This is the fifth time I have come to sit down and begin cranking out this write up of this movie. I've had a lot of time to sit and marinate on my relationship and history with movies, and it starts here. As far back as I can remember, this is the first movie I ever watched. I still remember going to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and being awed by this bones of creatures millions of years old and just staring in wonder and fascination over the fact they could even ever be real. And this amazing day of wonder could only get better when we all sat down that night to watch Jurassic Park. Dinosaurs have always been a huge part of my life from this and on, but they've been an even bigger part of my Pops'. The reason this is the fifth time I've started over on this is because of how much weight I place upon this film. I felt like my words just weren't enough. So, I thought there could really be nothing better to do than ask my Pops about dinosaurs. To my knowledge, he is the person I know who loves dinosaurs the most. So, I asked him if he could remember the first time he saw a dinosaur. "I was enthralled" he said. "Grandmama apparently went to a World's Fair when I was in utero. Sinclair Oil Company had an exhibit which featured life-sized dinosaurs... they also made wax impressions of the animals and I remember vividly seeing them as a kid at home." He continued, "I ended up smashing the Brontosaurus and the Ankylosaurus melted from being left in the sun, they were wax after all." I then went on to ask what it was like seeing dinosaurs on the big screen in Jurassic Park for the first time. "This wasn't Land of the Lost or King Kong, these weren't fictional monsters only thought up by dream. These. Were. Dinosaurs... So I took [my cousin] Devin to the movie theater and we watched the movie... I saw it five times on my own without Devin." It goes without saying that we will never stop imagining what dinosaurs look like unless we can somehow reverse engineer the perfect Chickenosaurus to revive a T.rex, but that's so far in the future it seems impossible in my lifetime. But dinosaurs, like a good movie, capture your imagination and never let go. And Jurassic Park was just about the perfect first movie to watch because of how perfectly it captured my imagination and has still never let go. Every time I watch Jurassic Park, I feel like I'm back at that museum. Like I'm back to staring at these ancient behemoths and not worrying about the other mundanities of growing up. Jurassic Park is such an enthralling movie because from the brilliant sequences of terrifying dinosaur attacks, a story that is avoids being convoluted and the INCREDIBLE special effects that are still legendary to this day, Jurassic Park is a movie that can make anyone feel like a child again.
I'm going to talk right now about two of those three headline features of the movie right now: the dinosaurs and just, oh my GOD those effects! This movie is always going to be famous for the revolution it brought about with CGI. The brilliant thing about the film's visuals however is that that is truly the tip of the iceberg. The movie first sought the help of the Stan Winston and company. Behind other famous movie monsters like the Predator, the Queen Xenomorph in Aliens and bringing the Terminators to life, animatronics were a huge part of why the dinosaurs still look as good as they do. I often see people comment on videos about the series asking how the dinosaurs in the original movie look better than later installments in the series. Simply put, it's because something is there. In our modern era of filmmaking, we know when something isn't real. Of course, none of it is "real," but we can tell the difference between. We have seen so much CGI in our movies that our eyes are trained to see the difference. So of course the effects of this movie still look good. Something is there that the actors are actually interacting with and it brings everything to life. I think the best example of the movie's brilliant mix of CGI and animatronics is from the legendary T.rex paddock escape scene. In multiple shots we see the animatronic interacting with the real cars on the set only to then move off camera and then transition into a shot of Rexy walking forward. Then we see the it bursting through the rickety bathroom to cut to a CG shot of it staring down and then chomping on Gennaro. The movie's effects are so brilliant and still look very very good (even if the CG on some shots has not aged perfectly), is because it something truly there. Another infamous moment in the T.rex paddock scene that highlights the brilliant use of animatronics and computers is when Rexy bursts into the car with Lex and Tim inside. The head of the animatronic was really there and truly did break into the car, but what you might not have known is that was not supposed to happen. An iconic and terrifying moment occurred on film through an accident because the power of the animatronic was underestimated and thus we get to see the true terror on the actors faces when they are actually staring face to face with something really there. The reason this movie's effects work so well and why this movie works so well is because it goes for something real and because of that, we as an audience get to see real reactions and real moments that last a lifetime.
Continuing on the note of the effects, I want to get a bit more specific: I talked about the T.rex paddock and the T.rex herself because that is THE reason to see the movie: the dinosaurs. Like my Pops said at the top of this, this was as close as we could get to an accurate depiction of dinosaurs at the time when this movie came out. Well, mostly. What I mean by that is I encourage looking back on on classic films featuring dinosaurs, like the above mentioned King Kong. A brilliant film that I MAY talk about later in this series, the movie's dinosaurs aren't exactly accurate. Of course, this doesn't really matter. The movie is all about spectacle, shock and awe. But the perception of dinosaurs that persisted in the world's culture for a very long time existed that despite being these legendary magnificent creatures that really lived, they were portrayed as monsters. Just simply beasts for a protagonist to beat because that's what the plot demanded. But a big point is made in the film about how in fact these are not monsters; these are animals. Real creatures that once walked the same Earth and deserved to be portrayed as best as we could perceive them and with as much honesty as they deserve. And for the most part, they get it right. Of course, it's not perfect. No plumage on any of the dinosaurs, the "velociraptors" are 100% NOT velociraptors instead being based on the Deinonychus and the Dilophosaurus was not as small as it is seen in the film, nor did it have a frill or shoot venom from its mouth. But what was shown was a solidly done attempt that made a point clear: these are animals who are living their lives and WE are the ones in the way. In no way are the dinosaurs truly the villain of the film because the fact of the matter is that none of the deaths and events of the film would have occurred if humanity didn't meddle in the affairs of Mother Nature as much as we have. It's a brilliantly and respectfully done portrayal of these creatures that truly made them awesome again. Another comment my Pops made was about how on top of the book the Dinosaur Heresies by Robert T. Bakker, this movie was what got him back into his huge love of dinosaurs that persisted from his early years. This movie really stands the test of time because of how it goes out of its way to make clear that these are not villains or a fantasy show. These are animals living their daily lives that we have intruded upon, and until that message stops being relevant, Jurassic Park WILL live on.
Now, as much as I do very much love this movie, I feel I cannot talk about it fully without addressing the numerous problems with it. This is absolute not a perfect movie, and I can still love it despite that. So many things that happen in this movie from awkward staging in scenes to plot holes and even technical issues make you scratch your head wondering if the movie couldn't have spent maybe another month in post production. So, let me just blow through them all right now. One has to really scratch their head and wonder if there was no safer way to get the "raptors" into their containment in the park than what was used in the film, because that fact of the matter is that set up was just begging for someone to die. Why are some characters just so useless? Tim for example does NOTHING significant in the entire movie except get stuck in the car during the T.rex paddock escape. Even being so useless as to not even help hand a gun to other characters when they need on in the climax of the film. It is INEXCUSABLE that an almost literal plot hole just appears during the T.rex paddock escape with the cliff that Dr. Grant and Lex climb down to evade the predator. It comes out of nowhere and is even worse when you read the book and know it is made very explicitly clear that the cliff is on the other side of the paddock. That is the only portion of one of the most masterfully crafted scenes ever filmed that makes you stop and almost, just ALMOST pulls you out of the viewing experience. Why are there so many technical issues through the movie? The raptor in Rexy's mouth in the climax of the film actually disappears for a frame when it is being jerked around. It's not a small model too, and it just vanishes out of thin air. Did no one go back and check to see if the shot looked right? How come in the raptor kitchen scene you can see a hand steady the raptor animatronic? Spielberg had already called action and the camera was most definitely rolling, so why was it not adjusted before hand? Was that truly the absolute best shot taken of that scene? For a film with such incredible and groundbreaking special effects, how come things as simple as wires being visible on screen during the Dilophosaurus scene are not checked over? Numerous issues and more plague this movie and highlight how hard it is to make a film and they do nag me. But here is the question: do they harm the experience of the film? In my opinion, no. Technical issues are bound to happen with any film and any art form in general. Nothing can be or ever will be perfect. So, why do I nag on these issues then? Well, despite how much I pick on them, I find them important to discuss how much work actually goes into making movies. It's hard. It is really really hard. Lord, in some of my absolute favorite movies ever made there are some pretty big things to nag about, especially on an effects level. But they don't truly harm the experience of the film. A technical issue to me doesn't fully matter in the long run in the same sense that something like a boring story might. Clever people can try writing off a huge plot hole like the cliff as much as they want, but I'll just leave it at it being a high stakes situation and it doesn't hurt me or bother me when I'm watching the scene in the moment. Of course it bothers me that the movie isn't perfectly made, but it almost works thematically with the movie's point being about how a perfect system doesn't exist and trying to establish one will only lead to more problems. Yeah, these things do bug me. They always have and they always will, because even after my first viewing as a little kid, I did ask how that cliff magically got there. But they don't hinder the movie overall to me because, yes, they are issues, but they aren't as egregious or as laughable as something like a hilariously dry performance or a boring story set up. I can pick on these errors and the movie all day, but regardless, I still love it.I think the big reason I chop up my love of Jurassic Park so much is truly about in how much it inspires me. It inspired me as a little kid to study and learn more about dinosaurs. It inspired me in my high school to find an outlet to share the things I loved and let everyone see. It inspires me now to write more and hopefully be able to write and tell stories of my own, be it acting them or through writing a short film screenplay. It also inspires me to make sure I check over tiny details and make sure I at least cover my ass on the small scale. I love Jurassic Park because no matter what, I can always, and I mean ALWAYS find something to adore in it. It just makes me feel like I can do things and be pretty incredible. So, you know what? I say if you haven't seen it yet (which is crazy to me the thought people haven't), I say get a copy and call a friend with a entertainment system at home, get some popcorn, take a breather, and just let yourself be taken back to a time 65 million years ago. A time when dinosaurs ruled the Earth.
Oh, also Jeff Goldblum is my favorite actor of all time and I can't believe until right now to mention that in this write up, but, well, uh, HERE HE IS!
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