Seeing 'Jurassic Park' in Ikebukuro!

Jurassic Park at Ikekuburo's Shin Bungeiza theater. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Earlier this evening (Tuesday, August 15), I did something that I hadn't done in 30 years -- see Jurassic Park (1993) on the big screen. It was a digital projection at the Shin Bungeiza theater, and I was really looking forward to it. Truth be told, I saw Jurassic Park seven time in theaters when it came out, the last of which was probably in November 1993 at a second-run theater. Suffice it to say, I was impressed by the effects (and, frankly, just about everything else in the movie) at the time, so I couldn't get enough of it. It rekindled my childhood interest in dinosaurs, which lasted until around early 1994. 

Another thing worth mentioning is that, the night before we went to see Jurassic Park for the first time, we saw Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989) for the first time on VHS. I have to admit that I forgot all about Biollante after seeing Jurassic Park, and my interest in Godzilla wouldn't be revitalized until we finally found the ultimate holy grail Destroy All Monsters (1968), as well as the other Heisei-era Godzilla films, on VHS in late 1994. But it's fascinating to think how things might have played out had Jurassic Park not sucked up all the oxygen in the room at the time.

A few of these characters showed up for the screening. Photo by Brett Homenick.

I remember watching JP when it finally came out on home video in October 1994 and being surprisingly underwhelmed. I guess I'd seen it too many times, and by then it felt a bit old-hat. That was also about two months before we got our hands on Destroy All Monsters, so in the end Godzilla got the last laugh. 

I've given it a lot of thought, and I think tonight's screening may have been the first time I'd seen JP in its entirety since the fall of 1994. Thirty years later, I still remembered most of it, though I was able to pick up on some small details that I missed as a kid.

So how about the movie itself? It's still a lot of fun. The effects hold up really well, the humor still works, and Spielberg's direction is top-notch. Dean Cundey's cinematography is great, too. Some of the scenes were quite obviously filmed on a soundstage -- the nighttime scene with the brachiosaurs' eating in the treetops in particular looks a bit too stage-bound -- and the main characters aren't developed very well. So there are certainly some flaws, but, especially when you compare it with its sequels, the original holds up really well as an effects-driven thriller. 

A few years ago, I tried to see Joker (2019) in the theater more times than JP, but I topped off at six screenings. Now I'm even further in the hole, but that's all right. If Jurassic Park continues to hold the record for the most first- and second-run theatrical screenings, I'm cool with it. It's not a bad record holder at all.