re: Jurassic Park: Greatest fantastical movie for boys

This week I read Jurassic Park and I'm halfway through The Lost World. I really enjoyed comparing the characters in the novel to the movie.

[Spoilers from 1993 and the novel]



Hammond has humanizing, grandfatherly moments in the movie, but in the novel he is wilfully blind to the failure of his park throughout. To the point that you doubt he believes what he is saying anymore. He is alone on a hill at the end when he is eaten by scavenger dinosaurs.

Ian Malcolm's speaking cadence, the "...ah...", and brainy speeches were carried over exactly into the movie, but in the novel he isn't a hound dog. He actually did the water drop test on a guy in the control room. I pictured him more like Malcolm Gladwell.

The lawyer Gennaro is alive until the end of the book and not wimpy. He is out of his element and has different priorities but is generally helpful. Although at the end when they go into the raptors nest, there is a conflict between him and Dr. Grant that is more reminiscent of the film. A different character abandons the kids when the T-Rex gets loose.

Dr. Grant likes kids in the novel. The boy, Tim, is the older sibling, and along with the dinosaur knowledge, he is the good one with computers. The girl, Lex, is young and useless. She is like a precious burden they have to protect.

Dr. Sattler wasn't a major character in the novel. Her heroic act was being used as a distraction/bait for the raptors once. She spent a lot of time tending to an injured Malcolm and listening to him.

Wu the InGen geneticist is a lot more fleshed out in the novel. John Arnold in the control room is a major character, inbetween cigarettes. Nedry (Newman) is the same gifted slob, but his personality seemed meeker in the novel. More like the quiet guy in the office that you regretted screwing over. Muldoon the game warden seemed to be the most consistent with the movie.

There's a lot of plot differences, but I have to point out that the park vehicles were Land Cruisers, but by The Lost World they are the Explorers you'd expect.

quote:

---

Wu the InGen geneticist is a lot more fleshed out in the novel.

---

Is that him in the new Jurassic Park trailer?

Also, this film had some of the best branding/merch ideas since Star Wars, and prior to Star Wars.

Maybe Ninja Turtles was the closest too.

quote:

---

I am currently showing it to one of my science classes.

---

quote:

---

the vast majority of them have never seen it.

---

frick that makes me feel old

Can you bypass Nedry's security

Popcorn flick?


Fast and the Furious is a popcorn flick, National Treasure is a popcorn flick. Jurassic Park is a classic, and has as high of a replay value as any

I need to re-read Crichton. I read most of his books in the 90's and then never went back to them.

Andromeda Strain was so good as a film. A shame that Timeline didn't translate as well. I love that book.

Congo takes too much from the Tarzan novels (book and film).

quote:

---

It's not as great as any of the Marvel films,

---

popcorn flicks are some of the best films ever made

star wars and empire
raiders
Jurassic park
and on and on

all movies should aspire to be popcorn flicks, that implies some level of imagination and adventure. I like straight drama, but I'm not going to shell out and go to the movies to watch fat fricking Philip Seymour Hoffman do his best Truman capote impression

I guess I have a different thought as to what I consider popcorn flicks.

Like that typical summer action flick, doesn't involve much thought, lots of special effects/action. JP, Star Wars etc are much than popcorn flicks to me.