By Mark Saldana
Rating: 4 (Out of 4 Stars)
To celebrate the twentieth anniversary, Universal has released a 3D version of Steven Spielberg’s science fiction thriller, but before a collective groan arises from any nay-sayers, hear me out. The people who worked on converting the 1993 film to 3D deserve a standing ovation. This film looks amazing, incredible and better than ever before. This is coming from a film critic who has a love/hate relationship with 3D, especially post-conversion 3D. The screening I attended was held at one of the Austin mini-IMAX theaters (another one of my love/hates) and it was almost like watching the movie for the first time again.
The story and plot remain intact and without any changes, so this should come as a relief to fans of the film. For those who haven’t previously seen the movie, Jurassic Park tells a most awe-inspiring, cautionary tale about plans for a theme/amusement park showcasing living dinosaurs. John Hammond (Sir Richard Attenborough), a wealthy businessman invites paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill), paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), and mathematician Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) to accompany him, his investors’ attorney Donald Gennaro (Martin Ferrero), and his grandchildren (Ariana Richards, Joseph Mazzelo) on a tour of the park. After a greedy computer programmer sabotages the park’s security, the dinosaur’s escape from their holding areas. The tour group gets a lot more excitement than they were expecting.
I must highly recommend a re-visit of this movie for its fans. This 3D version is how this movie needs to be seen. As for the people who have yet to see this film, I’m not sure why this is the case. The story, characters, and even the special effects and CGI, which were groundbreaking in the 1990s, all hold up to this day. It had been a while since I had seen the film, so I definitely enjoyed the incredible visuals, the excitement, the frights and the thrills that define this movie. The 3D enhances it all quite wonderfully. Spare no expense! Go see this in IMAX 3D.