The Jurassic Park Franchise

[HBK-aholic]

Working with IC25s Highest grossing film series' of all time thread, these will be a set of threads in which we determine the best film from each set. Starting from the 10th, and working it's way up to the first.

Jurassic Park
This is the first film in the set, directed by Spielberg in 1993. It is an adaptation of a novel written by Michael Crichton. This film takes you through how the dinosaurs were created, and how they were to be used as an attraction at a theme park. The majority of this film is showing the efforts of a group of scientists trying to escape from the dinosuars after a power cut which allows them to roam the park freely.

This film become an instant record, beating E.T to the most finacially succesful film off all time. It is also highly regarded as one of the best films of it's time for the use of digital imagery and effects, and for this received many positive reviews.

The Lost World; Jurassic Park
Four years after the first, fans were greeted with a sequel to Jurassic Park. Again, directed by Spielberg, and adaptation of a novel by Crichton. This film sees the dinosuars living completely in the wild, but with people trying to change that. There are talks of a Jurassic Park 2, in a different state. There are 2 sets of people on the Island; those wanting to capture dinosaurs to create a second park, and those lookig to preserve their natural habitat and allow them to live in peace. A baby T-Rex is a main part of the film, often used to lure the mother.

Throughout the film, Velociraptors and Tyrannosaurus Rex's are the main part of the film, as everyone on the island tries to escape them. Towards the end of the film you see the T-Rex has been captured and brought to the city. However, whilst onboard a ship the dinosaur had eaten all the crew, and the ship crashed into the harbour. The T-Rex is once again lured back into it's 'cage' and sent back to it's habitat.

Jurassic Park 3
This is the most different of the films, as it is neither based off a novel, or directed by Spielberg. Released in 2001, this film shows the search for a young boy missing on the Island amongst dinosuars. Alan Grant is asked to be the guide on an aerial tour of the Island, however is not told they would be landing. When he finds this out, he does what he can to stop it. However, a Spinosaurus stops any plans of leaving by damaging the plane.

Whilst looking for a way off the Island, the young boy is found after saving Grants life. They all attempt to head to the coastand get help that way. However, after several velociraptor attacks Dr. Grant wonders what is happening, and discovers a member of the group has stolen the eggs that they want back.

The group almost manage to flee, however they are stopped by the same Spinosaurus which ate a satelite phone at the beginning. They retrieve the phone and manage to contact a friend, who sends the Marine Corps to rescue them.



I love this series. The first 2 films are great. They are exactly how you would expect a dinosaur film to be. All 3 films flow on perfectly from one another, which is something many films today miss out on. Narrowly, my favourite film is the second one. I love how the baby T-Rex is used as a lure for the adult, and the film has many memorable parts.

The first film is also great for the story and effects in it. Having a theme park with dinosaurs is something extremely new, and interesting. Everything in that film was something which hadn't been done before, and it is a big reason the film is as big as it is.

The third film is also good. However I think it's based on a thin storyline, when looking for the son. It also becomes slightly repetitive. But I think the ringing of the satellite phone is a great one, as it pulls the story together.

 

[Uncle Sam]

I really don't get how people can prefer either of the second two to the first. The original is just a powerhouse, plain and simple.

Not only is it responsible for groundbreaking computer graphics that still stand up to this day, but it is a step above the other two in its concept, story, acting... pretty much everything. The other two I consider as popcorn flicks at best. This I consider to be amongst Spielberg's greats, alongside E.T. and Jaws. Not to mention the structure of this movie, along with the pacing, is so bang on. You don't feel deprived of anything, unlike most films you'll see. Modern filmmakers should take notes.

 

[Father:_Polley]

Jurassic Park was easily one of the pioneering movies of it's time. In the same way Spielberg made a best-seller and an icon simply from a shark, he managed it with bringing dinosaurs to life.

The concept of the film itself was unique and provided a great basis for a film. Everyone loves dinosaurs and the prospect of them actually coming to life was ingenious in its simplicity, yet making it into a best-selling thriller action film was an inspired piece of filmwork.

As for the sequels...well you just can't follow up a film of that magnitude and do the original justice and they were clearly an attemp to capitalise on the success of initial film, with sketchy plots and poor acting. Nowhere near as good as the original

 

[Crimson Bonez]

im a dinosaur fan-a-tic, i know alot about them like studing them reading about them finding new things about them and jurassic park is 1 of my fav. movies, i got the 3 set box set thing....but anyway i gota say that the 1st 1 was the best to me, it focused alot on the dinosaur alot of people fear and why they should fear it, and prob. the most popular the rex. the graphics of it for its time was great, the 2nd 1 i agree with becca, about the young rex, and showing the parenting of the fur-ro-ous beast, and the 3rd 1, i gota the stroyline seemed rushed. the most thing i liked about it is that it changed up with not having the rex dominate the movie but introduced a new king of the period. but the 3rd i gota say showed off my fav. dinosaur very well, the veloci-raptor. it showd their intellegence, there ways of stratigizing, parenting as well, and communicatio. The 1st did this 2 telling how they could problem solve and open door, the 2nd was more focused on the rex i think but they saved the best for last with the raptors at the end.

i actually have grown to fear birds, mainly black birds and seagulls from seeing the movies and the raptors and seeing how they are closly alike. i was actually disapointed when i found later that raptors were not really as smart as they once thought or that they didnt look how they did on the movie with the size or appearance but more like birds (that i saw on "walking with dinosaurs") but over-all being a dinosaur fan-a-tic, i love the series (1st being the best) and am really looking forward to the 4th movie thats had on and off talks.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

The only answer as to the best is the first. No point talking about it. It's a fact. It's also one of the most important films of all time. And unlike a lot of CGI heavy films from that time it hasn't dated. It's effects are better than the Potter & Spider-Man films that we get today.

The question is which is the best out of the sequels. Neither is anything more than ok. But one is better than the other. That is the third. Get past all the stupid shit like the Raptop whistle, the killing off of the T-Rex and the anticlimatic ending and you've got an entertaining action film. Not great and not worth watching more than a few times. But it's still entertaining. The Pterodactyl scene is better than the whole of The Lost World combined.

Even Spielber didn't rate the second. He didn't direct most of it. He pawned most off onto writer David Koepp.