766. Jurassic Park (1993)

Starring: Sam Neill, Richard Attenborough, Laura Dern

Director: Steven Spielberg

Running Time: 127 mins

Jurassic Park is an American film about a small island designed as a safari park of dinosaurs that suffers a disaster on a preview tour that allow the prehistoric beasts to run wild, putting the lives of those on the island in jeopardy.

Well, this has the image of a big-money, action-packed blockbuster, and it definitely delivers on that front, but it’s also a fantastic film because of so many other aspects, including its a thrilling story as well as those iconic special effects, which are still dazzling to this day.

Honestly, I’ve never been a big dinosaur fan. It seems as if everyone at the age of 4 to about 7 was always obsessed about dinosaurs, but not me, so I thought that all the rave about this film was because so many people have always loved dinosaurs so much, and that’s why I’ve stayed away from it for so long.

However, I’m now really glad that I’ve seen this fantastic film. It’s not a dinosaur-obsessive fest, in fact, there’s fortunately very little pseudo-scientific explanation as there is in some other copycat films such as Godzilla, and it’s mainly all about some of the coolest action I’ve seen in a long time.

Although the film, in its establishing phases, may be a little slow-paced, this becomes a brilliantly action-packed thrill ride within 40 or so minutes, with petrifying chases, dark and dangerous enemies, terrifying dinosaurs and constant tension that really keeps you on the edge of your seat right up until the bitter end.

And while the first forty minutes may not sound the most appealing, I thought that they were the best of the film, because despite having no action to speak of, you get immediately immersed in this fascinating magical dinosaur world, and once you’re thrown onto the island, this amazing atmosphere of very subtle but powerful tension appears, leaving you biting your nails before anything actually dangerous happens, because the idea of real dinosaurs is just so scary.

The thing that really contributes to making this film scary and thrilling at the same time is the amazing visual effects. If they weren’t so convincing, this film would have been absolutely laughable, and the dinosaurs wouldn’t have brought so much fear to the table, but because everything in this film looks and feels so realistic, you really feel the fear and danger, which ramps up the excitement of it all even more for you.

Overall, this gets an 8.4, because as well as being a technically brilliant film, with some mind-blowing visuals, this film’s strong story, action and very powerfully tense atmosphere makes it incredibly exciting and entertaining to experience.