Episode 134 - Jurassic Park

[00:00:02] Welcome back to Movie Mistrial, the podcast where we put the IMDb Top to 50 on trial. I'm Johannes And I'm Raji. Today we're heading to the Isla Nubla with Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park. Released in 1993, it follows a group of scientists invited to a theme park where dinosaurs have been brought back to life through genetic engineering. It's groundbreaking, thrilling and changed what blockbuster filmmaking could look like.

[00:00:28] But here's a question. Is Jurassic Park a timeless masterpiece of spectacle and storytelling, or a film carried more by its technical achievement than its depth? Let's flip the coin because today, Jurassic Park is on trial.

[00:00:58] Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Alright buddy, let's flip the coin. I'm gonna go with heads as I always do. Heads it is today. Hmm, trying to figure out which one I want to go for. Uh... Let's go with the cons. I'm gonna go against this movie. Alright, alright, well the stage is yours.

[00:01:26] The witness will address this court as judge or your honor. Alright, alright guys. I'm beginning to regret this already. Uh... Alright, okay. So, what is Jurassic Park? How is it a... Is it good for... How is this movie not good? One of the things that I'll say about Jurassic Park for sure is that...

[00:02:06] Um... Because he wants to achieve this sense of surprise. I'll give you one example. These guys are driving through the jungle. They feel the floor vibrating. Everything is shaking around them. A T-Rex appears. Strong. Breaks the car. Flips it over. Does all sorts of shenanigans. Um... At the end of the movie...

[00:02:34] Basically, the T-Rex shows its presence... From coming from very far away. At the end of the movie... These people are stuck between velociraptors. I think that's what they're called, right? And these guys hunt in packs. These guys are getting closer and closer. No... No sense of... Nothing could save them at that particular point. But then all of a sudden, out of nowhere... Comes the same T-Rex.

[00:03:04] No sound. Just a ninja T-Rex this time around. No vibrations. Nothing. And then it takes those velociraptors down. A sign comes out that says... When dinosaurs ruled the world. I chuckle internally. Because that's perfect. But then I'm just thinking to myself... Yeah. That's inconsistent. More inconsistency...

[00:03:34] Happens... In this film. When those... When characters are talking. And the one that really, like... Really irked me... Was when they were talking about the chaos theory. And, you know... Goldblum was putting water in her hands. And, you know... It's like talking about which direction it was going to flow. The first time it flowed in the back of her hand. And the second time... It flowed through the front. You know... And he's like... You know... What did he say? It's like...

[00:04:03] Some micro detail change... Causes a different reaction. And the thing that irritated me... And irked me about this... Was that... He's talking to an accomplished scientist... Who knows... A lot... About dinosaurs. And... She doesn't know the chaos theory. I find that very inconsistent. And it might be a big nitpick. But... The biggest nitpick for me... Was...

[00:04:31] When that girl sat beside... Behind the computer desk. She picked up the mouse and she goes... Oh, it's Unix. I know this. And I was like... Whoa! As somebody who... Who deals with computers... For many, many years... I find that to be very inconsistent. I know... They set up the character to be a hacker... And all of those shenanigans. But... Hacking is not just going through... A schematic...

[00:05:00] And moving your mouse to the specific room... And pushing unlock... On the computer screen. Um... There are some very... A couple of internal logic breaks... That you really have to take in this film... For this thing to work for you. And I think that's where I'm going to start my conversation. Alright. Well... Ladies and gentlemen... Jurassic Park is one of the best films I've ever made. Tara said it. It's shocking to me that it's in 130s...

[00:05:30] On this list. But that's beside the point. The... The thing that I love about this film... Is that every time I watch it... There's something new in the new detail... That enriches the story a little more. The... The fascinating thing about this film too... Is that... Depending on which age you're... Like what age you are when you're watching it... There's different things that resonate with you. When this film came out... You know...

[00:05:58] I was basically sympathizing with one of the kids. It was cool. Right? It's like... Holy crap. There's dinosaurs. That's awesome. You know... The magic of it all. And then when you grow older... You kind of be more in the... The... The scientist kind of thing. And now... I see... I see all the... The... The fakeness of the business side of things. And it's like... Oh, this is so fascinating. The thing that I find wild... And I think it's there...

[00:06:27] But it is somewhat subtle... Is that... This is like... If somebody would make this film today... This would not be an old man. This would be a tech bro. This would be an Elon Musk type of guy. And... This park is run... So shoddily... If we just think about it... It's a bare bones crew. You have one dude that is doing all the computer stuff. He's the only person that knows the computer systems. And...

[00:06:56] And... In and out. And he's the only guy... Well, I don't know if he's the only guy. He's probably not the only guy. But he's paid... Not well. He's paid... So bad, in fact... That he's going out... To do corporate espionage... To... To be able to sustain his life. And that's how we get into this whole predicament. Because... Hammond is so cheap... That he's not really seeing the value. In his computer guy.

[00:07:26] And that alone... I think is so... So brilliant. Because it's there... But it's so not the focus of it all. It's just... Kind of the... Kind of the cause of... Of the chaos in a way. But it's not... Like the conversation around all that... Is just so... On the sidelines. Because you're kind of... Wowed and amazed with... With all the dinosaurs... The dinosaurs... And the theme park of it all. And the designs... And all that. There's so much to take...

[00:07:55] Out of this... That is so iconic, I think. But... The core story is so... Crazy. Because you see it now too. You see the... We're going to Mars. We're going to here. We're going to... You know... Like the whole... The whole showmanship of it all... Is still there. And it's also... All done as cheap as possible. To make the most amount of money... As possible. You know... We'll have a voucher night... For the poor. For the poor. And...

[00:08:24] That alone... Brings me a lot of delight. That I... That you know... We have something... That was done in 93. That is basically... A critique of... Big business... Tech bro culture. Even though that... Didn't exist to that extreme... That it does now. But... But it's done in such a... Brilliant way of... This crazy theme park... That is completely...

[00:08:53] Off the chain. But... So... I found a lot of delight in that. I think... If we just... Look at the... The theme park of it all... There's something there... That is fascinating. Now... If we think about... Just the effects of this... Like this thing... Was released in 93. And it looks better... Than a film that was released... In this year... From the effects. I saw... Balls up... The other one... The other day.

[00:09:23] And... It's not a good film. It looks terrible. It probably was a lot cheaper than this. But still... Right? Like... That they were able to make effects... And create effects... And were groundbreaking... In creating dinosaur effects... In 93... 91, 92, 93... Probably... When they produced this whole thing... And... And... It still holds up... It still looks great...

[00:09:53] Is amazing to me. And... Like I said... The art department... It's great. Like... That they... That they don't have... Jeeps and Ford Explorers in Hawaii... That you can rent... That look like this... For an offcharge... Is crazy to me... Because people would... Do that a lot. But anyway... I... This is a... A fun film. It's a great film. I think... Like I said... There's something... In it for you... Depending on where you are... On the age spectrum...

[00:10:22] There's something that will resonate... With you. And... I kind of feel like... That is rare. That... The films have that... That power. So... For that alone... I think... Yeah... This film is fantastic. Yeah... You talk about... You know... There's one point of failure... In this movie... Um... And Hammond was very cheap... To just have one... Scientist who... Can... Um... Solve all the security problems... Uh... And then he goes missing... Right?

[00:10:52] But... I... I think that you forget... That he also has a granddaughter... Who can go... Hey... This is a Unix style system... I know how to do it... Uh... Which happens in the movie... I think that you're... You're... You're not including... All the unpaid... Other characters... Who can... Use Unix systems... To try to solve problems... All right... Uh... I joke... But... One of the things that I... I want everybody to realize... When... You know...

[00:11:21] Johannes was talking about this... Was that... You were talking about... The technicality of this movie... And... I'm gonna tell you that... I'm not gonna argue with you on that... The movie is technically sound... It holds up... The sense of awe is incredible... Um... And... Like you said... It looks better than movies that came out today... Including Bowls Up... But what you didn't say... Was that... The fact that the characters...

[00:11:50] Don't have a lot of depth... Nobody really changes... The closest... To change was Hammond... Who goes... After such a traumatic change... After such a traumatic event... I'm gonna close down the park... The lawyer changed... But because he saw... Money... Very thin changes... Very surface level... Um... The scientist... The... The main scientist man... Didn't wanna have kids... And then... All of a sudden...

[00:12:20] He had... He was with those kids... And just hugging them... And all of a sudden... He has this... Paternal instinct... And it's like looking at his... Girlfriend... I'm not... So... Their relationship is weird... Because I don't buy... That they're... They're actually together... Right? I don't buy any of that... Anyway... Jeff Goldblum's character... Is probably the one... That has the most style... In this movie...

[00:12:49] And everybody has the memes... Of him sitting down... Or laying down on that chair... With his... Button... Uh... Totally removed... Probably the most charismatic... Part of this film... But... Every single character... Seems to be playing an archetype... You have the guy who owns it... Who's a capitalist... Who... Doesn't wanna let his dream go... He's come so far away... So far... That he doesn't want to... Um... He doesn't want to...

[00:13:20] Uh... Let go of this dream... We have the archetype... Of the black guy... Who gets eaten at the very first... Beginning of the film... Of course the black guy... Is that his first... Uh... And we have... Uh... Samuel L. Jackson... Who plays a scientist... I think he's a little bit... More... Less typecast... Than his usual movies... But... You know... And he doesn't do anything... Like... Bunkers... Or crazy... In this film... But...

[00:13:49] His death happened off screen... Which is neither... Good nor bad... Eh... That's not... But I'm telling you that... We don't have a lot of character growth... In this movie... The characters feel thin... And this movie... Relies on that sense of... Or... Um... The technical prowess of the film... And... The... Um... And... The... The... Direction... Of the story... So much so that...

[00:14:18] In the middle of the film... When they first arrive... Right? This movie grinds to a halt... They're going through this... Um... Hollywood... Style... Presentation... Where they just sit down... Or... It's a Hollywood... Disney theme... Uh... Presentation... Where they just sit down... And... They give them... The whole spiel... Of what this... Um... Park... Or how this park came to be... Where they eventually stand up... And just walk into the scientific...

[00:14:48] Scientific... The... The lab... Which is weird too... None of those work... How can you just stand up... And just go into an experimental place... Where everybody's wearing lab coats... And you can just touch... Dinosaurs that are just coming out... That doesn't make any sense... But let's just go with it... Like... This stuff is... It's cool... Um... The system is not... It's like when you think about the logic of everything... Right? It... Falls flat...

[00:15:18] One person is the point of... Of breakage for this whole park... And he systemically... Because of his greed... And I think you've hinted at the fact that this movie is also... A discussion about capitalism... And the ways it destroys... And questions of... Um... It's just because we should... Should we? Which was asked by... The Jeff Goldblum character... Which is also the most poignant character...

[00:15:47] It was poignant point in this whole film... Um... And I think that the director... Um... Steven Spielberg... Uses a lot of kids in his movie... To drive empathy... Because you feel like the kids don't... Can fend for themselves... Um... And... You want them to survive... So that kitchen scene... Which is an incredible scene... Has a lot more tension... Because you understand that it's kids... The electric scene... Has more...

[00:16:18] Tension... Because you know that there's a kid... Holding the poles... All of that... Uses the cheat code... Let's just put kids in there... And see what happens... Um... Nothing... I feel like... Uh... Yeah... Let me just stay there... Okay... There's a... There's a few things I need to address... So I think... Uh... From... From a character perspective... We... Do have some... Some growth... Right? We have... Uh...

[00:16:47] The... Neil character... That... As you indicated... Like he's... His... Um... Emotional intelligence around kids... Is not very great in the beginning... Where he's... You know... Trying to... Slice open the kid... In the quarry... With the... With the... Raptor bone... Uh... Claw... Uh... And then we see him at the end... You know... He comes around with kids... Because he sees that... You know... That... He has to hang out with the kids... And he... He can... Instinctively... Starts to protect them... And then...

[00:17:16] Then that turns him around... I think that is great... With Ellie... I think we have... Um... You know... One of the great... Female... Feminism characters... In a way that... Um... She takes charge... She's responsible for power coming back on... And... Um... We... We see her... Kind of coming from... All the preconceptions... Uh... About women... But kind of defying them... And I think that is great... And then Hammond is kind of the... The megalomaniac... Uh...

[00:17:46] You know... Tech bro... Tech grandpa... That... Um... That... That just... Uh... Wants to... Make the world go round and crazy... And make a lot of money with... This... Revolutionary invention... Um... I think that... The one that... Grossly is the... Jeff Goldblum character... Um... But... You know... He also gets hurt... Now from a... Uh... From a thing that you said... Um...

[00:18:15] It's unrealistic that the labs were there... Um... And... They had easy access... I think that just shows how... How much of a... Fly-by-night operation... This whole thing really is... Right? It looks good... It looks pretty polished... But... Uh... If you look behind the scenes a little bit... Um... You know... That control room is a mess... Right? They're still trying to figure things out... They're still in... In beta testing mode basically... And this is a proof of concept... We need more money... We need to have some credibility...

[00:18:44] So let's get these scientists here... To... To give us that... Uh... Like... This is effectively what's going on here... Right? Um... So I think that... That all tracks... Because it's all... You know... What could possibly go wrong? Right? We were so confident in what we're doing here... Um... Things that still happen to this day... Where companies are just promising the world... Right? And... And... Is it safe? We don't know... Um... Now... I think the... The thing that...

[00:19:13] I also noticed in... In this rewatch... Is... Uh... I feel like they do something really smart... By opening... Uh... This film with... Uh... How the raptors are... Transported into their new enclosure... And how... We see somebody... Being dragged in and... And die... From that... Because... We as an audience know... Okay... There's inherent danger here... But then... We are kind of misdirected from that... In...

[00:19:42] In a lot of ways... Because then we get introduced to the... The characters... We... We get the great... Helicopter ride into Jurassic Park... With the music... And... You know... Everything is great... And then we see the good dinosaurs... And... Um... The awe of it all... And then we get... Lured to the spiel... Of how is this possible? And it's very... Positive... And then... What is the experience like? Right? And then... Things go wrong... Do you remember... Oh wait a minute...

[00:20:12] There's danger... We saw this before... And this... This just kind of... Um... Foundational... Level setting of... Okay... This is not all... Polished... As polished and nice... As they try to make it seem... Um... There's danger here... Looming... Um... I think it's very brilliant... From a storytelling perspective... And... Yeah... I mean like I said... It is... It is so cool... In a way to see... How... The...

[00:20:41] The audience side of Jurassic Park... Is so polished... And then the... The... Behind the scenes kind of stuff... Is so not... Because again... This is so relevant to this day still... Where everything looks good... It's fine... But then if you look behind the scenes a little bit... It's like... Oh... It's hold on by... Um... You know... Fingers crossed... And some duct tape... And... Uh... The same is true for Jurassic Park... And again... Like this is 30 years... 40 years old now... No...

[00:21:10] It's not 30 years old... Math... Um... And... Uh... Yeah... Fascinating... That... That this is a story that is still... A very true... Um... It's great that it's self-contained... Uh... It's not selling you a bigger thing... I think all the... The sequels to this... All the sequels... And the... The requels... And whatever you call it... Um... Are not able to capture the same wonder... Because here... They really try to... Almost sell you on the idea of Jurassic Park...

[00:21:39] As if you were one of the party... And I think that... That is part of the... The brilliance of it all... Because you see the imperfections... But you kind of try to... Forgo them... Because you want to believe... In the good of the park... And then things go horribly... Horribly... Wrong... Um... Yeah... I love this film... I don't think they hid the... Imperfections from... From the... Tour... The outside perspective... Although... You know...

[00:22:07] The fact that they were in a magnetic car... That had no steering wheel... In case something goes wrong... You can't really do anything... And I think it was kind of like... The reason why... When you're dealing with like... Major creatures... Like these dinosaurs... That... You need to be able to... Drive away... When something goes wrong... And you're not able to control it... Um... It's not like a theme park in Disney... If you fall... I think... Jeff Lueblom also said this in the film... Because he seems like he's the...

[00:22:36] He's the one that points out everything... If you fall out on the boat... On the parts of the Caribbean... You don't get killed... You just jump into the water... And somebody can pick you out... But in this one... You're gonna get eaten by a dinosaur... So you need a little bit more precaution... Um... So I would argue that... Every single part of this park was... Poorly designed... And... It was just poorly designed... Everything was too close...

[00:23:06] You were too close to death... At every single angle... Uh... And let's not even talk about the fact that... You had those flying dinosaurs... That could also just come in... And get your car... Uh... So... There's a sense of danger... And I think this movie does a good job of acknowledging it... Uh... But... I don't think that this movie... Had strong enough characters... There were a lot of internal logic breaks... And...

[00:23:36] Uh... Yeah... That's... I'm ready to go with that... I'm ready to go with that... Sidebar... Guilty... Speculation... Hearsay... Bailiff... Briefcase... Disregard... In my chambers... Stop Beaver and the witness... Arrest... We could totally be lawyers... It was a... It was a dinosaur... No... Beautiful... Hey... Thank you... Beautiful... Um... There are some things that don't make sense in this film... And... Um... A lot of it has to do with...

[00:24:05] The... The T-Rex... In some ways... And you pointed out something with the... You know... The ground shaking... Um... The thing that I found very strange is... So they... They show the imperfections of the park by going by... Um... Dinosaur... Habitats... And they don't see any dinosaurs... Right? We... We have that example a couple times... Then they go by this gigantic T-Rex enclosure... Um... That looks like... It's...

[00:24:35] It's a big field with... Enclosed by mountains... And then the gigantic fence... Um... And nothing happens... They go see the... Triceratops... And then they... Are... Asked to turn around... The first thing that I found weird was that they're going by the T-Rex enclosure again... Um... You would think there is a big loop... So how... These cars are on tracks... So how... How can they turn around? Um... So they... They already must have had some security procedure... Overthinking it...

[00:25:03] But I found that weird... And then the other thing that I found weird about the T-Rex enclosure... Is... That at some point... You see a big hole in the... In the enclosure where the T-Rex came from... And then... One of the cars is thrown through the fence... In that same location... And there's a big drop... So how... Yeah, I don't understand... Where did the drop come from? Right... Where did... And if there's a big drop... Where did the dinosaur come from? Did he climb up the... The wall? So there's...

[00:25:33] There's things like that where I'm like... Huh... This doesn't make a lot of sense... It's kind of cool for a set piece with a car dangling... And all that kind of stuff... But if you think about... It's a little weird... Um... Another thing that also doesn't make sense... Is... How does... Grant... Is his name right? Sam Neill... How does he know... That... T-Rexes are... Are keying in on movement? How? There's no way... To glean that from bones...

[00:26:03] But I get... Uh... I... I mean... Because... He's also kind of delighted... By... Oh... They do move in herds... In the beginning... Right? Because it's like... It's probably a theory... And then he sees that validated... But... How... How can you... How can you be so sure... That he is... That the T-Rex is keying on... Movement... Of... And if you don't move... Then he will not see you... Um... I feel like there's no way to know that... For sure... For as sure as he is...

[00:26:33] Before any movement happens... So... Yeah... I'm willing to give that... The benefit of doubt... Maybe it's something that he heard... Offhand... Maybe doing one of his... Dinosaur conventions... Or conferences... But how is anybody able to do that? I don't know... How is anybody able to do that? Maybe they check the ears... They're taking a bone... Maybe they check the ears... And check to see if that is... Of factory... I don't know... I don't know... But...

[00:27:01] It is an interesting point... I mean... It kind of... It kind of... Adds to the point about... You know... The internal logic of this film... Breaks apart... Yeah... If you look too deeply... Into it... But I will say that... This movie is powered by... Or... And spectacle... And... I think that the moment... You see the dinosaurs for the first time... That's an incredible moment... You talked about the... The fact that this movie... Ages very well...

[00:27:31] Because it uses a combination of CG... And... Real... Models... And... I think... I mean... When they went into the... The jungle... And the guy was touching the... The dinosaur... That was... Really, really good... Even if it was just... Animatronics just going... You know... It was pretty good... With the eyes rolling everywhere... I thought that was a really good stuff... I think... They did... That's probably one of the strongest reasons... Why this movie holds up... It does...

[00:28:00] Use practical effects... Very, very well... But... Oh... One last thing... Tension in this movie... Very, very good... They set up... They set up tensions very well... They set up the triceratops... The triceratops... Triceratops... They set them up very well... From the very beginning... When they talked about... You know... That these people... Hunting packs... They are like the apex predators... They... They're very intelligent...

[00:28:30] And... I think they kind of lived up... To... The... To the... Smoke being blown up their asses... So... In a sense... I think that... You do get a very... Very, very good sense... Of awe... Spectacle... And... You know... Minor horror... Here and there... I don't think that... You know... Steven Spielberg does... Incredible horror... But... You know...

[00:29:00] There's still some horrific scenes... Here and there... That kind of work... And you are really tense... In so many scenes... So in a sense... I think that this movie... Does great... On those particular aspects... But when it comes to things like... Substance... And... Logic... Don't think too hard... Suspend your disbelief... As much as possible... And... That will... Take you through... That's... That's my take... Yeah...

[00:29:30] I think... Like... From... From a logic perspective... This film is miles... Better than any of the other ones... That came out of this... And especially... The Jurassic World... Once they're terrible... Because they... They don't... Make... Then... Yeah... This one... In its own sense... I think makes a lot more... Like in the... In the world they built... It makes more sense... Because again... Like if you... Look at it from... From the... Hammond's motivation... Is to sell... Make more... Is to sell this idea...

[00:29:59] And get more credibility... So you can finish the project... Because it is not finished yet... You know... Because it... Like the whole system... Is designed by one person... That is underpaid... So... That... And it shows in little things... Like they're able to leave the cars... Mid... Drive... It's like... So... So... Yeah...

[00:30:27] I think this one makes a lot more sense... I think from a... From a suspense... Way... This makes... This is a great film... Because again... There's... Like it sets it up right... And then you see... Okay... These cute dinosaurs... We don't know if they're goodies... Or baddies... Right? Like when that... That... The Lophosaurus... Gets... Needy at the end... It's like... Oh yeah... I mean... Could be kind of a cute dog... Little thing... But then... No... It's not...

[00:30:57] And all that... And... Yeah... I mean... Like I said... I just love this film... It's one of my favorite films... Jurassic Park... It's great... All the other ones... It does a good job of... I like the film too... I'm not gonna lie... It's a really good film for... What it does... It's very interesting... And it carries the story very well... So no qualms for me on that... But you know... When you're reviewing the top movies... You really have to think about like... Hey... What is this movie trying to say?

[00:31:26] And it says a lot about capitalism... But... The logic of the movie falls apart... When you start to think about everything... And I think that's probably the reason... Why the sequels don't do very well... Because the foundation is not very solid... Yeah... They give it to a very skilled director... Like Steven Spielberg... Who can do what he can... With these kinds of films... I mean... He did a crazy job with Duel... A movie about two people driving... One person driving a truck... So...

[00:31:53] They created tension incredibly well... In a movie like that... So he does a good job... With all of that foundation... But I think when you start to go beyond that logic... Kind of falls apart... But... That's... That's pretty much all I have to say... About Jurassic Park... That's all I have as well... Well... From one guided tour in a Ford Explorer... To... An unguided tour in a taxi... Next up... Taxi driver... An unwanted... Unwarranted...

[00:32:24] Unwarranted... Unwarranted... Tour in a taxi... Alright... We're looking forward to... Talking about that... Until then though... Where can people find us? You can find us on... On Instagram... On... Blue Sky... On Facebook... At Movie Mistrial... Or you can send us an email to... Contact at Movie Mistrial... Dot com... Alright... Adios... Auf Wiedersehen...