It may have been over ten years since Michael Crichton and Steven Spielberg’s dinosaurs first trampled all over the global box office, and its sequels may have failed to fully match the standards set by the original. Yet the Jurassic Park Trilogy: Ultimate Edition still brings together a wildly entertaining trio of films, in a very welcome DVD collection.
The basics by now are well known. Eccentric billionaire John Hammond employs scientists to bring dinosaurs back to life, with fairly impressive results. Not everything goes to plan, though, and when his dinosaur-ravaged theme park eventually goes amok in the original Jurassic Park, it’s a proper blockbuster rollercoaster ride, whose influence is still being felt in big budget Hollywood movies today.
The Lost World moves the action to Site B, a mysterious location where much of the behind-the-scenes work was done for the creation of the original theme park. That makes it extra dangerous, and again, is a fine excuse for some excellent set pieces. It’s arguably the weakest of the three films, and it’s certainly the flabbiest, but it still entertains, and entertains well.
Spielberg handed the director’s chair over to Jumanji helmer Joe Johnston for the third film, and it proved a wise decision. Johnston keeps his running time brief, cutting out much of the back-story to focus on the lizard-based action. And save for a fairly sudden finale, he delivers the trademark Jurassic Park tension and rampaging action in spades.
In short, the Jurassic Park Trilogy: Ultimate Edition is a fitting testament to a trio of blockbuster movies, that are at worst entertaining, and at best, rip-roaring, high concept, big-budget movie making of real quality. Recommended.--Simon Brew
Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating: Summary: Good content, packaging lacklustre. Comment: The collection comes in a regular 4-DVD box, rather than the nice fold-out sleeve pictured, which seems a bit of a cop-out on the presentation front.
Content extrmely good, as we know, the films are great entertainment, and the extras aren't half-bad either. The film quality is better than mentioned by one of the other reviews, looking particularly good on a sharp LCD screen. Don't expect it to perform on HD, but that's the beauty of those new TVs, they make your old films look worse so you buy them again...a lovely bit of self-marketing. In short, if you have a regular telly, don't worry about the picture quality, it looks just as you'd expect it to.
Well worth a purchase if you don't have these films.
Two thumbs up. Customer Rating: Summary: Great idea - Extras disc could have been handled much better... Comment: For starters, I absolutely LOVED Jurassic Park (5/5), and quite enjoyed Jurassic Park: The Lost World (3/5) and Jurassic Park 3 (3/5). I'd never owned any of these on dvd before I bought this set, so to have the option to buy them all together like this was quite handy - and I got it for £7 in a sale, bargain.
That having been said, I found the extras disc to be a bit useless. For the most part, I found it to be very similar to the extras already included with each film. There were slight differences - and 1 or 2 new documentaries added, but certainly not enough to justify an entire extra disc.
Perhaps I'm holding my expectations a little high, but having owned the Special Editions of the Lord of the Rings films (those who own these sets will understand what I mean) - the level of the extras within this "Ultimate" edition of the JP Trilogy just dont stand up.
However, for the price - to be able to get all these films together in one set isn't that bad. Just be warned, if you already have these films seperately on DVD - DONT GET THIS SET FOR THE EXTRAS. It just isn't worth it.
Customer Rating: Summary: Great Idea But Low Quality Comment: This set of discs is a great idea but is let down by the grainy transfers. The bitrate is low due to the amount of language soundtracks and only the last film has a DTS soundtrack. The films have also been cropped. Watching these on a a HD television shows up all the blockyness and flaws. There's better versions out there. Customer Rating: Summary: Ingen Ingenious...... Comment: When Jurassic Park was released 13 years ago I thought "wow", dinosaurs have been brought to life before my very eyes. Action packed, with great, lasting special effects the original Jurassic Park , became an instant classic. The rampaging and fearsome T-Rex ripping it's way through Ingen's theme park and the highly intelligent raptors hunting in packs made the first film an exciting watch. The seccond film had equally impressive special effects and exciting action as we were taken to "The Lost World", despite the dissapointing loss of Sam Neil as Dr Alan Grant the enthusiastic paleontologist. The third film, again provides us with lots of action and gives us the interesting adition of pterodactyls to the dino cast and Dr Alan Grant returns as desperate parents trick him into returning to Isla Sorna to search for their son who is lost on the island. All brilliant action/adventure films and now availible all together in a boxset. An excellent purchase which will provicde hours of watching pleasure for older children and adults alike. Customer Rating: Summary: Takes me back to 1993 when Dinosaurs ruled the earth!!! Comment: Everybodies seen Jurassic Park but if you hav'nt...what are you waiting for? Even looking back, it's amazing that a 12 year old film can still have such brilliant special effects. These dinosaurs LOOK REAL!!! You don't think of them as special effects but as actual creatures and Spielberg never lets you forget that their not just a bunch of monsters but animals. Great cast-Sam Niel, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Richard Attenburgh are all excellent (a then little known Samuel L Jackson has a supporting role too!). The action is delivered with just the right amount of suspense. The end scene with the raptors is tops. 10/10 The Lost World is not bad but feels pretty uninspired. Jeff Goldblum as clown figure=great but his character as a leading man just dos'nt work and you can't help but want Sam Neil in his place. Julianne Moore and Pete Postlewait are much better but mainly the films just lukewarm as if Spielberg just wanted a film about people being chased by dinosaurs. The T-Rex and raptors are back and the really little ones have a scene stealing moment but on the whole it's not a patch on the original. 6/10 Jurassic Park 3 is much better. Joe Johnston dispenses with most the ethics subtext and concentrates on delivering a theme park ride of a movie. Short and sweet. The new dinosaurs are excellent Pterodons finally get an action scene after being introduced by Spielberg about 5 seconds before the end of the second film .Sam Neil is back reminding you just how great the first film was and the raptors are developed further and unlike the Lost World where they seened a bit foolish, come across as just as dangerous as in the original movie. The ending is a let down (I guess it was meant to be tense but it isn't coz we know the characters will survive) and theres a major cop out but overall a fun movie. 8/10 Great range of special features. Mainly on the effects. Theres a few things I would have liked to see-why does the Lost World disc contain the Dinosaur Encyclopedia for the creatures from the first film only? But overall this is near enough to be truly considered the Ultimate Edition of these films. Great. And the price dos'nt hurt for what you get too!
