A selection from the Netflix Trending List: Jurassic Park

I won’t be the only one: no more series to binge for a while, no long-awaited movie that can finally be seen on Netflix. And yes, what should you do? Sometimes you can no longer see the trees for the forest due to the endless stream of content. Netflix claims to know what you like based on your viewing history, but I disagree more than I agree with Netflix. Then you have the list of currently watched content under the heading Trending.

But do I like what everyone else likes? Old films, new films, well-known titles and obscure eastern bloc cinema. It all comes along. In this series, we’ll try to help you by picking a random title from Netflix’s list of trending content and telling you why we think it’s worth watching. Today a real Spielberg classic: Jurassic Park!

Dino’s baby!

Yes okay, this is an excuse for me to talk about the one bright spot of my childhood. I don’t remember exactly how old I was, but it must have been before I was six. My grandparents gave me two videotapes for my birthday. I have long forgotten what was on that other tape, but a black cassette with the now iconic simplistic wrapper contained a tape that would give my sister a childhood trauma and irrevocably saddled me with a love of history.

It’s a story as old as time, old rich man has crazy ideas, resulting mess costs many innocent bystanders. The old man in question is John Hammond (played by Richard Attenborough, yes, brother of!). Once he started a flea circus, but after a long life of squeezing proletarians, mister is ready for something bigger, literally. He calls in scientists who use dino DNA preserved in amber to bring the beasts back to life. And what do you do with a 12 meter long carnivore weighing almost 10 tons? Well you make people pay for the viewing pleasure, of course! Fleas, dinosaurs… basically all the same.

Well okay, not quite. So first a team of experts has to test whether the park is safe. Among them are Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill), his partner Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), and everyone’s favorite walking rug, Jeff Goldblum. I mean Dr. Ian Malcolm, played by Jeff.

And then it went wrong

Even a purebred capitalist like Hammond realizes that a park with live monsters must be well protected, so the more dangerous animals are separated from the visitors by huge electric fences and park rangers are armed with hefty hand cannons. The first trip through the park goes smoothly (although the T-Rex unfortunately fails, goat or no goat). But how long can things go well when a disillusioned employee shuts down the systems while attempting to steal dinosaur embryos?

Best special effects ever!

I’m someone who never actually gives anything an A. Because a ten means it couldn’t be better. And it can always be better, right? But when it comes to special effects in 1993, Jurassic Park was the absolute pinnacle. Take any movie from the childhood of modern CGI and see how laughable the special effects are now. Even high budget visual spectacles like the Star Wars prequel trilogy are looking very dated these days. How different it is with Jurassic Park.

Today, we see more and more movies combining physical props and in-camera effects with computer-generated imagery. Very logical in itself, because unlike with whiskies, the blend is always better in this case. It’s a bit crazy that we have to discover that again in the 1920s, because Jurassic Park already did it in 1993. And how!

Especially the scene when the T-Rex head, a physical prop, disappears from view and is then replaced by a walking CGI dino. Pure perfection. The lighting, cinematography, sound effects and music of John Williams in absolute top form. It makes a combination that remains incredibly impressive even when stripped of nostalgic haze.

It’s not the size of the CGI budget, it’s how you use it

It’s quite a job to intimidate puppets and computer images, but Spielberg certainly succeeded. Couple impressive special effects with convincing and captivating acting performances by almost the entire cast and you have an unforgettable experience. I won’t be too much of an old man and deviate too much from the new Jurassic World movies, but one thing needs to be said. Even more than the original films (parts 2 and 3 of the original Jurassic Park trilogy are significantly less impressive than part 1), the Jurassic World series is a visual spectacle. Still, despite the mind-boggling advancements in engineering, the original Jurassic Park is, without a doubt, the best visual experience in the franchise.

Summarized

Great acting, check! Generation defining special effects, double check. And the presence of each young man’s favorite species makes three. I can definitely think of worse movies to spend an evening watching. So, if you’ve never seen it before (first of all, how!?), from the current list of trending content on Netflix, I can’t recommend a movie more than the unforgettable Jurassic Park!

Or do you prefer to watch something more recent?