Culture

Rating: 5/5

As you may or may not have heard, Steven Spielberg’s seminal Jurassic Park was recently rereleased in theatres in 3D to celebrate the film’s 20th anniversary. Though many films that were shot in 2D and later converted into 3D look like shit (Clash Of The Titans being the classic example), Jurassic Park’s retrofitted 3D is genuinely dazzling, adding a depth, richness and clarity that does nothing but complement the original film.

Everything on the screen is sharper and warmer and thus has more impact, from the gory dinosaur-related deaths to the ripples of movement in the undergrowth, even to the subtle expression changes on the faces of our protagonists (a smile or an eyebrow raise suddenly seems doubly significant). So yeah, the 3D was dope.

The film itself I hadn’t actually seen in about a decade, so my memory of the characters and plot was hazy. I remembered a handful of iconic scenes, such as the T. rex flipping the car with the kids inside, the same kids being hunted by the velociraptors in the kitchen, and the girl getting sneezed on by a brontosaurus.

Christ, I must’ve really had it in for those kids as a younger person … anyway, the intricacies of the plot were essentially new to me, as were the many profound themes worked into the whole dinosaur-theme-park-slash-petting-zoo-gone-horribly-wrong thing. Never did I realise just how often the film addresses the ideas of sexism, evolution, God, and chaos, or how well the film is separated into two fairly distinct halves, the first looking at the concept of man attempting to play God as wondrous and groundbreaking, the latter demonstrating it to be arrogant and disastrous.

You end up both loving and despising Jurassic Park’s mastermind John Hammond (incidentally played by David Attenborough’s brother, Richard), simultaneously sharing his love for the wonders of science and loathing his pomposity that he could ever possibly conquer or control nature. As Jeff Goldblum’s irresistible character quips, “life finds a way.”

Twenty years since its initial release, Jurassic Park remains as thrilling, amusing and awe-inspiring as ever, reminding us that Steven Spielberg is and always will be the king of blockbuster cinema.