Jurassic Park (1993) - The ultimate theme park ride movie

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The spine-tingling title graphic and the sensational tagline effectively builds amazing anticipation on this poster for Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park

Wealthy businessman John Hammond invites his grandchildren, a mathematician and two eminent paleontologists to Isla Nublar, a private Costa Rican island where through cutting edge DNA technology, he has created the world's first dinosaur park...

 

Jurassic Park is written by David Koepp (Panic Room (2002)) and Michael Crichton (The Terminal Man (1972)), based on his same-titled 1990 novel, and directed by Ohioan master filmmaker Steven Spielberg (Firelight (1964)), whose 14th film it is.

As a kid of the 90s, I love this film like few others. It is the incarnation of Hollywood at its best, when the greatest, towering machinery there works, and magic results. Technically the film is out of this world extraordinary and a trailblazer for CG visual effects. But the story also continues to fascinate, a surprisingly good adventure story for all ages, with incredible high points of amazement, shocks and nerve-racking thrills.

Laura Dern (Mask (1985)) is lovely and cool, and Jeff Goldblum (Hotel Artemis (2018)) is fun as the chaos theorist. There's a great mix of characters; some cartoonish; the despicable, overweight fool Nedric (a terrific performance from Wayne Knight (Black Cloud (2004))) and Samuel L. Jackson's (Shaft (2000)) character; and a realistic anchor in Richard Attenborough's (Hamlet (1996)) Hammond, - along with Dern and Sam Neill's (Rams (2020)) dino expert heroes and a pair of terrific child stars: Joseph Mazzello (The Social Network (2010)) and Ariana Richards (Angus (1995)).

John Williams' (Jaws (1975)) music sets the wonderful pace and is an unmissable part of the thrilling ride status that few films achieve as perfectly as Spielberg's masterpiece. It is a wild classic.

 

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Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 63 mil. $

Box office: 1,104.3 mil. $

= Blockbuster (returned 17.52 times the cost)

[Jurassic Park premiered 9 June (Washington DC) and runs 127 minutes. Spielberg and Universal Pictures bought the novel rights for 1.5 mil. $ and paid Crichton another 500k $ to write a first draft. A Universal CEO greenlit Spielberg's Holocaust epic Schindler's List on the condition that he make Jurassic Park first. Shooting took place from August - November 1992 in California, including Los Angeles, and in Hawaii. The film was completed under-budget and before schedule. Spielberg oversaw post production from Poland, where he was busy shooting Schindler's List. The film's marketing campaign cost 65 mil. $, based on partnerships with 100 companies that pushed 1,000 Jurassic Park-themed products. It opened #1 to a 47 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed #1 for another 2 weekends and spent another 8 in the top 5, grossing 357 mil. $ and 914 mil. $ worldwide in its original run. It was the highest-grossing film ever until Titanic (1997). The film has been re-released many times since, with the 2013 3D re-release being the most significant, adding 118 mil. $ to the film's total gross. Spielberg's ingenious profit participation deal means that he has made approximately 250 mil. $ from the film personally. It was nominated for and won 3 Oscars: Best Sound, Sound Effects and Visual Effects. It also won 2/3 BAFTA nominations and was nominated for a Grammy, among many other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 review, translating to 2 notches under this one. The film spun an explosive new interest in paleontology and a franchise with 2 direct sequels (The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) and Jurassic Park III (2001) by Spielberg) and a reboot film series (2015; 2018; 2022; 2025...). IMDb's users have rated the film in at #141 on the site's Top 250 list, sitting between All About Eve (1950) and There Will Be Blood (2007). Spielberg returned with Schindler's List (1993). Neill returned in The Simpsons (1994, TV-series) and theatrically in Sirens (1994); Dern in Fallen Angels (1993, TV-series) and theatrically in A Perfect World (1993). Jurassic Park is certified fresh at 83 % at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Jurassic Park?

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) - Ideals blow up in Bayona's grand and timely dino spectacle

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The cataclysmic volcano eruption leaves even the T-rex looking small on this amazing poster for J.A. Bayona's Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

A few years after the disaster at the newly opened Isla Nublar Jurassic Park, a volcanic eruption threatens to end all life on the island, and Claire Dearing is engaged by the Lockwood estate, heirs to John Hammond's genetic dinosaur invention, to help move some of the dinosaurs to a sanctuary island, with the help of velociraptor wrangler Owen Grady of course.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is the sequel to Colin Trevorrow's (The Book of Henry (2017)) great Jurassic World (2015) and is the second film in the new Jurassic trilogy. It is written by Derek Connolly (Monster Trucks (2016)) and Trevorrow and directed by great Spanish filmmaker J.A. Bayona (The Orphanage/El Orfanato (2007)).
I am a huge fan of the Jurassic franchise and therefore will probably always have a lot of thoughts on the films, - so here goes:
I saw the new film in a 4DX cinema in 3D, which is a cinema with seats that move, while blitzing lights, water drops and sprays, air whistling, smoke and smells are issued to enhance the experience. And although it didn't make me forget that I was not a part of the action on the screen, I thought it was a thrilling added layer and a fun elevation of the experience. It is certainly an added expenditure that a film like Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is tailored for. So I recommend it.
Critics of this franchise will sneer that the films are so silly and all tell the same basic story. - But that isn't true. Ultra-short summaries of the four previous films may run like this:

1. Jurassic Park (1993): Billionaire philanthropist John Hammond creates Jurassic Park on Pacific Island Isla Nublar, but a greedy employee and hybris run afoul, and his grand children and others struggle to survive there.
2. The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997): 4 years later Hammond sends a team to prevent his greedy nephew's guys from capturing the dinosaurs on a neighboring island (Isla Sorna), but they fail to stop the military honchos, and dinos are taken to San Diego, where they wreak havoc but are ultimately returned to Isla Sorna, now pronounced a natural preserve.
3. Jurassic Park III (2001): A divorced couple trick Dr. Alan Grant from the first film to accompany them on a flight that ends on Isla Nublar, where their son is stranded after a parasailing accident.
4. Jurassic World (2015, franchise reboot): 22 years after the first film's events, a new dinosaur park has emerged and operated on Isla Nublar for 10 years. But to pander to the demanding audiences and lure more cash from them, a genetically modified species has been developed, the Indominus Rex. But as it breaks free, the park is ravaged by mayhem and chaos.

So, as you see, a different story each time, to be precise.
The new film rejoins Bryce Dallas Howard (Hereafter (2010)) and Chris Pratt (Moneyball (2011)), who are an immensely likable couple. Howard's Claire's coldness in the previous film has stifled here as she now heads a youthful dinosaur preservation organization. They venture to the island with two fresh young faces: Justice Smith (Every Day (2018)) and Daniella Pineda (Newlyweds (2011)), representations of what might be termed the idealistic, loud, 'woke' Parkland generation, with appropriately reversed (compared to traditional convention) gender balance: Smith spends most of the film being less than useful and scared witless, while Pineda's resourceful Zia takes action and stays cool. Both also seem like they may be gay, (and a lesbian scene with Zia was actually shot and dumped for trimming reasons), but the film has no time to get into this, regrettably, for Fallen Kingdom is in a rush!
Of the rest of the cast, most noteworthy is Ted Levine (Bleed for This (2016)) as the film's ruthless mercenary villain, SPOILER who removes teeth from dinosaurs as souvenirs. Levine brings back memories from The Silence of the Lambs (1991), in which he portrayed Jame 'Buffalo Bill' Gumb so terrifyingly, and makes another memorable super-villain here. - And Toby Jones (Agent Carter (2015), TV-series) who is also rather slimy with fake teeth and a lisp as a shameless auctioneer swine. - They both get their becoming in two of the film's most satisfying scenes.
Fallen Kingdom also has distinguished actors Geraldine Chapman (Sand Dollars/Dólares de Arena (2014)) and James Cromwell (Hawkeye (1995), TV-series), who are good without becoming really memorable in smaller parts. With Ron Howard's daughter, Charlie Chaplin's daughter and all the rest, the film brings feels like something of a golden trust of cinema establishment. Jeff Goldblum's (The League (2011-12)) return as chaos theory mathematician Alan Grant has made headlines of anticipation, but really he is only in two scenes, or rather one scene, which is cut in two, spouting some more or less prophetic wisdom about our messing with dinos and genetics at an official hearing, I suppose, which there also isn't any time to really make us understand. (What is this concerned gathering?) Nevertheless he manages to be great once again. And BD Wong (Oz (1997-03)) also returns as Dr. Wu, who may evolve into a real villain on his own in the next film I expect.
The film encompasses so much that we inevitably feel rushed through to some degree. - There is also a new child, SPOILER the Lockwood patriarch's (Cromwell) grand-daughter, who is revealed to be a clone, - but there also isn't time to really go into this, which may also likely be an element to revisit in the next film.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom naturally needs the time for its dinosaurs and action scenes, which are many, seamless and expectedly thrilling. - We are harder to woo at this point, and making a Jurassic movie may therefore inevitably become harder by each film. Fallen Kingdom lacks the scenes of wonder and bright thrills that its predecessor had plenty of; instead this is the darkest Jurassic movie yet, most comparable in the bunch to The Lost World, although it is a significantly better film. SPOILER It is a matter of taste if audiences prefer the first half of the film, which culminates with the impressive but also despairingly sad volcanic destruction and pillaging of species, or the second half, which mostly takes place at the North-Californian Lockwood estate. Great production and set designs have gone into this semi-Gothic mansion, which reeks of old money and appealed to my imagination. SPOILER: My favorite scene in Fallen Kingdom: The auction scene, and especially its breakup by an energetic Stygimoloch!
Owen's relationship to Velociraptor Blue plays a major part in Fallen Kingdom, which is pulled off impressively.
Bayona's Jurassic movie is a giant beast that doesn't match the amusement park ride-like greatness of Jurassic World - or, of course, the original 1993 masterpiece for that matter, - but which charters new ground with a steady hand and is an impressive, hugely expensive-looking elephant of a spectacle movie with teeth and enthusiasm.

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Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 170-187 mil. $ (different reports)
Box office: 717 mil. $ and counting
= Already a big hit (at least 3.83 times the cost at time of writing)
[Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom premiered 21 May (Madrid, Spain) and runs 128 minutes. Filming took place in England, including London, Scotland and Hawaii from February - July 2017. Shooting reportedly required more stunt work of Pratt than the previous film, and more dinosaurs than any of the previous films. The film opened #1 to a 150 mil. $ first weekend in North America, down significantly from the previous film's spectacular 208.8 mil. $ opening. But the film is bigger in China than the preceding film; here it has made 170 mil. $ in just 10 days; the previous film made 228.7 mil. $ in China overall. Fallen Kingdom has a long way to go to match Jurassic World's staggering 1,671.7 mil. $ world gross, which seems unlikely to happen, but less will also suffice. A whopping 185 mil. $ was reportedly spent by Universal on the global marketing campaign for the film, which, if added into the budget cost, would raise the film's break-even point to the 930 mil. $ area. It has one market left to open in: Japan on 13 July. Trevorrow is set to return to the franchise to direct the finishing film in the proposed trilogy for a June 2021 release. Bayona's next project is not sure yet. Pratt has two scheduled releases approaching, both for 2019: The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part and Cowboy Ninja Viking, as well as the yet unscheduled Vincent D'Onofrio-directed The Kid, about western legend Billy the Kid. Howard is returning as herself in Arrested Development (2018, TV-series) and has no other projects lined up officially right now. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is rotten at 50 % with a 5.7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom?

Jurassic World (2015) - The best huge event movie since Avatar is this summer's must-see

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+ Best 3D Movie of the Year

+ Best Action-Adventure of the Year

One of the many incredibly cool posters for Colin Trevorrow's Jurassic World

It's here! - It's finally here!
I am one of the many fans of the Jurassic Park universe and franchise who has been waiting eagerly for years for the 4th movie, which has been a very long time in the making, going through a decade of countless unmade versions also known as 'development hell'. It follows Steven Spielberg's (Schindler's List (1993)) masterpiece, the original Jurassic Park (1993), and sequels The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) and Jurassic Park III (2001). 14 years of waiting for the next chapter in your favorite mega-movie franchise is simply too long. Luckily, Jurassic World is a kick-ass return!

More than 20 years since the events in John Hammond's original, ill-fated dino theme park, Isla Nublar's Jurassic Park has been running stably for many years. But to continue to attract huge crowds with deep pockets, the company behind it has designed a new, ferocious dinosaur. And guess what ... - It breaks loose!

Spielberg, the master director of the original, formidable film and the less than good first sequel, still only acts as executive producer on Jurassic World, which is co-written and directed by surprise career-catapulting Colin Trevorrow (Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)), who has only directed 3 small films before this.
Trevorrow succeeds tremendously here, although it is nearly impossible to say how much credit rightly befalls him. Jurassic World looks like a billion dollars, (cinematography by John Schwartzman (Saving Mr. Banks (2013))); it sounds incredible, - any Jurassic Park fan knows how important the soundscapes are to these movies, - and its mix of CGI and practical effects is top shelf. Michael Giacchino (Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)) has composed the effective, elegant score, using John Williams' legendary theme and generally doing a great job of making a very Williams-like score that still has something different here and there.
The story kind of erases the two middle films, (which few will seriously object to), and it is definitely designed with an especially keen eye on the original, which is a good choice. It uses some very known devices, but it does so playfully. A wonderful thing about it is that you can take from the movie so many different things: Implicit critique of corporate management, consumerism, military logic, environmental damages by humans etc. etc. etc. - or just marvels, thrills and laughs. The film is, as it should be, a ride, perhaps even more so than a conventional film. 
It is a summer cineplex blockbuster dream, but also a very well-crafted, carefully and intelligently written film. The screenplay is attributed to both Trevorrow, Derek Connolly (Safety Not Guaranteed), Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), both), who have been waging a credit battle against each other before the film's release.

The only part of Jurassic World that I didn't feel was completely right was its very end, the last, climactic few minutes, SPOILER in which the T-Rex is let out to fight the monstrous Indominus Rex, along with raptors, until, finally, the huge sea monster concludes the battle (and the movie) by dragging the anti-social beast into the sea. This may sound cool, and I know that many think it is a great, exciting end to the film, but I personally thought it was a little too much, and also that the T-Rex/raptor-fighting culmination was a bit too similar to the end of Jurassic Park. I would have liked the new ending to be more its own. Instead, it felt a little convoluted and perhaps a little as an ending that the writers have had a hard time pulling together. And also a little too similar to the end of the great, recent Godzilla (2014): SPOILER There Godzilla, delightfully, turned out to be our savior; this year in Jurassic World, T-Rex does practically the same...
But let it be said straight away that this is a small detractor to a near-perfect film of a very rare breed. - Everything leading up to this climax is spectacular. Jurassic World ups the savagery, deaths and blood significantly, which is to be expected, and the PG-13 rating's limit has certainly stretched since its inception for Spielberg's masterpiece Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) over 30 years ago. - Some will undoubtedly feel that the film is too savage for its audience, (SPOILER particularly the amusingly included character of the evil, British nanny's demise, devoured by both flying and water dinos, could be argued in poor taste and probably is), but this critic goes with the kid inside him and shrieks out in loud Wooow's throughout it all.
The cast is superior, a very exciting gathering in themselves, and the film gives many characters room to stand out:
Chris Pratt (Wanted (2008)) and Bryce Dallas Howard (Manderlay (2005)) are a great screen match: He as an Indiana Jones/Steve Irwin-type he-man, and she as an emotionally disconnected symbol of some of our problems today. They are both strong here, charming and sweet. And as to the gender criticism of the film that some have raised, (calling it 'male-chauvinist' and the like), - I just don't buy into that one bit.
BD Wong (Jurassic Park) is the only actor here who has been in any of the previous films, and he is great as Dr. Wu, - someone I predict we'll see in the (hopefully) not too distant next film in the franchise.
Crucially, the two kids of Jurassic World work: Adorable and good actor Ty Simpkins (Insidious (2010)) and Nick Robinson (The Kings of Summer (2013)) do a great job, even if they are not as completely natural as the siblings of the original film. Together, they act in my favorite scene in the film, SPOILER the glass bubble attack scene, the film's arguably most spectacular and a clear reworking of the intense T-Rex car attack scene of the first film. Judy Greer (Tomorrowland: A World Beyond (2015)) is also very good as the boys' mother.
Omar Sy (Untouchable/Intouchables (2011)) is good as Pratt's right hand man; Irrfan Khan (The Lunchbox/Dabba (2013)) makes a fine, new, somewhat clueless Hammond-like billionaire owner; Jake Johnson (Safety Not Guaranteed) gets a humorous part as an office charmer; and finally Vincent D'Onofrio (The Judge (2014)) is great as a sort of evil John Wayne-ish military honcho.
Jurassic World is pretty much the film anyone who has ever loved seeing a film in the cinema should allow themselves to go see. It is easily the best huge event movie since Avatar (2009). What's best about it, to me, is that it makes me feel like an 11 year-old again for a couple of really awesome hours. In 3D, IMAX or 2D doesn't matter too much. - Just don't miss it!

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Watch the official trailer for Jurassic World here - and then run to a cinema to watch it!!!

Cost: Estimated 150-190 mil. $
Box office: 17.8 mil. $ - and counting
= Too early to say
[The figure listed above is only from the film's opening day and previews in China. Jurassic World is actually a US-Chinese co-production. Trevorrow, btw, has already shared that he for some reason will not be directing any possible sequel to the film. It opens in America tomorrow, June 12th. And if it doesn't break a billion $ gross worldwide within the next month, I'd say there's something wrong with the world!]

What do you think of Jurassic World?