Review of Jurassic Park

Introduction

You`ve all heard of Jurassic Park right ? Spielberg, Dinosaurs, CGI ? Made an absolute fortune at the box office ? Described by some as a milestone in cinema history ? The film released as a PG when it probably shouldn`t have been ? The one stuffed with shots of its own merchandise ? Yeah, that`s the one.

A film like this is probably what DVD was invented for, and it`s finally here in region two, available on its own or as part of a box set with the sequel "The Lost World". Has it been worth the wait ?

Video

You`ve probably heard all about the special effects in this film, full-size CGI dinosaurs, great locations, giant dinosaur models and more besides. So you`d be expecting a really good transfer to show all this off.

And you will not be let down. It`s fantastic, in all its 1.85:1 anamorphic glory. Colours are great, contrast levels are excellent, and it`s a great example of cinema transferred to home cinema.

The effects haven`t really dated and it all still looks as good as it did seven years ago. If you`ve only seen this at home on TV or on VHS before, then you`re really missing a lot.

Audio

If you know the film, then you`ll know that there`s plenty of audio action for your ears to soak up. So you`d expect a good soundtrack on the DVD version.

Again, it lives up to expectations. The DD5.1 track is excellent, there`s so much for all of your speakers to do, loads of action for your rear speakers, and plenty of bass for the sub-woofer. You`ll probably remember some of the noisier scenes, and chapter 11 certainly falls into that category. This chapter features a very big and very heavy T-Rex coming in for an attack, and you`ll want to hear this one it its full 5.1 glory.

A brief mention should also go to the excellent John Williams soundtrack, which is all you`ve come to expect from Williams.

The one thing which sits at the back of the mind is that there is a dts version available in region one. Whilst there`s nothing wrong with the Dolby Digital soundtrack (it`s really, really good), given what I`ve experienced with dts soundtracks before, I imagine that it maybe has a little something extra to offer.

As with the video, if you`ve only seen this at home on TV or on VHS before, then you`re really missing a lot audio-wise.

Features

Lots of features to get your teeth into here.

The biggest of the extra features is the "making of" documentary, and it`s another reasonable good example of the genre, and much better than the average documentary that you tend to find on big Hollywood movies. Introduced by James Earl Jones (you could believe anything that voice told you), it takes you through the genesis of the movie, and gives some interesting background. Definitely worth watching.

The rest of the featurettes include a brief look at the work of the foley artist, some of the animatics from the "raptors in the kitchen" scene, trailers for the first two films (video quality is not so good on these), and an utterly pointless trailer for JP 3 (some trees rustling and some lightning).

There`s some location scouting footage, storyboards, stills, footage of early meetings, biographies and production notes. And there`s also a dinosaur encyclopaedia, which is very informative, and might be a good bit of education if you`ve let the kids watch it.

A really good set of extras. No commentary though, although the documentary does the same job in parts. And no deleted scenes.

Conclusion

This is a very well put together DVD. The film itself is pretty good, if you overlook a few plot holes, another useless portrayal of computers on screen and one or two other bits and pieces. But if you just look at it as 2 hours of entertainment then it works perfectly.

A fantastic picture, wonderful sound, and plenty of action. This is definitely an example of home cinema at its best. As I`ve already said twice, if you`ve only seen this on TV or VHS at home, then there`s a whole lot to the experience that you`re missing, and it`s definitely something that improves the experience overall.

Recommended.