Jurassic Park: Impact of a Legend.

During one of my weekend visits to my dad’s house when I was around four years old we stopped at Blockbuster Video to rent some movies for the weekend. Of course I rented the movie I was craziest about at that age, Terminator 2: Judgement Day. My dad on the other hand rented a movie I was unfamiliar with called Jurassic Park. So he ended up wanting to watch this movie before I watched mines, which kind of irked my nerves because I didn’t like anyone interfering with my Terminator, but by the end of the first hour I was very interested in what was going on and eventually I was hooked.

I didn’t know beforehand that the movie was going to be about dinosaurs, which I’ve always liked learning about and seeing in entertainment, so I was definitely taken with Jurassic Park. At some point before the movie was over that Friday night I fell asleep and when I woke up in the morning my dad woke up with me and realized that I didn’t get to watch T2, as he was getting ready to put it in the VCR I did something very shocking. I stopped him and said “No, I want to watch the other movie” and he was like “oh you wanna watch Jurassic Park again?” and though I had only seen half of it and did not get to finish it I definitely was fine with starting it from the beginning and watching the entire movie all over again. Jurassic Park had instantly become one of my favorite movies ever out of nowhere and imagine beforehand it had that same effect on all audiences and that is why it has become one of the most beloved film series of all time.

Based on the novel written by legendary science fiction author Michael Crichton and directed by the most iconic science fiction filmmaker in history, Steven Spielberg, Jurassic Park was destined for historical greatness from the moment it was forged. It is a story centered around the reconstruction and rebirth of dinosaur DNA by brilliant minded scientist and the disasterous consequences that come with this discovery. If one were to use a small group of words to some up the composition of Jurassic Park it would be education, adventure, action and even a shot of horror.

Looking back on the film you realized how entertaining the pacing and structure of the story was. It started off giving you a healthy dose of education by retracing the history of dinosaurs and why humanity as the next stage of evolution is still so intrigued by this era of creatures that ended millions of years ago. Next we are taken on a journey into the new world that has been created for these newly scientifically engineered prehistoric creatures, but as the protagonist take a trip to the habitat of the beast they soon realize that this journey comes with consequences that lead them into the belly of the beast, quite literally.

Upon its theatrical release in 1993, Jurassic Park took over the world. It instantly became a landmark film that added to the already established resumes of greatness for both Spielberg and Crichton, and fans were left wanting more. Following the success of the film’s release and amazing reception, Spielberg was able to convince Crichton to write a sequel to 1990 novel turned 1993 film and titled it The Lost World, a 1995 novel-sequel that takes one of our previous protagonist of the original story deeper into the heart Jurassic Park landscape. Eventually Spielberg would craft the novel-sequel into a 1997 follow up hit film, The Lost World: Jurassic Park. This movie ended up being my top favorite film in the franchise, hands down. I remember back in 1997 when it first hit theaters, they had animatronic dinosaurs at the mall in Greensboro where my dad lived at and when we went to see them they scared the crap out of me, though I still was a big fan of the movies and The Lost World was definitely one of my favorite movies that I’ve ever watched in theaters. I remember one day in the months following the release of The Lost World my dad took me to this museum where we watched this man give a speech on the real history of dinosaurs and how it connected to the Jurassic Park films and I just remember thinking “wow this isn’t just a movie, this is real life”.

Since the turn of the millennium the Jurassic Park series is still one of the biggest and most iconic film franchises in history with three more entries added to the series since The Lost World and another highly anticipated entry on the way. Jurassic Park will forever be iconic for its scientific influence, great sense of adventurous storytelling and even real life messages about the consequences of poorly calculated human aspiration and being respectful of our fellow earthly species. This is a film that will not only be remembered for its impact on film, but it’s impact on the world.