Jurassic Park Blu-ray Review

• 14th Nov 2011

It’s been a decade since the last Jurassic Park film hit theatres. Spielberg has officially announced a fourth outing in the works – and what better way to celebrate this fact with a look back at the past. All the way back to 1993 when Spielberg worked his “Jaws” monster magic on us again with the silver screen adaptation of Michael Crichton.

The first film has dated surprisingly well over the last 18 years in almost every aspect. It’s still one of the more dramatically significant of all of the berg’s “Rollercoaster” flicks. The effects which were groundbreaking for the day stand up well to scrutiny, thanks to an almost seamless blend between the animatronics and CGI usage – not to mention a decent Blu-ray polish. It’s also surprisingly low on schmaltz for a Spielberg film and it has two kid actors front and centre; both are fairly relevant to the plot and not shoe-horned in (of which we can’t say the same for the second film).

The basic idea itself is what is the main draw here along with the leading adult actors. Richard Attenborough does a good affable if blinded by power owner of the park. Sam Neill tries his best to channel Harrison Ford and comes away fairly well thanks to a decent blend of humour. But top humours go to Jeff Goldblum who literally steals the film any moment he is on screen. And when you think about it – once the action kicks off he is fairly sidelined in the second half sadly.

The Lost World drops a few notches. There is still a good deal of “WOW” factor, but the thrills are literally left to one major scene involving two Tyrannosaurs attacking a trailer. The supporting cast are largely wasted or miscast (Vince Vaughn? Julianne Moore?). But Goldblum returns, albeit a shadowed version of the former man he was. And we are also treated to the hard bastard Pete Postlethwaite as a big game hunter.

The technical advances are impressive, but it is odd that the plot just fails to go where perhaps it needed to go. And the third act is pure nonsense, and completely rushed; but to be fair it’s still good fun.

The third film saw Joe Johnson ably pick up the reins and deliver another yarn in the jungle. Sam Neill returned to lead another party into dangerous ground for a slimmer and shorter film that retains the feel of the first two, but perhaps crucially forgets to take the franchise anywhere new.

Anyone who has seen the DVD box set will be happy that all of the extra material from those discs have been carried over to this set. On top of that we get a new six part documentary (Running around 3 hours) spread over the 3 main discs. The majority of this time is spent on the first film – but it’s a great watch, and sad to realise that two of the big names associated with the franchise are not longer with us.

The sound quality is worth pointing out as one of the most impressive aspects of the upgrade to Blu-ray. Say what you will about the picture quality – the sound is impeccable and really hammers those dinosaur attacks home.

Steven Hurst