For all the bombshell and epic talk, movies like ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’ exemplify the worst of modern blockbuster: no soul, no memorable action sequences, and almost every arc treated like a procedure to complete, impregnating them with winks to recognizable things for fans but without much interest. Come on, the ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ of the dinosaurs.
With this panorama, how not to be tempted to look back, and fill your eyes with some great film of yesteryear, from the time when masters like Steven Spielberg were the ones who hit commercial cinema. Now we have a great opportunity to do it. ‘Jurassic Park’, one of his masterpiecesis issued in Four at 15:40. Take advantage, it’s streaming you don’t have it.
We have spared no expense
Spielberg knew there was big money behind the idea of making an ambitious dinosaur movie. He lunged at the thought of Michael Crichton when the book was not yet published and he also managed to use it as a bridge to finance ‘Schindler’s List’ -which was shot and ended up in post-production of this-. With David Kopp on board to finish the script, the director prepared to make an ultimate blockbuster.
The story is well known: a group of scientists, played by Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, are called to a secluded island where a millionaire megalomaniac has had the million dollar idea: a dinosaur theme park. With a prodigious technology, he has managed to bring them back to life, perhaps without stopping too much to think about whether it was possible to control them.
Here is material for a pretty powerful monster movie, with some clear echoes to the Godzilla movies that Spielberg watched as a child. However, the key to making it a total movie is how he adds elements from different types of movies to make a colorful and complete film. We have romance, coming-of-age drama, horror, humor, dazzling action, consumer criticism, etc.
‘Jurassic Park’: masterful and monstrous tape
Another key is, of course, what is required to bring these dinosaurs to life -at least, put them in motion on screen-. Almost like the motto of the character of Richard Attenboroughno expense was spared to employ the most cutting-edge effects of the moment and the most sophisticated animatronics to make them possible, while also maintaining a certain handcrafted texture that makes them more “palpable” and better aged than the films that came later.
Spielberg’s supreme staging does the rest. All dinosaur images shock, in addition to the good effects, because of how it creates anticipation from the image and sound. The elaboration of the suspense is maximum, contributing there the excellent soundtrack of John Williamsand knows when to put a dinosaur on screen and when not. Works so perfectly from start to finish that it’s hard not to talk about her in the most ornate terms. It is a masterpiece, one more from the director -if you hurry me, more than the other one he released that same year-.