosaurs before running with Malcolm to an automobile storage garage where they lock themselves away in a freezer with their carcasses as protection.
Spielberg may have altered the story to his advantage, yet it’s noteworthy that this marked his first use of computer-generated dinosaurs in his films; before this success he relied primarily on animatronics and large mechanical effects for effects; after Jaws saw so much success he began using wholly digital dinosaurs more regularly in subsequent works.
Jurassic Park is an entertaining and gripping thriller that explores what happens when humans interfere too heavily with nature. At its conclusion, viewers are left to contemplate what might have been had Hammond chosen instead to destroy his creations instead of trying to contain them within his park. At least once should be watched to appreciate it fully; Jurassic Park stands as a testament to what cinema can achieve when created with passion and ambition; no other science-fiction film has come close to reproducing its magic!