Pulse-pounding 3D piece of prehistory

Published May 10, 2013

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JURASSIC PARK 3D

DIRECTOR: Steven Spielberg

CAST: Sam Neil, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough and Samel L Jackson

CLASSIFICATION: 10-12PG V

RUNNING TIME: 127 minutes

RATING: ****

Sitting next to Barry Ronge while watching Jurassic Park 3D, the film guru joked that I must have been about 11 when the movie first released. I laughed, but he wasn’t far off the mark, I was only 13 when the dinosaurs were resurrected from extinction.

I remember the fear mixed with awe I experienced the first time I saw the film. It was 1993, yet the computer-generated animations of the creatures still rival some of the great productions of today, such as Avatar and Life of Pi. I’m sure this is a film visual effects guru James Cameron wishes he had made.

But it’s 2013 now and I’m a man who is not scared of big lizards so the exercise was more a weaning process where I had to let go of my past fears. Yet, once you put on the 3D goggles, you travel back 20 years and are running through a jungle infested with monsters. Unlike before, and thanks to 3D, the monsters now pop out of the screen in ways that are only impressive in hindsight.

Since you know how the story goes, (assuming you are from my generation or the one preceding it), try to steal a look at the bespectacled audience during the scary parts and see them defend themselves when a T-Rex comes out charging. It is hilarious.

Once you get over the 3D technology you’ll fall in love all over again with the storytelling. This was a time when a film was hinged on a tangible storyline that depended on a bit of technology to make it believable. Today the opposite is true, filmmakers douse us with a lot of CGI, but when the credits roll we discover there was no story to talk about. Not so with this Spielberg classic.

The dinosaurs come as a natural part of the story, but you never lose sight of the fact that there are humans in trouble and you wish them well.

It is also interesting to see these actors with two decades shaved off their age. From Neil to Jackson you can tell they were still at a time when they were very hungry in their craft. This is particularly so with Jackson, who only appears about seventh or eighth on the credits. He truly needed this gig.

In case you missed the details of the story, it remains the same, but with 3D technology added. The point of this review is to assess if we are better off with a 3D version of the film. The answer is yes.

Some films, such as Terminator or Titanic, do not need to be resuscitated just because they worked originally. When Cameron made Avatar, he revealed that he’d been sitting with the idea for years, but would not make it because the technology was not advanced enough to capture what he had in mind. And now that we know what a visual miracle the film became, we couldn’t agree more.

So yes, for the sake of the effects in Jurassic Park and the nature of the story, it needed to be resurrected in 3D.

If you liked the other Jurassic movies you will enjoy this.

WIN! WIN! WIN!

To celebrate the nationwide release of Jurassic Park 3D, Tonight is offering ten lucky readers the chance to win a Jurassic Park 3D hamper. Each hamper consists of a Jurassic Park 3D kiddies T-shirt and cap.

To stand a chance of winning, all you have to do is send your name, and contact details to [email protected]. Please put Jurassic Park 3D competition in the subject line. the competition closes on Wednesday, 15 May at midnight. Only the winners will be contacted.

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