Michael Crichton’s novel Jurassic Park became a cultural phenomenon unto itself, but when Steven Spielberg adapted it into a 1993 film, he unleashed a cinematic force the likes of which has yet to be paralleled. Every child who has ever gone through a phase of dinosaur enthusiasm (which is most of them) has fantasized about meeting a living dinosaur. Very few children, however, ever think through exactly what an encounter with dinosaurs would be like, in their heads they imagine the dinosaur would be their friend. While Jurassic Park isn’t a piece of non-fiction, it probably comes closer to reality in theorizing what would happen when people and dinosaurs occupy the same space, and it does so in a way that’s endlessly entertaining and bursting with potential. That potential may have been squandered by increasing degrees with each sequel, but the franchise has always been thrilling in its execution and conceptualization even as it faltered in its stories and characters.
The film that started it all deserves every bit of praise heaped upon it; Jurassic Park’s special effects broke new ground at the time and continue to look better than the output of many studios today. The story of two scientists (Laura Dern, Sam Neill), a chaos theorist (Jeff Goldblum), and a lawyer (Martin Ferrero) attend an inspection of an unprecedented attraction that blends a theme park with a zoo, but with one catch: the attractions are living, breathing dinosaurs recreated through the miracle of genetic manipulation. Though the park’s creator (Richard Attenborough) can conceive of no problems with his idea, the short weekend inspection spins wildly out of control when a bit of sabotage by an industrial spy (Wayne Knight) and a tropical storm leave the park without power and the humans to fend for themselves with dinosaurs on the loose. Even at two hours, Jurassic Park is incredibly lean without a single wasted second or unnecessary subplot, and yet it manages to manifest fear in brilliant ways like the ripples in a puddle to signify the approach of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. This is event filmmaking at its finest and easily one of the greatest thrillers to come of its decade.
The sequel, The Lost World, missed the mark of the original in many respects despite still having Spielberg at the helm. Feeling less like an intelligent thriller about man versus nature, The Lost World works more like a horror story with dinosaurs, wherein characters make plenty of stupid decisions for no other reason than amping up the tension and leading into a high-stakes stunt sequence. What’s worse is that it brought back the most entertaining character from the original, Jeff Goldblum’s Dr. Ian Malcolm, only to make him insufferable as a worried father sent to the second island created for the Jurassic Park project to rescue a former romance (Julianne Moore) who went missing when her research mission goes awry. Complicating matters is the arrival of a greedy corporate entity intent on capitalizing on the dinosaurs using brutal methods. If the second film has any saving grace whatsoever, it’s the expanded role of the velociraptors and number of people they kill off.
Jurassic Park III borrows the same scenario as the first sequel but subjects a different Jurassic Park alumnus to the experience. This time around it’s Dr. Grant (Neill) taken back into the Jurassic Park wilderness, but as part of a ruse devised to help a couple (William H. Macy, Tea Leoni) recover their son who went missing after a disastrous parasailing excursion. The cast assembled this time around is impressive, and even though Jurassic Park III represents yet another degradation of the Jurassic Park franchise, it did succeed in taking it back from a horror series with dinosaurs to a thriller about man surviving when it’s no longer the dominant predator. The only problem, it does this with a poor story and some special effects that don’t match the quality of the first two films. It’s easy to deride the film for being a mere shadow of the original, but in a way it succeeds in continuing the expansion of the Jurassic Park franchise’s corral of dinosaurs and in a way that offers audiences a few decent set pieces (the best being the Pterosaur aviary).
The HD presentation of the Jurassic Park trilogy is nothing short of perfection. The audio and visual experience with a full home theater system should shake you to the core every time the T-Rex roars, and really that’s what this franchise is all about. Although, one of the best surround sound moments to be had comes from the first film’s scene between the dilophosaurus and Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight). It’s exhilarating.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
The set includes all films on Blu-ray and with digital copies of each. As for the extras, they go on for hours and hours and hours if you watch them all, but if you’re a fan of the films and you’ve bought them on DVD previously, then chances are it’s the "Return to Jurassic Park" featurettes that have the new content you crave.
On Jurassic Park, you have the "Return to Jurassic Park" segments covering: Steven Spielberg’s visualization of the film as a credible film about creating dinosaurs and how bringing them into modern times would work; the filming locations and methods of Jurassic Park as split between jungle sets constructed on the Universal lot, the conversion of Steven Spielberg’s roughly staged visions to storyboards, stop-motion animatics, and then final shots, and the realization of some of Jurassic Park’s signature moments and creatures; and finally the gigantic leap forward that Jurassic Park represents in CGI and puppeteering technology, and the huge risk that entailed when it came to delivering the final product long after the film had finished shooting.
The Lost World: Jurassic Park features two more "Return to Jurassic Park" pieces, this time the focus is on finding and creating the new location for the sequel in such a way that it feels similar without feeling the same and then the creation of a new collection of dinosaurs and the evolution in technology that happened between the original and the sequel.
Jurassic Park III only has one "Return to Jurassic Park" featurette and it plays more like a generic “making of” piece than it does one dedicated to a specific aspect of the filmmaking process.
The rest of the extras are deleted scenes and archival featurettes from previous releases.
"Jurassic Park Ultimate Trilogy" is on sale October 25, 2011 and is rated PG13. Action, Adventure, Thriller. Directed by Joe Johnston, Steven Spielberg. Written by Michael Crichton (novel), Michael Crichton, David Koepp, Peter Buchman and Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor. Starring Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Laura Dern, Sam Neill, Samuel L Jackson, Tea Leoni, Wayne Knight, William H Macy.
