Jurassic Park (5 Stars)

It's difficult to pick a list of my favorite films. A few months ago I posted a top 10 list here. But the trouble is, as I said at the time, that I change my mind a lot. I omitted "Jurassic Park". After watching it again this morning I've decided that it must be in the list. It's one of the best films ever made. Not just for the special effects, which were revolutionary at the time (1993). The structure of the film, with its perfect mix of character development, suspense, human interest and action is something that should be studied in film schools. Maybe it is. This film is a testament to Steven Spielberg's brilliance. It should be taken as an example for other film makers, to show them what they're doing wrong. Within the first 15 minutes of the film I knew all the main characters intimately, their strengths and their flaws. I even had a feeling for the minor characters, what makes them tick.

Do I really have to tell you the plot? Is there anyone who hasn't seen this film at least once? Let me summarise in a few words. A scientist has found a way to bring dinosaurs back to life. He's breeding them on a small island in South America, and he intends to open a safari park with dinosaurs. Before the park can open the dinosaurs break out of the compounds and start killing people.

A simple enough plot that could have been the basis for a laughable trashy film in the hands of a lesser director. But Steven Spielberg's skills have lifted it to the level of brilliance.

In many ways this film is similar in structure to "Jaws", the monster film that first made Spielberg famous. Instead of a giant shark there are dinosaurs. Both films start with action and the killing of a random victim (the young girl swimming, the park worker). They move on to the introduction of an inept main character (the island police chief who is scared of water, the archaeologist who is scared of computers). Since this character is stuffy, we need an erratic exciting main character as a counterpart (the marine biologist, the mathematician specialising in chaos theory). Then a slow build up to a big terrifying showdown.

Click here to view the trailer.

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On an unrelated topic. Today I updated to the new version of Blogger. And I hate it. It's much more awkward to move back and forth between the statistics, the blog itself, and the dashboard. In the past I rarely used the dashboard. Now I'm forced to. I guess I'll have to get used to it.

I've been pondering for a while whether I should start another blog. More of a soapbox for ranting about random topics that interest me. I still haven't decided. For now I'll stick to this blog, but if I have too many off-topic matters I want to write about I might start my second blog.