Over the past two weeks, I have been releasing many articles and reviews about Jurassic Park. If it hasn't already become obvious, I love Jurassic Park. In fact, Jurassic Park is my all-time favourite movie. I have seen the movie at least ten times. But if you know me, then you also know that I love Star Wars. So why is Jurassic Park my favourite movie? And why isn't one of the Star Wars movies my favourite movie? All these questions will be answered in today's article (which is turning out to be a movie review, Compared Review, Re-View, and article all in one).

Let's start with the question on everyone's minds: how come Star Wars isn't my favourite movie? Well, I would be calling Star Wars a movie franchise as opposed to a singular movie (the original Star Wars movie was technically called Star Wars but when I say Star Wars, I am going to be referring to the franchise). However, I would say that Star Wars is my favourite movie franchise. One of my favourite parts about the Star Wars movies is how they all connect with one another and all the other tv shows, books and comics. This is what makes a good movie franchise. The Jurassic movies don't do as good a job of this. Yes, they connect with each other but not as seamlessly as Star Wars. There isn't a singular Star Wars movie that is as good as Jurassic Park (although some of them come very close). However, the entire Star Wars franchise is better than the Jurassic franchise.

Something that I also love about the Jurassic franchise is its rarity. I always get super excited when a new Jurassic movie comes out and probably get more excited for a new Jurassic trailer than a Star Wars trailer. This is because new Jurassic movies, trailers or tv shows come out much less frequently than Star Wars movies, trailers and tv shows. At the moment, Disney is releasing a new Star Wars tv show every few months with trailers constantly coming out (the fan event Star Wars Celebration was this past weekend and three new tv shows were announced, one LEGO special was announced, two trailers were released, the first two episodes of a new tv show were released plus there was a whole heap of exclusive footage released to those only at the event). Whereas, there have been six Jurassic movies released over the course of twenty-five years with a small handful of shorts, tv shows, books and video games to go alongside the movies.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, what makes Jurassic Park better than any Star Wars movie? Or more broadly, better than any other movie ever made?

Well, there is the simple fact that this movie has the best scenes in all of cinema history. I still get goosebumps watching the 'T. Rex Breakout' scene, the opening 'Raptor Attack' scene, the 'Kitchen' scene, the 'Welcome to Jurassic Park' scene, the 'Clever Girl' scene. I could keep going and name just about every scene in this movie and say that it is one of the best scenes in cinema history. But what makes these scenes so good is the role they play in the movie. They work seamlessly together to make an incredible movie. Additionally, there are no boring scenes that you want to skip over. If one scene were to be taken out of this movie, the whole movie would be messed up. But what makes these scenes and, therefore, the movie so good? It is a range of factors all working together that I will go into in the following paragraphs.

Let's start with the actors. There is not a single bad actor in this movie. In some movies, there may be one acting performance that brings the whole movie down. This is not the case with Jurassic Park, even though it has child actors. Every actor and actress in this movie is perfect for their part. It is impossible to imagine anyone else taking the role. The loveable characters are all loveable but the hateable ones are hateable. The portrayals of these characters create some of the most iconic acting performances in cinema with each character being unique.

Another incredible aspect is the suspense. At every viewing, the movie has the audience on the edge of their seats. Even after seeing this movie over ten times, I still get nervous. It is a real testament to the director if there is still suspense if the viewer knows what is going to happen.

Of course, what makes this movie so astounding is that we can see dinosaurs that lived 65 million years ago living and breathing on screen. Even after almost thirty years, the dinosaurs seen in this movie are truly breathtaking. The way that Steven Spielberg manipulated animatronics and CGI completely changed cinema. It is the perfect balance of animatronics and CGI that makes the dinosaurs so realistic. Perhaps if the movie were to be remade today (which, for the record, it should not!) the dinosaurs might be more realistic. But this is only a testament to how far cinema has come over thirty years and how Jurassic Park influenced it. And the dinosaurs are perfectly fine the way they are, it is very easy to believe that the dinosaurs are real.

As I have said many times already, seeing this movie over ten times has not made the movie less likeable. Every time I see the movie, I notice new things and get nervous when the dinosaurs are breaking out. It is an achievement if it is possible to make a movie that can be rewatched so many times. I would not want to watch some of the highest-rated movies on my website this many times. Yet, I will always be up for a Jurassic Park movie night.

I'd be going crazy if I didn't mention the sounds of Jurassic Park. I could go on and on talking about the incredible sounds in this movie. I even wrote an article last year about how I love the sounds so much. I discuss three different sounds in the article. The first is the genius dinosaur sounds; no one can imagine a dinosaur sounding any different because of Jurassic Park. The next thing I discuss is the ambient noises. The sounds of crickets, thunder, rain falling, and distant dinosaurs make the audience feel fully immersed. And of course, there is the soundtrack. John Williams was the perfect choice to compose the music for Jurassic Park. It perfectly compliments what we see on screen. Another incredible aspect of the soundtrack is how it can be listened to separately. I find it so enjoyable to listen to the music just on its own and I can easily picture what should be happening on screen. I think that it is the best movie soundtrack that can be listened to without the movie.

Everything I have discussed so far can basically be credited to the amazing director, Steven Spielberg. Steven Spielberg is the greatest movie director ever (adding another 'greatest thing ever' to this movie). It was thanks to his guidance that the actors and actresses were so incredible, he framed shots in a way to build suspense, he created some of the best-seen dinosaurs in cinema, he directed the sound editors and sound designers, he chose John Williams to compose for the movie, and he made a very rewatchable movie. This isn't to discredit the sound editors, actors, John Williams and the guy who mopped the floor; they all played their part in creating a tremendous movie. But it was all thanks to Steven Spielberg's direction.

If I haven't convinced you that Jurassic Park is the greatest movie ever, then I think you'll just have to go and watch it yourself. It has amazing acting performances, the best scenes in cinema, dinosaurs (because who doesn't like dinosaurs), the best soundtrack and sounds. Plus it also led to creating an epic franchise with some great movies (however, none that have ever come close to the original). It is funny to think that most of the Oscars that Jurassic Park lost at the 66th Academy Awards were to Schindler's List, another movie directed by Steven Spielberg with music by John Williams. I doubt it, but I wonder if Jurassic World: Dominion will become the greatest movie ever made? I'll be finding out with some of you tomorrow night.

Article by Tristan Carr

Last edited: 09/06/22