And then there were Dinosaurs - some random thoughts on Jurassic Park 3D

(Yes, I know: I post here infrequently. Fingers crossed that this may change one day on the near future....)

Anyway, I'm back to talk mainly about the 20th Anniversary 3D re-issue of Jurassic Park which will be winging it's way to you over the next few months (or, if you live in Estonia, on the 11th and 12trh June).

For a start off, it's a bit sobering to know that this film is now 20 years old as I remember vividly when it came out. There was an excitement in the air as well as an anticipation for, what at the the time, was going to be one of the most technologically advanced movies ever made. Oh, and there was lots and lots and lots of merchandise everywhere that was pretty hard to escape from - much of which I owned, and is probably still floating around a loft somewhere in the UK (and the sad thing I'd still gratefully get more if I could find it).

Over the ensuing years I have caught the film again and again. I once studied it as part of my university course. I even once watched it on a small TV in a hotel room in Egypt. Even as the film posits that dinosaurs will come back, it seems that Jurassic Park will be around forever as well.

Watching the film again on a big screen reminds me of just what a technically brilliant filmmaker Spielberg is, especially when he's working in genre. With his reputation as a 'serious' filmmaker only really emerging after Jurassic Park (Even with films such as The Color Purple, it would only really be after Schindler's List - would be released soon after JP - that Spielberg would be seen as a 'more complete' filmmaker). He would often work in broad strokes (though never confuse 'broad' with 'unsubtle') leading to scenes to the now often parodied 'ripples in the glass of water'. There was always tension, danger with a singular rush of excitement and it still works to this day.

At the time it was the dinosaurs that was the selling point but as technology has moved on, it would seem to be less of a selling point (and, to be fair, while the 3D is competently done is doesn't really add or take anything away from the film). But there's still the rush of seeing the T-Rex for the first time and the tingle of fear when the Velociraptor appears. Even as time has moved on, they're still brilliant technical achievements but the rush is - again - also due to Spielberg's direction, knowing when to reveal the creatures and when to leave them tantalizingly hidden. But it's also due to actors such as Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Bob Peck (a brilliant actor, whose performance as the gamekeeper shows just what a loss he was when he passed away) whose expressions of pure joy and wonder seem to come from the heart and really make us believe that dinosaurs are back to roam the Earth.

Beneath the old 'dinosaurs are back' theme there's also the traditional Spielberg theme of fathers, children, abandonment and re-connection alongside ideas of humans playing god and how nature finds a way (the latter of which is often dealt with Goldblum epitomizing every bug-eyed crazy scientist trope you'd like to think of). 

Years on, Jurassic Park is still a worthy cinema experience (as are the sequels, apart from the last 20 minutes of The Lost World) and a big screen outing is fun, especially if you get used to seeing it in TV so many times. You might not think that the fact that dinosaurs have been brought back to life is as  amazing as it was 20 years ago but, up there on the big screen, I'd defy film fan not to enjoy the rumble of the world as the T-Rex gets closer....