Better In Your Head?--JURASSIC PARK

 

Spoiler Alert: the children may be the future, but they're also the present, and there's the problem.

THE BOOK-Written by Michael Crichton, released 1990

THE MOVIE-Directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Michael Crichton & David Koepp, released 1993

THE STORY-When it comes to brilliant ideas, a billionaire's reaches fruition faster than most. Dinosaur theme park featuring creatures born of cloning and recombinant DNA technology is a go!  

Money + Desire - Common Sense = PROFIT!

MIND THE GAP-Dino lovers aren't the only audience for Jurassic Park, but even if they are--that's no small audience, friends.

Crichton's novel is a feat of awe-inspiring imagination, pulling off the neat trick of "entertaining while educating" with the deftness of a disillusioned academic. Spielberg's film is a feat of effects--practical and special alike. Amazing how well they've aged nearly thirty years on.

Smart move, aging Ellie and expanding her role for the film. ("Laura Dern" and "lustrous delight" begin with the same two letters, it's not an accident.) Making her and Grant a couple, though, gets the Mr. Yuk sticker. Soooo fucking Hollywood.

Best John Williams score. Argue with a rocket launcher. 

BETTER IN YOUR HEAD-Crichton's book is hard sci-fi, titanium tier. Average of two nerdgasms per page. Snarly and bleak, it lacks an overwhelming pull of adventure. Like Peter Benchley, his work is strongest in the details. His characters are road signs along a road covered in the brittle debris of humanity's hubris. The pages redden in due time, although the patient reader won't mind riding out the pink.

Spielberg understands that showing just a hint of muscle leaves audiences eager to solve the mystery. He serves the servants, and never comes up short. The movie Jaws made its source novel seem like a children's book, and while I won't got that far here, it's impossible to shake his vision even if you read the novel first. 

Cherry time: the movie's just fun. The book ain't. How do you make dinosaurs not fun? Come on, Mike.