I feel as though writing this piece is a redundancy. Whenever I’m asked what my favorite movie, book or franchise is, I always have the same answer: Jurassic Park. Not Jurassic World, but the one, the only, Jurassic Park. I’ll tell you why, though before I do I must inform you that I am a fan of Jurassic Park and have a Jurassic Park sticker on the side of my Prius.

Spoiler alert: If you are unfamiliar with Jurassic Park, than allow me to briefly describe it. Jurassic Park is a 1993 film directed by Steven Spielberg. There is a zoo of sorts but it houses dinosaurs that have been cloned out of extinction to be an attraction for tourists. The dinos end up escaping and the characters on the island must evade and outsmart a T. rex and velociraptors to make it home alive. 

This film that I love so much has shaped who I am to this day, as evident by my sticker choice. Jurassic Park is a movie that I can watch over and over again. In fact, I watched Jurassic Park earlier today as preparation for my article. There are few, if any movies that incorporate action, comedy, science fiction, dinosaurs and special effects that stand the test of time. 

As far as action goes there is a lot of it in the film. A prime example of this is the T. rex chase scene. Jeff Goldblum is in the back of a jeep being pursued by a Tyrannosaur. The movie leads the viewer to believe that the T. rex wants to eat the occupants of the Jeep. I like to think that the T. rex just wanted a closer look at Jeff Goldblum’s abs.

There are plenty of examples of comedy in Jurassic Park. In the movie we have Jeff Goldblum’s character Ian Malcom look at a big pile of triceratops excrement and say: “That is one big pile of shit,” which I personally enjoyed as a line in the film. We also have the scene where Dr. Alan Grant is testing if an electric fence is on by touching it. The two children are terrified when he starts shaking and screaming as soon as he touches the fence. The tension of the situation is relieved when Alan reveals that he is faking being electrocuted. The extra humor comes from the fact that one of the kids thought it was hilarious and the other didn’t. 

There is no zoo with dinosaurs in reality, so since there is one in Jurassic Park, that makes it a science fiction movie. The whole thing is fiction but based on science. From cloning to paleontology, many real things are mixed in to create this beautiful masterpiece of cinema.

As children, many of us had a fascination with dinosaurs. There is something about massive creatures roaming the earth that ignites the imagination not just of the youth but adults as well. The movie’s special effects team did a fantastic job. To this day the special effects hold up. Many of the close up scenes involved lifelike robots and puppets that were and still are extraordinarily realistic.

The film has stood the test of time and spawned a series of sequels that take place in the same universe. So what separates Jurassic Park from Star Wars or the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)? It is hard to compete with Marvel, but Jurassic Park has one thing that the MCU is lacking, dinosaurs. Jurassic Park isn’t based on a true story, but everything in the movie has existed on this planet… just not all at once. Yes, the Star Wars franchise is one of the most (if not the most) successful franchises of all time. There is one flaw in Star Wars that Jurassic Park doesn’t have, Jar Jar Binks. Thank you all for reading, I did not set out to change minds, only to educate them. Regardless of my opinion, I encourage you to go watch Jurassic Park. Even if you don’t think it’s the best, maybe you’ll agree that it’s pretty good.