Jurassic Park begins when John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), a very wealthy man, creates his dinosaur-based theme park, Jurassic Park, and invites several experts out to give it the thumbs up before opening its doors. Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill), paleontologist and Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), paleobotanist, are both experts in their fields, while Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), is a mathematician specializing in Chaos Theory. The attorney for Mr. Hammond's investors, Donald Gennaro (Martin Ferraro) is also along for the ride, with Hammond's grandchildren, Lex (Ariana Richards) and Tim (Joseph Mazzello) rounding out the group. The tour starts off innocently enough, but when Hammond's lead programmer, Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight), decides to betray the company by selling off dino embryos and he turns off the park's massive security system to complete his snatch and grab, all hell breaks loose, quite literally. In a battle royale between the humans and the various dinosaurs that make appearances here, including a massive T-Rex, a group of wily Velociraptors, and acid-spitting Dilophosauruses, lets just say that not everyone survives.
In The Lost World: Jurassic Park, my least favorite in the trilogy, we return not to Isla Nublar, where the park was housed, but to Site B or Isla Sorna, where the dinos were actually bred for the park. Hammond has been displaced from InGen by his greedy nephew, Peter Ludlow (Arliss Howard), who has hired a team of hunters to capture some of the specimens on the island to sell them off for financial gain. Meanwhile, Hammond has enlisted his own group to research the dinos on Site B, including Dr. Malcolm, Nick Van Owen (Vince Vaughn), a photojournalist, Eddie Carr (Richard Schiff), a documentary filmmaker, and Dr. Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore), who is also Dr. Malcolm's girlfriend and the only reason Malcolm would return to the terror of those islands. To complicate matters, Malcolm's young daughter, Kelly (Vanessa Lee Chester), has also stowed away on their transport, so he has to consider her safety as well. What follows on the island is the clash between the hunters, led by the formidable Roland Tembo (Pete Postlethwaite) and the research team, plus the dinosaurs aren't really happy about the humans being on their island. When a baby T-Rex is captured, the parents get violently involved, the end result is a T-Rex parent and child being brought back to San Diego, where havoc naturally ensues.
Jurassic Park III brings Dr. Grant and his protégé, Billy Brennan (Allesandro Nivola), reluctantly to Site B when a wealthy couple asks them to accompany them there and in payment, they will happily fund his research project. As it turns out, things aren't exactly as they seem and Paul Kirby (William H. Macy) and his estranged wife, Amanda (Tea Leoni) are actually searching for their son, Erik (Trevor Morgan) who went missing near Isla Sorna some 8 weeks before. Although a number of years have passed since the events in The Lost World, plenty of scary dinos still inhabit the island, including the horrifying flying Pteradons. It will take all of their wits, plus a sprinkling of help from Dr. Ellie Sattler, if any of them are going to make it off the island with their lives.
The Jurassic Park films are both horrifying and fascinating at the same time. While I prefer the original three actors from the first film, Goldblum, Dern and Neill, everyone is good in their roles, but the real stars are the dinosaurs, both CG and animatronic. If you ever wanted to know how they created the effects in these films, the Jurassic Park Ultimate Trilogy has got you covered, and then some. For starters, there is a 6-part retrospective featurette spread across all three discs that covers each of the movies and has many of the stars returning to discuss their experiences in making the films, including Ariana Richards and Joseph Mazzello, Jeff Goldblum, William H. Macy, Laura Dern, Sam Neill and a few of the lesser known actors as well. Additionally, all of the previously released features are included, which cover all aspects of production including plenty on the late but oh-so-great Stan Winston, ILM Studios, and even a nice featurette on the late Michael Crichton, the genius behind the Jurassic Park stories. Just watching Spielberg do his thing is amazing, the way he interacts with the cast and crew. The old pre-production meetings from the first film and the animatics are especially cool. I learned so much from watching the special features and they are something any fan would enjoy, but anyone wanting to be a filmmaker should definitely check them out. They are a fountain of information.
As to the high def aspect of the films, having been remastered, the 7.1 audio is stupendous. Anyone who watched the original in theaters remembers the ominous stomp and shaking of the T-Rex's initial approach and to get this feeling from the comfort of your living room is a real treat. This is probably the best use of surround sound I have experienced so far. The picture quality is also fantastic, although as you get to the later movies, they obviously look better. There were a few pixel-y moments in Jurassic Park, but overall it looked sharp, clear and crisp.
The Jurassic Park Ultimate Trilogy is the consummate collection for any JP fan. These films were fantastic in their day and definitely hold up to the test of time. At $50 for all three of these excellent films in their highest possible quality, plus all of the special features that come in the package, about 2+ hours of which are brand-new, and digital copies of all three films, you just can't beat this. It would make a perfect gift for the JP fan in your life.
