JURASSIC PARK
A film review by Albert S. Wang
Copyright 1993 by Albert S. Wang
Starring:
Sam Neill as Alan Grant
Jeff Goldblum as Ian Malcolm
Richard Attenborough as John Hammond
Laura Dern as Ellie Sattler
Directed by:
Stephen Spielberg
Produced by:
Kathleen Kennedy and Gerald R. Molen
Screenplay by:
Michael Crichton and David Koepp
Based on the novel by:
Michael Crichton
Music written and directed by:
John Williams
Film Rating: PG-13
The film adaptation of Michael Crichton's best selling novel JURASSIC PARK opened on June 11, 1993, to theaters around the United States. The film runs for a total of two hours and six minutes, but as the story actually runs one can hardly notice the passing of that time. The computer affects, which were rendered on Silicon Graphics Indigo machines by the folks at ILM, the full motion dinosaur affects by Stan Winston, full motion dinosaur affects by Dennis Muren, and special dinosaur effects by Michael Lantieri are a tribute to the technology in movie making which have made possible the resurrection of a form of life which has been extinct on this planet for over 65 million years.
Based on sheer entertainment value, JURASSIC PARK does a tremendous job by keeping the viewer expectant and on the edge of his or her seat. Even a person who has read the book will be kept tense waiting for what will happen next. Surprises abound in the film story, and perhaps the most powerful and frightening element is the dinosaurs themselves, a force of nature that was destroyed in a mass extinction of life, only to be resurrected by man.
But despite the phenomenal job the film does visually, it falls seriously short in development of the characters and overall story. Perhaps the first serious problem noted was the under-development of all the main characters with possibly the exception of Ian Malcolm, the mathematician, and John Hammond. Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler, Tim, Alexis, and Gennaro were superficial in the film story, even possibly knowing too much. In Michael Crichton's novel, Alan Grant didn't realize that the Tyrannosaurus Rex's vision relied purely on movement until he actually stopped moving and realized the large carnivore seemed to not realize he was there. For Alan Grant, Jurassic Park was a wondrous place that showed him whether or not all the hypothesizing by paleontologists were right or not in determining the characteristics of individual species and their behavior. Things like the warm bloodedness of dinosaurs had long been a subject of debate in the paleontological communities. Also, in the novel, Dr. Grant loved kids, since he and kids had one thing in common: they both loved dinosaurs, and their popularity kept funding for paleontological projects going.
Ellie Sattler was a very strong willed and determined paleo-botanist in Crichton's novel. She was above all pragmatic, and very sharp, overlooking nothing when presented with riddles. In the novel, the ill dinosaur they found was a Stegosaurus, one that had been afflicted with a continual ailment in a timed cycle. By examining the Stegosaurus's diet, Ellie tried to solve the mystery of the ailment and determined it wasn't in the food after a thorough examination of the animal's feces. However, she and the vet noticed small piles of rocks that seemed to be deposited by the Stegosaurus and that was when it dawned on her that the Stegosaurus might use the rocks for digestion, depositing the stones in the dinosaur's crop to help crush food, and then spitting them out when the stones are worn down. She investigated the place where the Stegosaurus got its rocks from and found that it was a plant growing on the rocks that was making the Stegosaurus sick when it went to get a new supply of rocks for digestion. Ellie and Dr. Grant are present early on in seeing the adult Velociraptors and realize the hunting, intelligent, and destructive potential of the animals when the raptors tried to attack the two of them through the electrified fence holding chamber.
Gennaro was a solid clear thinking business man in Crichton's novel, not the wimpy thin superficial person portrayed on the screen. Gennaro was a solid pragmatist and certainly not the coward he was made out to be, since in the book, he risked his own life to help when the Velociraptors were running around from the power outage. In the film, Gennaro's character was merged together with the character of Ed Regis, the Jurassic Park PR man.
Nedry's character was developed in the image of a professional programmer in the novel. In the film he was molded to fit a standard stereotype for fat lazy programmer slobs. Though he does betray Jurassic Park, the knowledge of his betrayal isn't clear in the novel until we see him with the can. The exchange of the can and the coolant was handled in the novel in an airport, quietly, and without anyone knowing who was who.
Tim and Alexis were the two Hammond grandchildren in the novel, but their roles were switched in the film from Tim being the older one, to him being the younger. In the novel, Tim's knack for computers is established, however, in the tense scenes with the multiple raptors running around, he and his sister are kept moving, running around, trying to lose the raptors as they tried to get the computer working again through direction via walkie-talkie by Dr. Wu, a character which was completely removed from the thrust of the film story. Tim gradually figures it out, but it was a difficult panicked process, trying to figure out how the setup program worked.
Robert Muldoon, the game warden was also under-utilized in the film story. His expertise with animals and their behavior seemed portrayed little in the film, reduced to what amounted to the leader of a security force.
Ian Malcom was portrayed very well in the film story. In fact he was turned from a rather unlikable rambling character in the novel to a witty character in the film story which was quite refreshing. In between his discussions of chaos theory, he examines the role man has in resurrecting a powerful life form, a force of nature, and asks whether just because you have the technology to do it, whether it should be done, and he does it with a witty and dark sense of humor.
John Hammond was portrayed sympathetically in the film and I like that a great deal better than the unfortunate and rather contrived end he seemed to meet in the novel, getting eaten by Compys. In the film Hammond was as human as everyone else and had redeeming values. He was a person who wanted to do something real, to show the world something wonderful in the film and not a money-grubbing businessman with no sense of reality.
Points in the film that were problematic:
1) When Dr. Grant asks what kind of dinosaur it was he was holding that had just hatched, he doesn't follow up Dr. Wu's answer of Velociraptor with "Why are you breeding Velociraptors??" In the novel what dinosaurs they got were determined by what hatched and the Velociraptors were one of them. Dr. Grant knew how powerful the raptors were and how deadly they are in their pack hunting behavior. It was a natural question that went unasked in the film. Dino DNA was extracted from the stomachs of the mosquitos, but because the DNA there would be incomplete, DNA sequences from similar animals, like amphibians, were used to fill the void. So in many ways, the animals in Jurassic Park, aren't clones at all, but a new species of animals created by man, without understanding what plugging of DNA from another "similar" life form to fill missing strands can really do.
2) How do the Park administrators make sure no dinosaurs escape Jurassic Park? This question was answered immediately in the novel, but left out completely in the film. In the novel, an electronic computerized counting system was used that looked for an expected number of animals. Since the animals are all supposedly female, they can't breed so therefore if the counting system finds the number of animals simultaneously in various points across the park that it expects, then no animals have escaped. It was this flaw in the counting system (a programming shortcut to look for expected number and not for how many there actually are since it's easier looking for a fixed number of animals) that resulted in the problem of breeding going on undetected.
3) Ellie and the Triceratops ... so what happened? They introduced a loaded gun in the film, Ellie trying to find what was wrong with the Triceratops and just dropped it. We never found out if she found out what was making it sick. It was something that was started and just dropped.
4) Rushed development of characters. For two hours, I felt the film needed another thirty minutes to properly develop everyone. Most of all, I found it almost unbelievable that Alexis figured out how to use the computer's setup program that fast. That entire scene seemed artificially rushed.
Summary: Film character development was weak with exception of Ian Malcolm and possibly the new and improved John Hammond. Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler had a great deal of potential for a lot more, but failed to come through. One can only wonder if important footage was cut out of the original rated R version of the film, or if the Hurricane had indeed cut filming short because of the extensive equipment loss. Story development was incomplete in a number of places, leaving questions unanswered. Sam Neill's character wasn't as flamboyant as I had expected, and Laura Dern was 90% of the way I had pictured Ellie the paleo-botanist, except that her character was so under-developed in the film it left me disappointed.
The deadly nature of the Velociraptors wasn't really made clear early on at all. They were portrayed simply as vicious beasts and not as the cunning, intelligent, and organized creatures that they were in the novel. It wasn't just their viciousness that made them dangerous in the novel, it was their viciousness accompanied by their intelligence and their deadly speed. They were pack hunters that attacked large prey in groups, slashing their victims open viciously and rapidly. And worst of all, they had the capacity to learn.
JURASSIC PARK succeeds however in one key aspect: providing entertainment. And though I would have to agree that JURASSIC PARK was a missed opportunity for a great film, it is by far one of the better films of all times. It portrays the affects of playing with a powerful force of nature, and how serious the consequences can actually be when playing with that force without fully understanding it.
-- Albert Sze-Wei Wang
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