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 Steven Spielberg. Creator of the modern day blockbuster. Well regarded as a master of cinema in both light fare and serious topics. Cynical Oscar-hound that has to make a serious film every five years to make up for his previous, goofy action flicks? Possibly. A pretty good director with daddy issues? Most definitely. But this review isn’t to discuss my own personal conflicting feelings for Spielberg’s output (which can be described as a love/hate/love/hate/love/love/hate relationship), we’re here to discuss the Jurassic Park films, all which have been released in a handy box set.
Because the world needed one more Jurassic Park release – at least, until the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs come out.
Jurassic Park
Now, we all know the ins-and-outs of Jurassic Park (unless you are an Amish person who has recently converted – and if so, welcome to the Internet!); an elderly businessman and a crack team of scientists extract dinosaur DNA from a mosquito encased in amber, fill in the DNA cracks with amphibian code and create lady dinosaurs on a theme park island, dinosaurs which then wreak havoc on a group of people including the elderly businessman’s children. Samuel L. Jackson gets killed, a young girl hacks into a UNIX system (which was foreshadowed in a scene where the young girl cheerfully spouts out “I’m a hacker!”), Sam Neill learns to love children, Jeff Goldblum rambles, and we learn that the amphibian DNA allows the dinosaurs to switch genders and breed like rabbits, a concept completely lost on the dinosaurs because not only do they not know what rabbits are, they can’t understand the English language anyway.
Since we’ve all gotten past the entire concept of the film and have blazed through two sequels, what is there to really think of when watching the film? That’s right, every single one of these characters are unsympathetic and get exactly what they deserve.
Maybe “unsympathetic” is a harsh word. Of course as you’re watching the film there’s a tense feeling of peril, but it’s not because you’ve grown to enjoy and love these characters. It’s because they’re being chased by goddamn dinosaurs. You’ve got Ole Beardy (Richard Attenborough, clearly rocking the Southern Santa image) who decided to clone aggressive carnivores. There’s Sam Neill and Laura Dern leaping into restricted areas specifically  searching for these creatures. And the children… Oh, the children. Each character manages to make the worst decision at the worst point in time in a way that would even make the screenwriters of the Friday the 13th series grimace.
But it’s big, dumbass blockbuster fun, and that certainly works for me. Spielberg keeps up the vicious (though bloodless) action. While some set pieces feel a bit too long (does anyone not fast-forward through that whole thing about the car in the tree?), the overall pace chugs along as soon as we get to the island.
In the end, Jurassic Park will probably be regarded as a classic for its technical achievements rather than an engaging story. But did you really expect anything more out of a summer movie?
 The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Up next is The Lost World: Jurassic Park, which could be likened to Indiana Jones And The Temple of Doom... Menaing it was an unnecessary sequel that everybody on the face of the Earth saw – and yet you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who will admit to actually liking it. It is easy to see why after this and Amistad 2: Bride of Amistad, Spielberg pretty much abandoned sequels.
A few years pass after the events of Jurassic Park. InGen (the company that brought you the velociraptors) has managed to cover up the incident with enough unexplained ease to make you question, but not care. The only one who manages to keep his dignity is Ian Malcom (Jeff Goldblum), who spouts off to the press about the dinosaurs, which ends with everyone branding him a loony – which is something you wouldn’t expect with Jeff Goldblum, no siree.
In comes Richard Attenborough in what can only be described as the most comfortable cinematic cameo in the history of film. He tells Ian about Site B; a separate island where dinosaurs were bred before being ushered into Jurassic Park. Those Site B dinos have been set free into the wild on the island. With  enough convincing (which involves sending Ian’s girlfriend, Sarah Harding to the island of death, oh that cunning Santa!), Ian reluctantly goes to save his girl… With the company of his stowaway, gymnast, pre-teen, Velociraptor-kicking daughter.
I think you know what happens from here, but so much more has been piled into the mix. We’ve got environmental terrorism, a game hunter on the island wanting to bag himself a T-Rex, Spielberg’s signature bastard father figure, and let’s not forget the whole dino-rampages-through-San-Diego ending that feels like a drug-fueled sick joke that just went way, way too far.
Everything I dislike about Jurassic Park is amplified in The Lost World. The characters continue to be generally worthless, the action setpieces seem to be bigger though not necessarily better, the kid aspect (though not as obnoxious as the ones in the first film) is unwelcome, and let’s not forget the overall tone of the film. While the first film might have overplayed the wistful wonder, this film is just outright dour.
The Lost World not a complete waste of time though. As to be expected with sequels, the action is certainly bigger – and for this, the part of my brain that is still locked in 10-year-old-boy mode screams out in absolute ecstasy. There will be a part of me that won’t mind a young girl Gymkataing the hell out of a dinosaur with only a single line of dialogue giving hint to the event. But while the film feels like an endurance test at times, you could do far worse. Oh, and exchanging Sam Neill for Jeff Goldblum is a good choice in my book, seeing as how Goldblum’s character has an actual personality (which just so happens to resemble Jeff Goldblum). What can I say? Bug-eyed neurotics do it for me, I guess.
 Jurassic Park III
The Lost World was (only mostly) rightfully maligned when it came to critical reaction and public opinion, so it’s perfectly understandable to go into Jurassic Park III with a sense of despair. But after viewing the film, it almost feels like maybe, possibly, this is what the series should have been all along.
Lacking in philosophical discussion, scientific dickery and some would say even plot, JP3 has a paper-thin story: Dr. Allan Grant (Sam Neill) is not only back, he still remains easily suckered by money despite knowing exactly what’s going to happen. Along for the ride is William H. Macy and Téa Leoni, bickering exes who are searching for their son, who’s lost somewhere on the mysterious Site B, the result of a vacation gone bad.
The small cast guarantees a lack of death, but there certainly is a lot of action in the film. The short running time is also a blessing, considering the plot. What we’ve got here is a pure, inane B-movie on a more than modest budget – and God bless it. Well, that might be stretching it, but after the millions of half-baked ideas that were presented in The Lost World and the growing high-concept bombast of the summer blockbuster, I find charm in a simple “let’s get the goddamn kid off the island before we’re torn limb from limb” story.
JP3 does away with nearly everything that made the Jurassic Park films Jurassic Park. Spielberg is gone. Crichton’s nowhere to be seen. And outside of John Williams’ main theme (which has been played approximately 10,000 times up until this point), he’s out, too. But still, two of the main irritating running themes pop up in the film: retarded characters and precocious children wise well beyond their years. But with the elimination of environmental issues, corporate greed and warnings against the abuse of technology, we can forgive the idiocy and accept the film as a simple slasher movie.
 Presentation
This set features the exact same discs that were previously released many years ago, sadly. It might be because Spielberg later established a very specific visual style thanks to cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (who was behind The Lost World, but the look had not been established at that point). Jurassic Park comes off as rather flat and a little bit dull. The Lost World mainly takes place during the night; the daytime scenes look fine, but soon enough everything gets swallowed up in the black, which was suggested by conspiracy theorists to be “hiding” the less-than-stellar effects. Jurassic Park 3, being the newest of the bunch, definitely looks the best in the collection – it’s a tad sharper, which might not help the special effects budget.
When originally issued, both Jurassic Park and The Lost World had separate releases for Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS soundtracks. We only get the Dolby tracks in this set, but they’re still strong. We only get the Dolby tracks on this release, but they’re still strong – Williams’ score blares through clear and the dinosaurs certainly sound threatening. Jurassic Park 3 features a DTS track, which is comparable to the previous films, and I’d compare it to the Dolby track if it weren’t for the fact that it’s 4:26 in the morning.
Extras
Oh boy. Again, all the discs are the previous releases so there’s nothing new, but the set still remains decent special editions. All three films come with making-of documentaries, the first two films running roughly 50 minutes each while the third is a scant 21 minutes long. Outside of these, there’s a lot of kid-friendly material, information on the dinosaurs depicted in the film, tours of the special effects studios (both for the “real” effects and the computer effects), CGI demonstrations, cast and crew biographies storyboards, trailers and DVD-ROM features I can’t bother looking at.
But every film does have some features exclusive to its own disc. Jurassic Park features some revealing pre-production meetings, which is a collection of intimate clips of Spielberg discussing the project. Also included are little segments on location scouting and Foley artists.
 The best feature on the first disc belongs to Phil Tippett Animatics: Raptors in the Kitchen. Originally Jurassic Park was conceived as being a stop-motion project before Spielberg was convinced that the computer can pull off the realism needed, and this feature, though short and completely silent, is a fascinating what-could-have-been.
The Lost World features a selection of dinosaur-less (and thus rightfully) deleted scenes. However, most of the features on this disc are photograph-heavy and not particularly interesting. That is, except for the section marked posters and toys, which feature one of my favorite subjects: rejected theatrical poster designs.
Jurassic Park III has a few features individual to its own release as well, including a commentary with the special effects crew which includes Stan Winston and a cast of many who worked on the live action and animated effects. It’s understandably dry. Also included are a couple of behind the scenes features that cut back and forth between what was going on the set and the final shot that’s in the film, and another collection of rejected poster art found in The Jurassic Park III archives.
The Bottom Line
Thinking about the series, I believe I was of the perfect age when the films came along. Jurassic Park was released when I was 12, and you can imagine the reaction I had seeing it for the first time. In fact, I ended up seeing it five times theatrically. The Lost World rolled around at the age of 16, and its pessimistic tone jived well with me. Jurassic Park III rears its head and I’m an adult, able to take the film for what it is and enjoy it.
The Jurassic Park films have been there for every important growth point in my life. The series is like a well educated though alcoholic father. There are ups, downs, points of embarrassing preachiness, lots of entertainment, a sense of danger, and the knowledge that there might be sodomy involved. But hey, there’s still love there somewhere.
As for the box set, if Universal had spread the DVDs over two discs for each film in order to upgrade the audio and video, there might have been a reason to double-dip. However, don't bother if you have the original releases - unless you're a fan of novelty packaging, these discs are exactly the same. You might as well wait for the high definition discs. But if you’ve got a 12-year-old who doesn’t have the discs, slide this over and be the coolest person they know.
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