The story finds a collection of paleontologists, mathematicians, lawyers and children visiting an island where a businessman [Attenborough] has brought cloned dinosaurs to life. Their awe is palpable -- living, breathing dinosaurs are roaming the earth. Of course, everything goes horribly wrong, villains open the door and the massive, deadly creatures run amok. The suspense is skilfully manipulated, the adrenaline flows, and at the end of the film you feel somewhat like you might feel at the end of a particularly good rollercoaster: "Can we ride it again?"

So why was l disappointed with Jurassic Park? Perhaps it was the weak plot and shallow characters, neither of which Spielberg has fell victim to before. Most of the characters are defined with cliches, so as to quickly get back to the suspense. Still, the actors are good, even though they have little to do but stare at the beasts and run for their lives.

Goldblum seems along simply for (welcome) comic relief; Attenborough is only adequately eccentric. The only actors who get much of a workout are the two child stars [Mazello and Richards], who are surprisingly good, although that shouldn't be surprising, given that Spielberg is the director (see Henry Thomas and Drew Barrymore in E.T., Christian Bale in Empire of the Sun). Anyway, the scene in which they hide in a kitchen from a pair of hungry velociraptors is spectacular.

Spielberg knows better than to create a big, empty film like Jurassic Park (even Jaws was loaded with subtext, character shadings and plot twists). On the other hand, he knows exactly how to create an action-packed, suspenseful, white-knuckle rollercoaster of a movie to liven up our summer. So how long do we have to wait for JP2?

grisly violence, suspense

Jul.93

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Spielberg is a master at calculated set pieces. He sets up characters using the simplest movie shorthand, then cleverly cranks up the tension until you can hardly bear it. The film begins as a British family picnics on a tropical island paradise, except they don't realise it's Site B, where the scientists raised dinosaurs that were later displayed at Jurassic Park. Now this island is overrun with prehistoric monsters; and something must be done! So the park's founder John Hammond (Attenborough) hires scientist lan Malcolm (Goldblum) to return with his palaeontologist girlfriend (Moore) and a photographer (Vaughn) to document the place so they can turn it into a wildlife sanctuary.

Meanwhile, Hammond's greedy nephew (Howard) wants to sell the beasts to zoos, so he sends in a team led by an old-style hunter (Postlethwaite). From here things go horribly wrong, naturally, and the film moves from one thrilling sequence to the next as the rapidly diminishing group tries to escape from a wide variety of fascinating creatures. Thrills abound, and the characters are very well-played.

Unfortunately, they are also bare-bone stereotypes, giving the audience just enough information so we can care for them, even though we know from the start who will and won't survive. For example, they've added the grossly under-explained character of Malcolm's daughter (Chester) simply to echo the "T-rex protect their young" scenes ... and to once again give kids in the audience someone to identify with.

The storyline itself has more than a few illogical jumps, especially in the final third, when the action suddenly lurches to San Diego (scenes there are clever and darkly funny). It's a surprising mistake for such a high-budget film, but then they were thinking about those dinosaurs, weren't they? And yes, they're terrific. Although just when you want more, Spielberg jumps ahead to his next big sequence. He also cuts away from the grisliness, PG-style, leaving much of the horror in your mind. Not necessarily a bad thing! But the result is that at the end, you've been vastly entertained but left utterly dissatisfied, both craving and dreading Jurassic Park 3.

violence, suspense

Jul.97

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