What Makes Jurassic Park a Good Film?
Jurassic Park is a sci-fi, thriller/adventure movie that released in 1993, was directed by Steven Spielberg and was written by David Koepp and Michael Crichton. The film is an adaptation of the sci-fi horror novel of the same name written by Michael Crichton and was considerably toned down to appeal to a younger audience. The plotline revolves around an eccentric businessman by the name of John Hammond who along with a group of scientists, manage to bring back genetically engineered dinosaurs in the hopes of creating a the “most advanced amusement park the world has ever seen”. The park’s systems fail due to sabotage and three scientists, two children and the park’s staff must try and survive whilst dinosaurs run free on the island.
What makes this a good film? Firstly, the editing in the film is superb. Stan Winston, most known for his brilliant animatronic puppets featured in classics like Jaws and Alien helped create multiple animatronic dinosaurs and dinosaur suits for the film, including a life sized Tyrannosaurus rex animatronic.This added a new layer of realism that hadn’t been featured in older dinosaur films and the audience was shown dinosaurs that seemed almost real for the first time in cinema. Additionally, the CGI in this film is phenomenal considering the time it was made and shaped future film’s effects to this day. These combined created some of the most iconic scenes in cinema. Furthermore, the film takes place mainly on “Isla Nublar” which is an island west of Costa Rica and features many Jurassic and Cretaceous plant life and this setting perfectly creates a prehistoric atmosphere. The cinematography is also extremely well done as there are many tense shots throughout the film. This is mainly because Steven Spielberg is an excellent director. The film also features superb sound design which includes the iconic Tyrannosaurus roar as well as the equally iconic soundtrack performed by the king of film music, John Williams.
The film is seen as a sci-fi thriller/adventure whereas the source material is a sci-fi horror. The violence in Jurassic Park was toned down significantly in order to appeal for a younger audience which in turn has been extremely effective as the film happened to be enjoyed by both adults and children therefore making it more successful. The key message in the film is both complicated and simple. The key message is that man shouldn’t play god and mess with nature which is simple enough to understand. However, the film delves deeper by explaining chaos theory and delving into its effects and how nature cannot be controlled because of how complex and unpredictable it is. This message can provoke a lot of thought onto the audience. Additionally, the plot doesn’t bombard the audience and focus too much on these aspects and instead focuses more on the characters. It revolves mainly around a paleontologist called Dr Grant who learns to appreciate kids through the events of the film. The film perfectly balances the key themes with the plot and its characters.
Overall, Jurassic Park is a fantastic classic with an interesting plot and key message with fantastic effects, direction and an iconic soundtrack.