A few thoughts on Jurassic Park 3D

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship of 3D re-releases. On the one hand, I'm more often unimpressed with 3D movies in general, and go out of my way to avoid them unless I've read that the extra dimension is actually an additive experience. On the other, no 3D conversion can turn a good movie bad, and the temptation of revisiting old favourites on the big screen is often all the convincing I need.

To wit, I give you Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park, a sci-fi spectacle with which I fell in love growing up as it became commonplace on VHS and television, but had never gotten the opportunity to see in a theatre. At the tender age of five, I was far too young to go see it in the summer of '93. Naturally, I was eager to finally behold the film's Oscar-winning sound design and groundbreaking effects in their proper theatrical format. I was not disappointed. Jurassic Park 3D proved to be a perfect post-Oscars palette cleanser at the outset of a long awards off-season.

Top Ten Moments in Jurassic Park (Repost)

(This list was posted a couple of years ago as one of my Sunday Top Tens. With this weekend's 3D rerelease of Jurassic Park, now seems like an appropriate time to repost it. I'll definitely be giving it look. Will you?)

20 years ago saw the domestic release of Jurassic Park, Steven Spielberg's exhilarating disaster/monster movie that smashed box office records, demonstrated the potential of CGI, and scared the living shit out of children who can now only look back on it with the greatest fondness. Never mind that the story has its imperfections and the characters aren't always drawn with much focus, because it's a film that's defined by its moments – those temporary sensations conceived by a few carefully made images and sounds. Here are my ten personal favourites.

Sunday Top Ten - Pre-CG special effects films

All aspects of filmmaking evolve over time, but none so conspicuously as visual effects. The advancements made even over the last few years continue to amaze audiences. But for all the wonderful possibilities these technical achievements have opened up to filmmakers, I sometimes find myself yearning for a simpler time. Computer-generated images may make for convincing and exciting special effects, but am I alone in feeling that the digitization of this art has somewhat diminished the "specialness" of those effects? When you see a spaceship being blown up on screen today, you know how it was done; CGI. When you see a lifelike ape play the lead role in a movie today, you know how it was done; CGI. Wouldn't it be grand to watch a movie nowadays and legitimately wonder, "how did they do that?"

There was a time when you could, and the effects, though widely considered dated by today's standards, are still truly special in my eyes. For my money, these are the ten best pre-CG special effect showcases.

Sunday Top Ten - James Cameron action sequences

With a mere eight feature films gracing his thirty-year career (not including his forays into television and deep-sea documentary filmmaking), it can be a bit frustrating being a James Cameron fan. Who wants to wait three years at a time between films? But then again, it's Cameron's painstaking perfectionism that makes his movies, and especially his action sequences, so thrilling and unforgettable, and most definitely worth the wait. No one understands better than he that action should extend organically from the story, yet should also take on a life of its own; a mini-story within the story. For my money, these are the master storyteller's ten best:

Hit Me With Your Best Shot: Aliens

Nathaniel Rogers' Hit Me With Your Best Shot series over a The Film Experience is examining the strange goings-on on the planet LV-426, which I'm sure you'll recall is the setting of James Cameron's wicked 1986 sci-fi actioner Aliens. Cameron and DP Adrien Biddle concocted arresting images too numerous to count for the film, but for me, there are a select few standouts:

The reveal of Stan Winston's mother alien in all her slimy glory is heart-stopping to say the least, and makes a great gasp-inducing start to her tense staredown with Ripley. A nice companion shot to the one above would be this similarly back-light image of Ripley and her weapon of choice, a mechanical loader, on the cusp of the her most cited quotation, "Get away from her, you bitch!".

But the real money shot is that of young Newt in peril, trapped in a flooded corridor, initially unaware of the sinister tail emerging from the water behind her. I jumped clean out of my seat the first time I saw this, and it still gives me shivers to this day.

Sunday Top Ten: Moments in Jurassic Park

18 years ago yesterday saw the domestic release of Jurassic Park, Steven Spielberg's exhilarating disaster/monster movie that smashed box office records, demonstrated the potential of CGI, and scared the living shit out of children who can now only look back on it with the greatest fondness. Never mind that the story has its imperfections and the characters aren't always drawn with much focus, because it's a film that's defined by its moments – those temporary sensations conceived by a few carefully made images and sounds. Here are my ten personal favourites.