Jurassic Park: Review By Daveactor7

And what a welcome this film gives to the audience. A terrific thrill ride full of suspense that leaves you wanting more.

The story-Paleontologists Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler are given a free tour of a project in which a millionaire named John Hammond has been working on. They and others travel to an island where to their amazement, has dinosaurs. Yes, dinosaurs. Fascinated by this, they venture deep into the scientific realms of how this came to be and are blinded by the dangers soon to come. Beginning with a tropical storm that will bring more then terror to them all. A very intriguing story conceived by writer Michael Crichton, who envisioned this masterpiece of science fiction. He collaborated with screenwriter David Koepp and brought forth a screenplay that did well in keeping the film flowing, full of rich characters and a strong storyline.

The acting-Sam Neill plays Alan and he does very well as being a man fascinated by this concept of dinosaurs in the modern world, but later on developing into a character who is now fleeing for his life, trying to survive with the things he hates: Kids. His relationship with the kids however grows to not only be stronger, but it also helps his hatred towards them go away. Laura Dern plays Ellie and she does a good job as well. She is just like Alan's character, except for the fact that she does like kids and that she is more outgoing person. One scene in which I loved her in was the scene in which she confronts John Hammond at the dining hall, arguing with him about the concept of these dinosaurs, the terror it is causing and you can actually feel how much of the story is impacting her. Jeff Goldblum does great as Dr. Ian Malcolm who at first, has a sly way with Ellie until he too notices and grasps the gravity of the situation. In the film his character evolves from being a playboy to becoming a serious man. Richard Attenborough gives a well performance as John Hammond, a man blinded by the beauty he has brought back to life and then he grows into realizing the downside of that beauty. Overall, this cast is great and do well in keeping the story running smoothly. They also make these characters very interesting to watch and that is a difficult aspect to achieve in a film this scale as a scifi.

The directing-Steven Spielberg does an incredible job in bringing Crichton's film to the big screen and he never disappoints. He brings so much out of the characters it seems as if he had placed some of his own personal background to each of the characters. Also, what is amazing, he directed this and Schindler's list in the same year. It is quite an achievement at having directed two very successful films. He keeps his attention just as much he had given Schindler's list, also keeping it in consistency with the novel, he does well. 1993 was definitely his year.

The visuals-the cgi, for this time-even to this day-is astounding. Spielberg had wanted to use stop motion for the dinosaurs in the film. This was set to be the plan and before the plan could be achieved-Industrial light and magic stepped in to show Steven what they had been working on: a test of a fully digital dinosaur which looked very realistic. Spielberg's set his plan on that test shoot and it expanded into the movies overall 16 minutes of cgi dinosaurs. ILM does a fantastic job in keeping body movements of each creature well and they do excellent in keeping the realism into each creature. The interaction with the actors are seamless and it is just fantastic. One cgi sequence i loved was when the gallimimus herd tears across the field, the environment interacts so well with them, making the grass move, the log on the ground shake and move as well. Another cgi sequence I praised was when the T-rex is chasing the jeep in which Ellie is escaping from and the T-rex brushes its giant head against her, actually showing her moving at the impact. The cinematography-Cinematographer Dean Cundey, who had also done works for the Back to the future trilogy and Apollo 13, does a well job here, certainly not his best.However, he does well in capturing shots that not only praise the cgi and action sequences, but he also praises and pushes forward the mood of each actor. One shot I loved was the long shot of John Hammond eating the melting ice cream on one end of the table while Ellie sits on the other end. The long table symbolizes the distance the two characters have with each other. How different their perspectives on this scientific concept. Their dialogue in the later to be argument confirms this. Excellent job.

The score-John Williams creates another memorable score for this film, anyone to this day would certainly know which movie it would belong to. He does well in creating pieces that not only help to show the pride of each character, landscape, beauty of the creatures, but he brings forth a human approach through music in a scifi film. Astounding job there.

Film editing-Michael Kahn, who would come to win an oscar for best editing in "Saving Private Ryan" does an excellent job in keeping the consistency of the story through the visuals. He also makes sure that he does not make the suspense die down in the editing process as I could tell in the scene in which the T-rex is chasing down the jeep in which Ellie and Dr. Malcolm are in. The shots cut back and forth, moving steadily, keeping the suspense building and building. Excellent work.

Overall, one of the best scifi films ever created and one to be remembered.

This has been another review by daveactor7 :)