Jurassic Park (1993)

★★★
In the summer of 1993, it was Jurassic Park vs. Last Action Hero, with the former soundly defeating the latter in a battle of big-budget motion pictures. Audiences flocked to see Steven Spielberg's dazzling showcase of jaw-dropping special effects while many avoided Arnold Schwarzenegger's underrated action film parody. Jurassic Park suffers a little because it freely omits many intriguing elements of the book in order to concentrate on the action aspect. I read the book in 1994 as part of an English 101 class that I took, yet the sense of wonder generated by its detailed scientific elements still remains. Michael Crichton's novel was loaded with scientific information. He presented his material in such a way that the book often read like a graduate student's thesis on bioengineering. Though the very idea of a prehistoric theme park is outlandish, Crichton found a way to weave all his information into a convincing story. Jules Verne accomplished the same thing with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. That story, about a self-sustaining submarine, would have appeared far-fetched when it was written in the 1800s, yet the scientific detail is enthralling.