Nerds That Geek Movie Review: 'Jurassic Park'

Written by Scott Edwards

There is always a race to develop the next big thing, but if you are involved in it, do you take a moment to think about what you are doing? With so many scientific discoveries coming to light, it is hard to imagine that there is much thought put behind if the experiments should be done. Being able to clone something, or someone could have repercussions that nobody will truly understand until it is done. Questioning your work is something that everyone should do, especially if they do not want to be held responsible for what comes out of it.

John Hammond has a dream and it has quickly become his reality. With an endless budget, Hammond has been able to employ the brightest minds in the scientific community to bring creatures back to life that have been extinct for sixty five million years.  Wanting to share this with the world, Hammond also has to worry about what his investors are feeling about what he has been able to do, since some of the creatures are more than aggressive and will eat anything that they can get their teeth on. Needing to find a way to prove that his park is ready and operational and safe, Hammond has to find a couple experts to come and review what he has done, but what he does not know is that not everyone has the same feeling he does about this outlandish venture.

Dr. Alan Grant and Dr. Ellie Sattler are working away on their new dig in Montana when Hammond is able to locate them. In the middle of digging up a velociraptor, the two are hesitant to leave the dig, but since Hammond has endless amounts of money at his disposal, they cannot turn him down. Arriving at the island, the two doctors are blown away by what they see before them. With dinosaurs walking around, the books that they have grown up reading and writing will be changed forever. Wanting to see all of the resurrected creatures in their natural habitat is what the park is designed to do, but with so many rules being thrown out the window, it is hard to imagine what they might actually find.

As the two doctors are joined by a mathematician, Dr. Ian Malcolm, a lawyer, Donald Gennaro and Hammond’s grand kids, they are let loose in the park for the initial run. With nothing working the way it should be, the group is waiting to see anything that will blow their minds, but none of the dinosaurs are in a viewable range for them to see. As the ride continues, the group comes across an ailing triceratops and try to determine what is wrong with the ancient beast. But there is a storm moving in that will change the outlook on the island forever. As a money hungry employee tries to steal Hammond’s research, everything goes wrong and the park is taken off line, even for the skeleton crew that is trying to run it. As systems drop and come back up, everything that Hammond has worked so hard for is falling apart at the seams and he knows that they are all in trouble. Rebooting the system seems to be the only way to regain control, but as everything is tied into the one system, it may cause more harm than good.

The first movie in the Jurassic Park saga was a winner from the very beginning. This was the first time in many years that we have had a dinosaur come on screen that looked like it was real and ready to eat you. One of the things I liked most about this movie is the dynamic between the characters and how much they had to depend on each other to survive. As Dr. Grant seemed to be the leading authority in knowing everything there is to know about dinosaurs, he was able to lead the two kids to safety and even though he was not a huge fan of children, as long as they listened to him, he promised that they would be fine. One of the characters that I wish we had learned more about in this movie was the game warden, Muldoon. As he was the man in charge of the park and the visitors well being, we never truly got to know him, or know what he brought to the table in case of an emergency. Oh well, until next time, keep your dreams alive and remember that the creatures of our past are closer than you may know.

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