Rating of
3/4
Those Who Endure The First Hour Will Be Rewarded
JLFM - wrote on 04/12/12
Jurassic Park is surprisingly good, and I say "surprisingly," because I didn't know how much more I really wanted to watch after the first hour. Roughly the first 60 minutes is contaminated with utter boredom. In fact, most of this first hour wasn't even necessary. If I could crop out the 5-10 minutes of the first hour that were important, I imagine that the audience would still understand what was happening. Maybe it was just my inner-boy speaking, but I wanted to see some dinosaurs for cryin' out loud!
But I digress.
(To the film's credit, though, we do see some dinos before they begin their reign of terror, but most are in the background, one we only get a glimpse of his claw and eye. Only one dino is fully exposed, and it doesn't really do anything. And before the dinos start attacking, we see two more; a baby, as well as a sick triceratops).
After you get past the first hour, the film quickly picks up. I won't say how many, but people do die (and we see two dismembered body parts before the film is over). To be honest, I've never seen a film that would truly qualify as "scary," but this certainly "freaked me out." I always thought dinos were terrifying creatures, but now that fear has been greatly multiplied. In addition to an excellent job on making the dinos appear so suddenly (you'll probably be startled by an un-expected reptile at least once), the dinos look incredibly real, despite the fact that this film is nearly 20 years old.
The characters in the film weren't quite one-dimensional, but they weren't very fleshed out either. The plot was slightly outrageous, but if you can force yourself to believe it, the film is much more enjoyable.
The score by legendary composer, John Williams, was something of a disappointment. This is by far the worst I've heard from him, though it's not that bad. It's servicable, and sometimes, that's all one can ask for. Though there are times when the music is a little irritating and repetitive.
The film is lots of fun, and it's truly scary. There are some comedy elements, but it's mostly for the fright and joy of seeing people chased by dinos. So, if that's what you came for, you won't be disappointed.
That is, if you can get past that first hour.
