Movie Reviews

Jurassic Park ranks right up there with the greatest adventure movies of all time. It's got everything an adventure movie needs: good acting, interesting characters, good directing, humour, action, drama, and a great script (something sorely lacking in most adventure movies). Oh, and of course it's got some great special effects that have held up remarkably well ten years after the film was released, in 1993.

I won't bother describing the plot, as I'm pretty sure almost everyone has seen it. Of course, I had already seen it as well (three or four times, actually), before watching it again recently. One thing that stands out, after seeing it so many times, is the sense of awe and wonder that comes from seeing dinosaurs in such a "realistic" way (well, as "realistic" as can be imagined on film). Much of that comes from the actors, who do a very good job of acting in awe of what they are seeing (or, more accurately, of the the special effects that they are not actually seeing).

Building off of this are the scenes in which characters are attacked by the dinosaurs. For example, there's something both incredibly suspenful -- but also incredibly awesome -- about seeing a Tyranosaurus Rex attack the two vehicles outside its paddock and come just a few feet away from ripping a character's head off.

This T-Rex attack sequence, in particular, still strikes me as absolutely incredible, even after seeing it a number of times. The rest of the movie is almost just as good, and few other films are anywhere near as exciting.