Jurassic Park (1993)

Jurassic Park (1993)

1993 PG-13 127 Minutes

Adventure | Science Fiction

A wealthy entrepreneur secretly creates a theme park featuring living dinosaurs drawn from prehistoric DNA. Before opening day, he invites a team of experts and his two eager grandchildren to exper...

Overall Rating

9 / 10
Verdict: Great

User Review

  • WHAT I LIKED: Steven Spielberg's 'Jurassic Park,' has become a classic pretty quickly, and it's definitely not hard to see why as it's a film that has undoubtedly stood the test of time. Yes this is one thoroughly iconic and influential movie, and in large part the reason it's so memorable is its special and visual effects and its spectacular sequences in which tension and investment is constructed and directed expertly. But crucially beyond that Spielberg is also of course a director who understands that there's more to a great film than a few great sequences - no matter how enchanting - so the first half of Jurassic Park in particular is judged perfectly to add serious investment and depth to the whole experience. The characters are all fleshed-out to a meaningful degree and each have proper arcs so that you care about them when they're in jeopardy, and themes surrounding commercialism and nature vs science are discussed in thoroughly interesting detail. This makes it a much more thoughtful film than the premise might have you believe, and it's this that really gives the film its long-lasting status.

    WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: The final act serves to prove what a dangerous idea the whole park experiment is, but it does drag out the action and suspense far too long to keep you properly engaged, no matter how well everything is set-up and portrayed.

    VERDICT: A film that's remembered for its iconic sequences and effects but is actually a success because Spielberg deals the characters and themes so well, 'Jurassic Park,' has and will continue to stand the test of time for good reason, even if its final act looses most of that great momentum.