Jurassic Park 3D [Blu-Ray]

Though the mixture of puppetry and (at the time) nascent CGI may look somewhat dated 20 years after the fact, there is a core assertion within Jurassic Park that remains timeless. After eccentric millionaire John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) assembles a team of experts — palaeontologist Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill), palaeobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and mathematician Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) — to check out his real-life dinosaur theme-park island, they discuss the ramifications of playing God with an extinct species. Being met with answers to questions about controlling breeding, completing DNA strands, maximizing security and handling the dietary requirements and ecosystems of a specie that previously existed only in a speculative capacity, the notion of chaos theory arises. While this theory is culturally ubiquitous — thanks largely to the success of this film and Goldblum's playfully indulgent portrayal of Dr. Malcolm — the concerns that stem from it remain largely relevant. The inherent danger presented when dilettantes exploit information they've learned from others without understanding the steps that led to these conclusions is of particular relevance in a modern context, where the Internet affords the luxury of performed false expertise. As Malcolm states in Jurassic Park, before the villainous, greedy overweight man (Wayne Knight) screws up the security system and sets the dinosaurs on a feeding frenzy, "Life will find a way." Essentially, while such actions may seem harmless enough at the time, serving a bottom line, we can't predict just how it will affect everything in the long run (and this applies to more than just dinosaur theme parks). Beyond this little tidbit, which, in a way is present in most fantastical science fiction texts, the only purpose of re-releasing Spielberg's big budget monster film — whether they existed or not, this is still a blockbuster horror movie— is that of catering to nostalgia. While this 3D rendition of the film appeals to a certain age bracket, giving a modern technological spin on a movie that defined their childhood and the progression of movie magic, it's little more than an example of generalized malaise as a social impediment. Those unable to cope with the present rely on memories from the past to sustain their ego, even though no moment in time can be recreated, just as knowledge can never be unlearned. As such, while the addition of some oft-blurry 3D (especially when trying to give depth to an image where characters are situated in both the foreground and background) might seem like harmless fun, it's essentially a socially acceptable drug, aiding those avoiding a present that they find dissatisfying. Included with the three-disc set is an abundance of supplemental materials, such as a comprehensive new three-part piece on the "Making of." It outlines how they approached the visual effects and what it was like to shoot with life-sized puppets, occasionally pretending that a dot on a piece of paper was a dinosaur. It's a far more compelling documentation of the film than the older "Making of" hosted by James Earl Jones, which is like a patronizing guided tour of the set and the whimsy that is the film. There are also some old TV spots and other promotional materials, which round out a rather comprehensive package of a movie that helped change the visual landscape of cinema forever.