Nightmares for a week in 1993.

by Jennifer Bay, Editor

For the three people in the world who haven’t seen Jurassic Park in the 20 years since its original release, the plot is based on the Michael Crichton novel of the same name.  Super millionaire John Hammond (Richard Attenborough – Miracle on 34th Street) creates a theme park on a tropical island where the main attractions are live dinosaurs cloned from DNA found in fossilized mosquito blood. In order to get the lawyers and the financial backers to sign off on it, Hammond needs the endorsement of paleontologist Dr. Allen Grant (Sam Neil – Bicentennial Man), paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern – Enlightened) and Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum – Independence Day).  After being brought to the island, technical sabotage causes all hell to break loose and the dinosaurs chase after the humans in spectacular fashion.

Hilarity ensues?

While 3-D still sometimes seems like a gimmick, Jurassic Park 3-D is actually made better because of it.  Rather than get a standard 3-D update where the special effects get the treatment, the entire film was re-done with it.  It looks fantastic.  The depth of field created by the 3-D makes the dinosaur encounters much more terrifying. The scene where the T-Rex roars into the camera after chasing Ellie, Malcolm and Robert Muldoon is particularly frightening in this format.  The rest of the film continues this trend and those who see this new version won’t be disappointed with the new additions.  There were also points that I really don’t remember from the original film, so perhaps they included some deleted scenes as well?  Either way, I was never distracted by the 3-D – rather, it felt as though this old favorite had ALWAYS been viewed this way, and I was just as caught up today as I was when I was eight.  Considering the original movie was filmed in 2-D, it’s clear that great care was taken in order to re-do this version properly. If only other studios committed this level of quality to their 3-D movies, the format would be more widely accepted.

Despite the 3-D facelift, being 20 years old hasn’t helped Jurassic Park, and that is the only real complaint about this new version.  Unfortunately for the film (but fortunately for the rest of humanity) 1990s clothing and hairstyles went stale and have never come back. The knee high socks mixed with shorts that Robert Muldoon (Bob Peck – Surviving Picasso) wears are particularly silly.  Dennis Nedry’s (Wayne Knight – Seinfeld) PC and the technological systems of Jurassic Park look severely antiquated, further lessening the immersion.  We’ll see if Jurassic Park IV – opening in 2014 and the biggest reason, I believe, that the original is being released in 3-D – creates a more modern world for us in that regard.  At the end of the day, Jurassic Park is still an incredible movie and Jurassic Park 3-D is its best version.  It’s certainly worth seeing again to celebrate the 20th anniversary.

Rating:
ComicsOnline gives Jurassic Park 3-D 4.5 out of 5 revived dinosaurs.

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