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Steven Spielberg must have made some kind of pact with the Devil before making this film because holy f*ck the visual effects are unreal. For a movie that's nearing 25 years of age it honestly looks better than most of the films coming out today. The use of both animatronic and computer generated dinosaurs (cgi that revolutionized the field and every film to come after that uses compositing owes something to this film) was incredible as it's still a film that feels so real, the dinosaurs actually feel like they're there.
The story follows scientists going to an island being made into basically a Dinosaur zoo to check things out and make sure they feel the park will be safe (spoilers: it's not). It's an incredibly well-written film with interesting things to say about the nature of knowledge and ethics "just because you can do something doesn't necessarily mean you should" (in many ways it pulls from a lot of the same themes as one of the original monster stories, Frankenstein).
Sam Neill's character, Alan Grant, is the best character in the film, as he grows from this somewhat gruff, hard around the edges character to ultimately learning to care for the children and being more compassionate. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) is the character that most directly presents the ideological conflicts of the film in his dialogue, and is also one of the more likable characters in the film.
This film also plays with suspense as well as any other Spielberg film, and the score is iconic (thanks again to the legendary John Williams), and overall it is one of those near-perfect films that will live on for decades.
4. Jurassic Park
Steven Spielberg must have made some kind of pact with the Devil before making this film because holy f*ck the visual effects are unreal. For a movie that's nearing 25 years of age it honestly looks better than most of the films coming out today. The use of both animatronic and computer generated dinosaurs (cgi that revolutionized the field and every film to come after that uses compositing owes something to this film) was incredible as it's still a film that feels so real, the dinosaurs actually feel like they're there.
The story follows scientists going to an island being made into basically a Dinosaur zoo to check things out and make sure they feel the park will be safe (spoilers: it's not). It's an incredibly well-written film with interesting things to say about the nature of knowledge and ethics "just because you can do something doesn't necessarily mean you should" (in many ways it pulls from a lot of the same themes as one of the original monster stories, Frankenstein).
Sam Neill's character, Alan Grant, is the best character in the film, as he grows from this somewhat gruff, hard around the edges character to ultimately learning to care for the children and being more compassionate. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) is the character that most directly presents the ideological conflicts of the film in his dialogue, and is also one of the more likable characters in the film.
This film also plays with suspense as well as any other Spielberg film, and the score is iconic (thanks again to the legendary John Williams), and overall it is one of those near-perfect films that will live on for decades.