Jurassic Park: Critic Reviews

Spielberg's peerless twin gift has always been for making the fantastic seem real (Close Encounters, E.T., the Indiana Jones trilogy) and the real fantastic (Jaws).

Mr. Spielberg has great fun with every last growl and rumble signaling the approach of danger...

This is Jaws with huge, scaly ridges. At times, it's more frightening.

Jurassic Park does for live-action critters what Who Framed Roger Rabbit did for toons. In that sense, it's a cinematic landmark, but in terms of plot and character, it's about as well developed as Godzilla.

You want great dinosaurs, you got great dinosaurs.

There's more soul to be found in any Kong close-up than in this film's overplayed reactions.

May be one-dimensional and even clunky in story and characterization, but definitely delivers where it counts, in excitement, suspense and the stupendous realization of giant reptiles.

In the end, Jurassic Park succeeds because it's good entertainment.

The well-selected cast is winningly sympathetic and entertainingly idiosyncratic.

You won't believe your eyes.

Performances are top notch, the score is brilliant, and the special effects still hold up in what is easily one of Steven Spielberg's supreme masterpieces...

Terrifyingly realistic dinos run amok.

As an action film, as an auteurist vision, as a blockbuster, as a humanist statement...it's a masterpiece.

Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park first introduced me to what movie magic can be.

This is the 2001: A Space Odyssey of dinosaur movies, one whose special effects render previous efforts obsolete.

Spectacle triumphs over sense, but with effects this effective resistance is futile.

This is an exhilarating, sometimes terrifying monster of a movie that, once it gets you in its clutches, won't put you down again until the closing credits start to roll.

Spielberg is still supreme as an action director, and when the T Rex makes beefburger of the jeep, or the vicious 'Raptors stalk their human prey, the film inspires wonder and awe.

An innovative, ingenious and spectacular sci-fi adventure. The special effects are truly dazzling.

The plot also conspires to harm the film's general credibility.

Great effects, a dime's worth of headache-inducing story.

Set a standard for CG-beasties that remained unmatche for many years, and still stands as one of the best of its kind