I felt the second Jurassic Park was good, not great like the first one, or just OK like the third. But The Lost World: Jurassic Park was the first Jurassic Park that I was old enough to see in theaters. The first time was with my dad, the second time was with my step dad and younger step sister, but she wasn’t really interested in watching it. I was nine years old at the time, which was 1997, and obsessed with dinosaurs. I can remember when I had first seen the movie trailer on TV; my dad was sitting on the end of the couch watching his show at night. My Jaw dropped in awe from being so excited, once it ended; I immediately asked my dad if we could go see it. The second Jurassic Park seemed to be highly anticipated at the time. I would go grocery shopping with my mom and see the logo on different food boxes, usually cereal and fruit snacks. From a cereal box offer, I ordered an amber colored bouncy ball with a glow in the dark dinosaur embedded in it. It seemed to take forever before it finally came. I had even collected all the watches at Burger King that were being sold for $5 each. My favorite was the dino eye one, with the green hologram on the watch face. I also had gotten the videogame for the then unpopular Sony Playstation rival, the Sega Saturn. There seemed to be no shortage of merchandise to snatch up every chance I could get, hoping that my parents would buy it for me. Of course, when Christmas came around I received the movie with the cool 3D insert of the T-Rex head popping out, and also what was probably the coolest dinosaur toy I had ever gotten. The giant moveable T-Rex, even though I was still playing with dinosaur toys, I had surprisingly kept it in the box for a while before I finally gave in to opening it. In elementary school, I picked up the novel by Michael Crichton in our library to get reading points. I only read about a quarter of it from what I remember, but at the time I felt I should pick it up just because. The junior novelization I bought was more probably more appropriate for my reading level. Although not my favorite one, The Lost World: Jurassic Park probably has more sentimental value to me.

This is my review of the first Jurassic Park movie itself, the first, best and original in my opinion. It was the one that started it all. With two sequels, and now an upcoming third sequel with a slightly different title name of Jurassic World. I favor the first one partly because it is actually about a Jurassic Park; the last two were more about dinosaurs running wild on a remote island, rather than a dinosaur theme park. As with most movies the first is usually the best, and Jurassic Park is no exception. It ruled the worldwide box office record books for years until Titanic took over five years later after Jurassic Park. Partly why I think it is such a great movie is that it combined the talents of two creative geniuses. Michael Crichton who originally authored the novel back in 1990, and Steven Spielberg who ultimately ended up directing the movie. The same is true for The Lost World: Jurassic Park, even though it was not as a big of a success as the first. At the box office, it has grossed $1.029 billion, with a budget of $63 million. It is currently the 15^th highest grossing film of all time. Some of the filming was done on Hawaii, on the island of Kauai. With the beautiful fog capped mountains and lush jungle, it really could pass for an exotic & remote island off the coast of Costa Rica, as where it is supposed to take place in the movie. Of course, Jurassic Park would not have been the success it had been if it wasn’t for the computer technology available at the time. Although some of the dinosaurs were a combination of puppetry & animatronics, I don’t think Jurassic Park could have been possible without the use of computers. The movie shows that computers can believably bring dinosaurs back to life. When it comes to books being made into movies, most would say that the book is always better. I feel that in this case, with this particular movie, that the reverse is true. If dinosaurs were never extinct to begin with, it would probably be different. It has a great cast of actors, who did a phenomenal job as well. The music that John Williams composed (who also did Star Wars) really fit the movie well, especially at the suspenseful moments. Even though I have not seen Jurassic World yet, I know Jurassic Park will always remain my favorite.

The reason why I chose this topic is because Jurassic Park is my favorite movie, especially from my childhood. I would watch it religiously as a kid, practically every day growing up. When Jurassic Park first came out in theaters back in June of 1993, I was only 5 years old. I was probably much too young to see it then, with or without an adult. I have memories of hearing about it when I was taking a ride with my friend and his dad, after it was recently released on VHS. His dad saying how great it was, but that it was probably too violent for me to see. I can also remember trying to sneak downstairs to the basement of a family friend, where my brother and sister & her friend were watching it. I was soon discovered before I could even get down the stairs.  I can even remember (although barely) when my dad had taken my sister to see it in theaters, but she had just turned 10 years old. As I got older though my luck would soon change, my older brother had gotten Jurassic Park for me on Christmas one year. I think I had to been at least close to 8 years old. That movie sparked my interest in dinosaurs; it also brought dinosaurs to life for me as well. I was so fascinated by how real the dinosaurs looked & acted. It was a magical fantasy I could easily get lost in pretty much anytime I wanted. Even as an adult, I can still watch and be amazed by it. Whether it’s the scene during the thunderstorm at night with the Tyrannosaurus Rex, to the kitchen scene with the Velocioraptors. Jurassic Park is almost a quarter of a century old, and it still holds up well today in my opinion. Although I know Jurassic Park is a computer generated movie, I know dinosaurs have been long extinct, and I even know most (if not all) of the mistakes in the film. But as long as I watch it through the same eyes & mindset as a kid who grew up in the 90s, it should continue to be the mind blowing movie that it has always been to me. When I wanted to see a “real” dinosaur, I didn’t look at books, toys, models, or even complete skeletons, I watched Jurassic Park.