The Movies
With almost 20 years of perspective, and having just watched a plethora of interviews, I think I might be getting a handle on why Jurassic Park was such a big deal. While I've long felt a certain dramatic disappointment with the first film, it was undeniably a major technical achievement, a melding of credible digital characters and other special effects that we might just take for granted in the heat of pulse-pounding action sequences. Seems like just about every boy (and plenty of girls) fantasized about dinosaurs, and this dream-come-true about a present-day theme park where man and dino meet struck a chord with audiences. For the third and final time, Steven Spielberg took the record for the highest-grossing motion picture of all time, the first (but not last) director to top himself to take the prize.
A sense of achievement also elevates the film itself, as the eccentric genius Hammond (Richard Attenborough) gives a tour of his Costa Rican island attraction to a trio of scientific experts. If we believe what we're seeing; that healthy, full-sized dinosaurs are roaming the Earth again; then we can't help but watch the rest of the movie with a gleeful awe. Of course, there's a fair amount of terror as well, as some of these critters are partial to the occasional human snack.
However, the dinosaurs are given surprisingly little screen time, and much of the movie is filled with chatter, feeding us a bit of real science along with a lot of philosophizing about the perils of playing God. The consequences might seem familiar to anyone who saw Westworld (the 1973 movie by Michael Crichton, author of Jurassic Park), although I still find this T-Rex tale to be lean on plot and riddled with gaps in logic and common sense.
Survivor Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) finds himself publicly humiliated after the events of the first film, and in Jurassic Park: The Lost World he travels to Site B, where the dinosaurs run wild in a natural habitat. He's a member of the first team, out to gather important data while racing against the second, trying to grab live specimens for the San Diego Zoo, both sides equipped with what could best be described as giant toys. And his daughter tags along, because it wouldn't be a Jurassic Park movie without a kid in danger. This sequel ups the dino action while putting Rex in an urban setting for Act III.
Jurassic Park III wasn't exactly a movie that demanded to be made, except for the fact that an abundant fan base was surely eager to return. At a mere hour-and-a-half, it is the briskest but also the funniest of the bunch (co-written by Election's Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor), as fellow survivor Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) is recruited under false pretenses to return to Costa Rica, helping a divorced couple find their island-lost son. Director Joe Johnston (Captain America: The First Avenger) capably followed in Spielberg's footsteps, providing the third and final disc for Universal's Ultimate Trilogy.
Jurassic Park continues to make Universal googillions of dollars and was directed by arguably the most powerful man in The Biz, so one can only assume that they "spared no expense" on the video transfer. But I found the results here to be somewhat grainy, a trifle noisy, and frankly a little soft. Now, the softness might have been a deliberate choice, to help blend any rough edges between the live action and the revolutionary special effects. Even so, at 1080p/24 the matte lines and the inconsistencies in lighting can be evident here. Blacks are harsh and unnatural, not richly nuanced.
The dinosaurs of The Lost World are more varied and plentiful, ambitiously photographed with lens flares and other subtly convincing panache, and this first sequel represents a step up in just about every way. But it remains too soft for my taste. Visually, III is at least a little bit better even than II and is certainly the sharpest of the bunch, but it is still not reference quality. All three movies are presented here in their original aspect ratio of 1.85:1.
The Sound
In 1993, Jurassic Park was the first film to be released with a "Digital Theater Surround" soundtrack, requiring theaters to upgrade to DTS sound systems. (One year earlier, Batman Returns brought audiences Dolby Digital.) No doubt in an effort to really sell the new format, audio demigods Gary Rydstrom and Gary Summers outdid themselves on the design and editing of the track, which has been remixed to now state-of-the-art DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 for this Blu-ray.
Yes, they brought extinct species back to life with creativity and volume, and they served the action genre well with ample gunshots and Taser zaps. But John Williams' lively score benefits from the bass boom as much as T-Rex's famous footsteps, while ambience is given more than its due, as when Hammond's voice echoes across the visitor center. There are so many types of rain, sometimes with individual drops discernible, and gaggles of birds in the surrounds. Often the audio is constructed in layers, like the muffled helicopter rotors flitting behind us when we're inside the cabin, or a gushing storm drain in the background that is maintained discretely as the camera changes position.
Sonically The Lost World is terrific, but it unavoidably lacks the wonder of the original. The suspenseful scene with the long train/trailer thing going over the cliff has a lot going on, including juicy trebles for the slowly cracking glass. I was however expecting more low-frequency impact when the boat hits and demolishes the dock.
III has its share of conspicuous moments, starting for me with the plane crash and subsequent attack on the wreckage. I noted some impressive dinosaur tail-whipping in the rears, and the resonant, 360-degree bellow of the velociraptors figures prominently. The directional tossing of gas grenades and the creakiness of a metal bridge are other quick gems in Number Three.
The Extras
DVD was good to this trilogy, leading to the creation of ample documentaries and featurettes, all of which appear to be archived here, in standard definition. Some are quite lengthy and are hard to beat for dense, informative insight. Only The Lost World offers deleted scenes (seven minutes), and only III includes an audio commentary, from the late, legendary makeup/animatronic guru Stan Winston, live-action effects supervisor John Rosengrant, ILM animation director Dan Taylor, and mechanical effects execution supervisor Michael Lantieri. A complete listing is provided below.
But Universal has also gone ahead and created a new six-part "Return to Jurassic Park," in high definition spread across the three discs, similar to what they did with Back to the Future. Totaling over two hours, this retrospective combines vintage footage with brand-new interviews from both directors, many of the stars, plus lesser-known heroes such as ILM's Dennis Muren.
In addition, all three discs support BD-Live with Universal's Ticker news feed, which now defaults to Off until we engage it. The pocket BLU app is supported for the entire trilogy as well, for enhanced control and portable bonus features. And a unique code is provided so that we may download a Digital Copy of each movie in the series, for iTunes or Windows Media.
Final Thoughts
With the Jurassic Park Ultimate Trilogy, fans receive another major Spielberg movie (or two) on Blu-ray, as well as Johnston's enjoyable conclusion and a healthy dash of extras new and old. While the video is curiously less than stellar, the audio only furthers the legacy of one of the best-sounding franchises in Hollywood history.
Product Details
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