Jurassic Park (1993) Retrospective / Review

I own an island off the coast of custody I've leased it from the government and I spent last five years setting up a kind of biological Preserve the park is it it's right up your alley so you to UM dig up dig up dinosaur tracks hey g'day g'day now the most advanced amusement park in the entire world incorporating all the latest technologies and I'm not talking just about right you know everybody has rides we've made living biological attractions so astounding that they'll capture the imagination of the entire planet and there's no doubt our attractions will drive kids out of their minds case we got to open next year that is if the lawyers don't kill me first the 450 miles the Bremen offense are in place and the concrete moats and the motion sensor tracking systems are nearby relax try and enjoy yourself mr. city Street join this is not a weekend excursion this is the serious investigation of the stability of erm well they got in there King it's dinosaur we're gonna make a fortune with this place none of these attractions are ready after course but the park will open with the basic tour you are about to take we can charge anything we want to thousand day 10,000 a day and people will pay it this park was not built to cater only for the super-rich everyone in the world has the right to enjoy these active I want to jump to any conclusions but look dinosaurs and man two species separated by 65 million years of evolution just been suddenly thrown back into the mix together how can we possibly have the slightest idea what to expect species is it it's a velociraptor hold onto your butts so much for our first tour to no-shows and one sick Triceratops it could have been worse John and what I touch did touch anything start what the hell well not since it's a failing all over the park maybe it's the power try to come back you on a 13th of June 1993 Jurassic Park roared onto the big screen and took the world by storm it became the most successful film ever made at the time costing around 63 million dollars to produce and grossing over 900 million at the box office alone breaking many box-office records this was eventually topped by Titanic in 97 new vessel studios pumped an extra 65 million into its marketing campaign with over a hundred companies getting involved in the merchandising there was no escaping the claws of Jurassic Park in a summer of 93 it was everywhere toy companies jumped on the chance to take advantage of his impending popularity all my friends were desperate to grab the t-rex and Raptor action figures ma Donald's ran promotions and of course video game developers wanted a piece of the pie just like Batman of 1989 Jurassic Park followed suit with its heavy marketing strategy it's obvious kid-friendly marketing and PG certificate there was no stopping them wanting to see dinosaurs in action despite warnings that it may be unsuitable for younger children the trailers were very strict on the amount of footage they showed only giving you glimpses of the dinosaurs and teasing you on what the movie contained unlike today where they are so desperate to show you everything in trailers even on TV they only showed small parts to the Brachiosaurus and the odd shot of the t-rex most often of its foot stepping in front of Alan Grant in late 94 it made its debut on home video making over 200 million in home rentals and home cinema enthusiasts rushed out to get hold the DTS release of Jurassic Park once it came out on laserdisc in 1996 they even introduced a ride at Universal Studios to further capitalize on its success and it's still in operation to this day the film is based on the 1990 novel of the same name by Michael Crichton Michael wasn't already established author and had a number of his books translated to film sometimes working on the screenplays himself drastic park mirrored a number of similar plot elements to Crichton's 1973 film Westworld the film focuses on a theme park where the human-like robots malfunction after a power surge and begin killing the visitors before Crichton's Jurassic Park was even for Studios put in bids for the films rights with the backing of Universal Studios Phil Berg acquired the rights for 1.5 million dollars before publication in 1990 Stephen had been fascinated by the idea of cloning and recreating the DNA of dinosaurs is seemed very plausible and an easy idea to sell to an audience Kryten was hired for an additional half a million dollars to adapt the novel for the screen with the final draft being handled by David Koepp David left out much of the novel's exposition cut out large amounts of violence and made numerous changes to the characters often at Spielberg's request filming took place in California and Hawaii between August and November of 92 and post-production rolled until May of 93 supervised by Spielberg in Poland as he filmed Schindler's List the original deal for universal to fund Schindler's List was a tee shot drastic park first Spielberg said juggling the editing and visual effects of Jurassic Park whilst shooting Schindler's List was like a bipolar experienced two radically different movies having to remain upbeat to finish thoracic Park with the film's cast I'll note some of the changes made to the characters from the novel dr. Alan Grant is played by Sam Neill in the novel Grant is described as a barrel-chested bearded man with a strong affinity for children especially once interested in dinosaurs grant tells the children that he once had a wife who died before the events of Jurassic Park the film betrays a very different personality than that of the novel in the film dr. Grant has a introverted personality and does not like children throughout the course of the first film however he warms to the two children accompanying him this was done because Spielberg wanted to provide a source of dramatic tension that did not exist in the novel in the film dr. grant specializes in velociraptors and believes that birds are closely related to dinosaurs dr. Ellie Sattler is played by Laura Dern in the novel she is a graduate student studying under dr. Alan Grant who specializes in pea botany and she accompanies dr. grant to the island Ellie has a more prominent role in the first film than in the novel she ventured out of the bunker with Muldoon to bring the parks power systems back on line Ellie is both a doctor of paleobotany and in a relationship with dr. grant Spielberg did this not only to add tension to the film also because he felt that she didn't enough attention in the book and makes her a far stronger female character Jeff Goldblum plays dr. Ian Malcolm who would become the most popular cat of the movie plays a mathematician who specializes in chaos theory the cat of Ian Malcolm's function as the ironic commentator inside the story who talks about the action as it takes place often found talking to himself throughout Jurassic Park he makes several predictions based on the chaos theory about the consequences and ultimate failure of attempting to control nature which often turn out to be correct the legendary Richard Attenborough plays John Hammond which had sadly passed away last year the grand old age of 90 he is the owner of Jurassic Park and found of engine in a stark contrast to the cold uncaring persona depicted in the novel Hammonds counterpart is a kind man who takes responsibility for his actions demonstrating real concern for his grandchildren when our in danger he is depicted as a sympathetic grandfather who means well and appears less interested in profit than his novel counterpart he very much has to walk Disney persona to him Alexis Lex Murphy is John Hammonds granddaughter in the novel she's described as a seven or eight year old girl relatively outgoing blonde and a sporty young girl who loves baseball she wears a baseball glove slung over her shoulder and a baseball cap just about everywhere throughout the novel she shows characteristics of a grandfather John Hammond such as being unkind callous and unappreciative of the events occurring around her in the film Lex is the elder of the two siblings and has a different personality similar to that of her brother from the novel in the film Lex has advanced computer skills being a computer geek according to her brother Timothy or known as Tim Murphy is John Hammonds grandson and Lex Murphy's brother in Spielberg's film Tim and Lex's ages were swapped so that Lex was the older sibling and some aspects of his personality and story responsibilities were given to Lex for example he is still the child interested in dinosaurs however all of his computer knowledge was given to Lex this was done so that Spielberg could work specifically with the actor Joseph who was younger than Adriana Richards and to make legs into a stronger character martin ferrero plays Donald Gennaro the attorney sent on behalf for drastic parks investors to investigate the at the park he is described in the novel as a short muscular man and represents an everyman personality among the characters for the film he is cowardly and greedy when the other scientists criticize Hammonds part for various reasons Gennaro is the only one left who supports the concept bd1 plays dr. Henry Wu accounted in the first novel and film as well as the upcoming fourth film Jurassic world dr. Wu is the chief geneticist in Jurassic Park and head of the team that created the dinosaurs in the novel he is killed during the assault in the visitors center by the Raptors Henry's role was greatly reduced in the film as he leaves the island on the last boat to the mainland before the hurricane and the power failure Bob Peck plays Robert Muldoon who sadly passed away in 1999 due to cancer his Jurassic park's game warden and a former wildlife hunter who worked with Hammond on one of his previous parks in Kenya he has experience working with dangerous predators thus his attitude to the dinosaurs is realistic and unromantic unlike most other characters in the film he believes that the velociraptors should be destroyed describing them as smart and potentially dangerous Wayne Knight place everyone's favorite lazy programmer Dennis Nedry Nedry works a Hammond as a systems programmer and is in charge of networking Jurassic park's computers Nedry is expected to fix numerous bugs and issues when they arise but is less concerned with the safety of the park and more with his finances every time I see Wayne Knight I'm reminded of Seinfeld Kramer hello boys samuel l.jackson plays John Raymond Arnold he is Jurassic park's chief engineer running the main control center from the visitor center is a chain-smoking man and a chronic warrior in Spielberg's film Arnold is occasionally referred to as Ray although his first name is John this was done to distinguish him from John Hammond this version of Arnold has a smaller role than in the novel but retains the same personality traits the movie opens on the island of Iceland ooblar of the coast of Costa Rica late at night the team is overseeing the delivery of a philosoraptor to be included in the upcoming Jurassic Park exhibit however the Raptor is very aggressive and rounds the cage grabbing one of the workers who was eaten despite the efforts of the parks game warden as a result of the accident the parks investors represented by lawyer Donald Gennaro demand that experts visit the park and certify it as safe Gennaro invites the mathematician ear Malcolm and John Hammond the founder and CEO of bio engineering company engine and creative gussick pop invites paleontologist dr. Alan Grant and paleobotanist dr. Ellie Sattler at first the two doctors were very reluctant to attend are persuaded when Hammond agrees to from their work for another three years upon arrival to the island the group is stunned to see three Brachiosaurus and a herd of Paris olaphis in the distance and Hammond reveals they have a t-rex much to their disbelief they head to the visitors center and the group learns from a very simple cartoon that the cloning was accomplished by extracting the DNA of dinosaurs from mosquitoes that had been preserved in amber the incomplete DNA was spliced with DNA from frogs to fill in the gaps they also learned from dr. Ruth at the Don sores were all bred as female in order to prevent unauthorised breeding as they witnessed the birth of a baby Raptor the presence of which greatly concerns dr. grant all the scientists expressed concerns with the safety of the site and the hazards of humans being suddenly thrown into the mix with Dinosaurs Hammond is less surprised a lawyer is the only one supporting his idea even if he's only focused on the potential profits the group is joined by hammers grandchildren Lex and Tim Murphy for a tour of the park whilst Hammond oversees the trip from the parks control room however the tour goes not as planned with the dinosaurs failing to appear a triceratops becoming ill but Ian Malcolm does make his own discovery that is one big pile of [ __ ] eventually the tour is cut short as a tropical storm is approaching the island most of the parks employees depart on a boat from the mainland set Muldoon chief engineer a Arnold and lazy computer programmer Dennis Nedry as night falls Murray who has been bribed by corporate rival to steal dinosaur embryos to gain access he deactivates tupac security system turning off the electric fences the power goes out and the tour vehicles stall next to the now insecure t-rex paddock huh what was that the visual effects of Jurassic Park blew people away at the time and changed everything in the industry CGI was now a tool to take advantage of it already been used in small doses in the abyss and t2 but at that point not being used to a large extent to produce photorealistic effects the dancers were originally going to be created in stop-motion with phil tippett one of the best in the industry and most people will remember his work on rubber caught 1 & 2 he had started working on the sequences required but Dennis Muren a visual effects expert at ILM who was also attached to the production as he supervised all the visuals thought he could do it in CGI he produced some tests and showed it to Steven Spielberg who was blown away this was going to change his movie and the industry from then on overnight the efforts of stop-motion puppet ears were finished they themselves becoming extinct but thankfully the animators was still very helpful in the design of the dinosaur movements often helping to prevision eyes shots in stop-motion in the form of animatics so you had the crossover with styles to help with the final shots what the film did so well was using different types of effects to achieve the best results Stephen wanted to use animatronics as much as possible especially for the close-ups and he felt only Stan Winston and his team could take on the challenge this team was probably more beneficial than the CGI yeah they can't do as much because the movements are quite restricted but once you get that close to them the illusion becomes so real seeing the Triceratops for the first time felt like a living dinosaur and seeing that Raptor surprise Ellie from behind just made the threat of them so much more effective all the different tricks were employed to sell each shot the beauty of the efforts made with the CGI it's used in service of the storytelling it was an abuse of the tools they thought clearly about what type of effect would be best suited to bring the dinosaurs to life and they rightly earned themselves an Oscar for their efforts the Steven Spielberg films John Williams is always his go-to guy John Williams began writing the Jurassic Park score at the end of February 1993 and it was conducted a month later as with another Steven Spielberg film he scored Close Encounters of the Third Kind Williams felt he needed to write a piece of music that would convey a sense of awe and fascination given that the film dealt with the overwhelming happiness and excitement that would emerge from seeing live dinosaurs this coincidentally is my favorite piece of music from the film when Grant sees the dinosaurs near the river and the music takes over and the choir kicks in it brings tears to my eyes is the perfect sound to capture the magnificence of the animals in turn more suspenseful scenes such as the Tyrannosaurus and wrapped her attack and frightening themes it was the first time Spielberg was unable to attend the recording sessions as he was in Poland filming Schindler's List Williams just gave Spielberg demo tapes with piano versions of the main themes and the director would hear them daily on the way to assess a school was released on CD at the time and in 2013 fans received a 20th anniversary set which featured four unreleased tracks the main theme for drastic park is one of John Williams best piece of music up there with Star Wars Indiana Jones and Superman as a whole the score works extremely well but it doesn't fall into my frequent playlist however the sound and memories of the music just invoke the sound of cinema I always get nostalgic when I hear that or inspiring music on its release Jurassic Park came with a new sound format digital theater systems or DTS for short Steven Spielberg was one of the first initial investors who felt that theatrical sound formats up until the company's founding was no longer state-of-the-art Spielberg debuted the format with his new film which came slightly less than a year after the official theatrical debut of Dolby Digital introduced with Batman Returns Stephen said if you wanted to hear Jurassic Park how it's supposed to sound theater owners needed to install DTS decoders the sound was read in sync with a CD to give the listeners the uncompressed digital sound in addition Jurassic Park also became the first home video released to contain DTS sound when it was released on laserdisc in January of 1997 the sound of the dinosaurs was what added an extra level of believability to the visuals once you hear the t-rex roar you can't imagine it sounding any different other films that included t-rex never sound the same probably due to it being copyrighted but without that sound it doesn't feel right a sound engineer mixed the sounds of a crocodile a lion and a baby elephant to bring across the roar and growls of the t-rex the velociraptors had the most terrifying sound to me as a kid when it calls for his friend to join it in the kitchen it leaves your hair standing on end the Raptors were a mix of a walrus and a male dolphin very clever and inventive sound design and it earned the sound team an Oscar as well 1993 saw many video games based on the film popular UK developer ocean software who produced many games based on movies during the 80s and early 90s took on the Nintendo versions but the development of the game was farmed out to its USA division ocean knew the film was going to be huge so they sunk a lot of money into the game spending a million dollars just to obtain the license super nintendo version was a top-down isometric game which had you playing as Alan Grant as you make your way around the park trying to complete several objectives and restore the power to escape when you into a building it switches to a clunky first-person perspective at the time I was welled by its graphics but playing it now is an absolute chore I recall there was no safe feature so you had to play all in one sitting which I'm positive drove kids mad the NES 8-bit release featured a much scaled-down version from its nest counterpart my slightly higher resolution version of the game was converted to the Amiga and PC blue sky software handled the game for the Sega Mega Drive game gear and Master System they went with a different approach aiming for a more standard platform adventure but gave you a chance to play as Alan Grant or as a raptor the game's animators consulted the film's experts on how the game's dinosaurs should look the 3d models for the dinosaurs were created using stop-motion photography while a team member was filmed acting out Alan Grant's movements which was then digitized I played this version a lot as a kid and produced a let's play on it last year and forgetting how hard it was with its many irritating jumping segments but graphically it was very impressive very detailed backgrounds and fluid animation it's nice to see a different approach to the license across the gaming platforms instead of all of them being the same game I think the snares one was more interesting to me as a kid but reviews wise at the time I think the Mega Drive release received stronger feedback from critics and was most often recommended after the two Sega of America produced a game for his ill-fated Sega CD add-on a pudding click adventure game with a strong emphasis on action sequences that requires split-second timing the game involves collecting dinosaur eggs around the park itself within a real 12 hour time limit it is played from a first-person perspective giving the player a panoramic view of their surroundings as well as the various tools to enter act with and a trio of weapons to help contend with the dinosaurs because none of the weapons a stun gun tranquilizer darts and gas grenades are lethal each situation is in the form of a puzzle disguised as combat that requires more than just shooting to survive interestingly the game's characters and events had more in common with the original book Sega spent loads of money developing this game and made use of the extra CD storage by including clips from Dino experts and original content as you play through it the game was a great example of what Sega could do with a new add-on for the Mega Drive I think many were expecting something more action-packed but if you put the time into it you were rewarded with its unique gameplay with Sega dominating the arcade scene they also put out an on the rails shooter as you use a joystick to protect your vehicle from the constant onslaught of dinosaurs though I'm sure they were tranquilizers and not like guns this was the first game of its genre to include 3d environments that paved the way for later Sega titles that included totally 3d environments including a direct sequel the lost world finally the strangest release was on the new 32-bit console the 3do called Jurassic Park interactive I had this console in the mid-90s but never picked up this game and I'm glad I didn't despite it having nice graphics the game was just a series of mini puzzles you tried to complete as you navigate your way around the island though footage from the film is included in the opening sequence actual shots of the actors faces are edited out because none of them ever signed a release granting their likeness into a video game as a result look-alike actors betrayed the characters in the cutscenes and images with the huge popularity of the film a sequel was inevitable and in 1997 saw the release of the lost world I have reviewed that film which you can find on my channel the movie was a mixed bag that left me divided but was still a huge success I found drastic park 3 a bit more enjoyable thanks to the return of sound Neill and it had more exciting action but it was let down by lousy supporting characters and a rubbish ending the fans of the series had to wait 14 years for a new film now Jurassic world is finally in theaters if you like to know my thoughts on this film you can find a link below or follow the pop-up card indicated on the screen in 1993 I was standing there in the rain a typical UK summer waiting in line at my local MGM cinema to see Jurassic Park I was coming up to 11 years old at the time and although I always remember Ninja Turtles as my first cinema experience Jurassic Park was my Star Wars for those kids being blown away by Star Wars or Superman the movie in the late 70s they were seeing something they'd never seen before in terms of visual effects Jurassic Park was the next big step in pushing the magic of cinema to another level the movie came out when dinosaurs were starting to draw more focus on in the media and especially on film and TV I'm not sure what the Dino craze sprung from maybe there were more archaeological or scientific discoveries being made but kids were starting to show a very keen interest in these 65 million year old animals shows like dinosaurs and even Super Mario Brothers the movie were including them to take advantage of their popularity rustic Park came out at the boiling point of the dinosaur craze I have seen Jurassic Park more times than I can remember it's a movie that I constantly rented on videotape it's always repeated on TV and I always make an effort to watch it over the years I lost interest in the film generally because I overdosed on it as a kid I only rewatched it in my late teens to test my home cinema setup it's a perfect movie to show off your new speakers and to make your friends jealous also like freaking people out when they walk past my house and I had the window open and I could see the look on their face when the t-rex roared Jurassic Park is most fondly remembered and praised for its state of the art effects and animatronics but once you strip those away it becomes a very small movie the real sense of awe is only demonstrated to us in the first 20 minutes when you see the Brachiosaurus and the herd but after that it dials it back the t-rex entrance is incredible but in revealing the magnificence of these dinosaurs you're always left wanting more it's easy to say this now I don't think at the time I found that a problem because I was a kid and just in awe of what I was seeing but critics were aware and highlighted this issue the movie certainly wasn't critic proof it was bashed for its weak characters and thin plot I when it gets to science out of the way it just has fun with it and becomes a straightforward survival movie I think if people were fans of the book and wanted something more serious and mature then I can imagine their disappointment with the changes made however what makes the film so successful and rewatchable is that family-friendly appeal that's what Stephen Spielberg is the master of you can always find the right balance to entertain a wide audience many of us have grown up with these movies and they have captured our imagination and Rasik Park is a prime example of that once you dig deeper into the movie you can easily spot its flaws journey problems are highlighted with its continuity and we can often cliche dialogue one of the most famous fluffs in the movie is when the vehicle gets pushed off the side of the t-rex compound there are numerous shots earlier that suggests that the Tyrannosaurus paddock is at the same level as the vehicles how else would they see the goat but once they get pushed off the side there's a huge cliff face it makes no sense it rears its head again when Ellie comes to investigate and she manages to nip down there in a split second and as you get down there without having to climb down later it's revealed that Lex as a computer hacker but it's just a bit of throwaway dialogue you could miss it and at the end be totally surprised to find out she can work the parks operating system it's a perfect example of lazy storytelling and I don't buy that she can hack the system I wouldn't trust her format my hard drive the Raptors really become the main focus of the film as they are essentially the villains of the piece especially after Ned Rees downfall the kitchen sequence is certainly the movies most effective scene in building up the suspense and it's directed really well the reflection which confuses the Raptor is an inspired idea and totally tricks the audience it's easy to forget how many deaths there are in the film but in total there are five only three being slightly graphic with the lawyer getting visibly attacked which got a huge laugh in the theater even as a kid I vividly remember that scene and everyone's reaction the remains of samuel l.jackson falling on Ellie's shoulder was an effective scene and the attack on the game warden was a fantastic buildup you knew he was going to get killed but it was just waiting to the inevitable moment for a PG movie it gets away with a lot the book was certainly more graphic but I think spur burg retained enough in to balance the intensity of the violence maintaining the sense of threat but not crossing the line into a straight-out horror movie Spielberg says he'd tried not to make a monster movie but once the t-rex escapes the science behind the story gets pushed aside and as they try to escape from the Raptors it pretty much becomes a monster movie it depends if you see that as a good or bad thing the sequels clearly go more in the direction of monster films and you pay your money to see people get chased and eaten by dinosaurs this may only be a nitpick but you don't really get a decent sense of the geography of the island and only get an introduction shot to see its scale at the beginning apart from the computer control map so you know roughly where everyone is but personally I always wanted to see more wide shots of the park to give a sense of scale to see each enclosure and when they leave the island it would have been nice to see a long shot of the dinosaurs moving around claiming their habitat this as a final send-off originally the ending was supposed to see the t-rex skeleton crush and kill the Raptors but with the t-rex being so popular and essentially only making one more appearance after it escapes as it attacks the herd of Gallimimus 'as it was decided it should make a final appearance at the end which was a great idea but I was always baffled by how I got into the visitors center and without being heard it's a cool surprise and works perfectly well as a payoff but when you think about it it doesn't really make much sense having a t-rex tiptoeing around in the background I think the cast will do a great job with their roles the kids aren't that irritating another trait of Spielberg he can direct children and not have them come across as an annoyance Jeff Goldblum's character and his popularity at the time was totally justified he has some of the best dialogue and much of the comedy comes from him despite his character having very little to do after he gets attacked as Alan and Ellie take over it's great to see Ellie take on a lot of the action and see Alan's cat have become this short term father figure to the kids but the heart of the film comes from Richard Attenborough every time he is on screen he steals it it's his passion and his love for the park that draws you in Jurassic Park is an important part of cinema history he revolutionised visual effects and showed that we could push our man's father than ever before it's certainly not high art when it comes to its story and characters but those elements were good enough to keep people returning to it time and time again even with its rerelease a couple of years back it still managed good numbers so the interest in the film and the series has remained strong it's not Spielberg at his best but the movie encapsulate sir call T's needed to make a solid summer blockbuster it's a movie for everyone and inspired loads of children to show a keen interest in our world's history and the animals that dominated our planet millions of years ago I can't get Jurassic Park back online without Dennis danger Rapha tie I wonder if perhaps you would be good enough to take a guess Jean are you hearing we will never find the command that everybody's covered his tracks far too well I think if I'll be south he's not coming back so shutting down the entire system can get somebody else because I won't do it shutting down the system is the only way to wipe out everything that he did now as I understand it all the systems will then come back on their original startup mode mr. hemmond I think must go faster mainly topless endodermal the captors gonna come through the glass if you enjoyed the video don't forget to Like and subscribe you can find more retrospective reviews by clicking on these videos if you want to watch my upcoming reviews early before they go live on YouTube you can support me through patreon

Channel: Oliver Harper

Views: 223,631

Rating: 4.9290056 out of 5

Keywords: jurassic park retrospective, jurassic park review, jurassic park, jurassic world, jurassic park 1993, retrospective review, retrospective, dennis murren, stan winston, sega, nintendo, ocean, snes, arcade, lost world, Jurassic Park (Award-Winning Work), jurassic park III, Michael Crichton (Author), review, making, movie, dinosaur, ollie harper, oliver harper, ollyh82, Richard Attenborough (Film Director), Sam Neill (Film Actor), john williams, Steven Spielberg (Film Director), 1993

Id: PWonHqL3_Uw

Length: 34min 14sec (2054 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 17 2015