Jaws Film Review

Jaws is really a marvel in filmmaking. Despite the disaster of its production, it spawned one of the most iconic films in history. It’s directed by Steven Spielberg, and stars Roy Scheider as Chief Brody, Robert Shaw as Captain Quint, and Richard Deyfuss as scientist Matt Hooper. The plot of Jaws is when a gigantic great white shark begins to menace the small island community of Amity, Chief of Police Martin Brody must hire scientist Hooper and fishing Captain Quint to stop it. Now when I think about it, this plot is really a “B Movie” plot. It sounds like a straight to home video release, not the big budget summer blockbuster that it is. So why is the film so great despite its lack luster plot?

How can I talk about jaws without talking about the score? The theme song is fantastic, in that it does exactly what a score should do. Which is emotionally manipulate the audience. As the camera is going through the water as the music builds as we get closer and closer to a person, we as the audience get closer and closer to the edge of our seat anticipating the attack. The editing was solid, it used some creative cuts in that enhanced some scenes. The first scene at the beach cuts from Brody sitting on the beach to people in the water by using people walking in front of the camera. It helps make you on edge like Brody is.

Now the writing is what really makes this film. The three main characters, Brody, Hooper, and Quint all have this relationship with the water. Brody had a drowning accident as a kid and becomes terrified of the water. Hooper was attack by a shark as a kid and rather than become afraid like Brody, he becomes enamored with sharks and becomes a marine biologist. Quint is a survivor of a mass shark attack and becomes a shark hunter. Yet it is Brody who in the end kills the shark and has to overcome his fear, because if Hooper or Quint had done it than no one would have grown as a character. In fact, Quint is destroyed by his hate of the shark. 

                Jaws is not without its flaws. There are some shots that last too long and could have been cut. The opening sequence could have moved the credits to improve emotional transitions. And there’s flawed logic in how the shark is killed. But after the credits have rolled the flaws are not what you walk away with. You remember the great characters and dialogue, the incredibly climatic ending, and the intense shark attacks overlaid with some of the most intense music in a film.

Jurassic Park 3D Film Review

                Jurassic Park was released in theaters in 1993, so I was too young to see it in theaters at the time. But I spent dozens of nights of my childhood watching one of the most well known “family monster movies” of our time. So it a happy surprise to find out that the film was rereleased into theaters. I was however not happy to learn that most theaters were only showing it in 3D, but I’ll get into that later. The film is directed Steven Spielberg, who is probably my favorite director of the 90’s. While the film stars Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant, Laura Dern as Dr. Ellie Sattler, and Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Ian Malcolm.

                If you haven’t seen Jurassic Park and don’t know the plot, shame on you. But for those of you haven’t. In Jurassic Park, Doctors Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler, and Ian Malcolm are asked to tour a new park of living, cloned dinosaurs. During a preview tour, the theme park suffers a major power breakdown that allows its cloned dinosaurs to run amok. When I first saw this film as a kid, their were some parts of the plot I didn’t fully understand. For instance, there is a subplot about one of the computer technician Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight) who is stealing the dinosaur DNA from Jurassic Park for another company. I did not realize that he shut down the power to the park in order to steal the DNA, and therefore putting everyone in danger. Watching it again as adult it was obvious, but I was also able to enjoy the film more.So I loved this movie as a kid despite missing key points and loved it more as an adult able to catch everything.

                The acting in this movie is great in most regards. It was important for the actors to emote the shock and terror when the dinosaurs got loose. The two kids in the movie Tim and Lex (Joseph Mazzello and Ariana Richards) do a fantastic job of this. In the iconic raining scene when the T-Rex gets out, they are losing their minds. While Grant and Malcolm sit speechless, mouths agape, and just watch helplessly. Of course there’s more to the acting than silence and screaming. There are smaller scenes like between Hammond (Richard Attenborough) and Nedry start arguing, and it feels like these characters have had this argument before. You can just hear how annoyed they are by each other.

                The technique of the film is where I had the most revelations from watching it a kid to watching it now. First, the soundtrack throughout the film is very consistent, it sounds like it reuses the main theme multiple times throughout and just plays different parts. And even different songs sound like it's straight from the theme. It’s a great song and it doesn’t take away anything from the film, I just thought that was funny. Next, Hammond says “Spared no expense” like six or seven times in this movie. It’s a great little character trait that fleshes out Hammonds character of how he wants to impress everyone so much. There is a scene after the dinosaurs had gotten out and Hammond is eating the ice cream they were all suppose to eat together. After some dialogue Sattler takes a bite of some and mentions that is good, and for the last time Hammond says “Spared no Expense” as if he’s making fun of himself. It’s this great little catharsis for Hammond who has just learned what he’s done wrong and I certainly couldn’t catch that as a kid. Next, the effects for the dinosaurs hold up surprisingly well, the 3D messes with the CG some, but we’ll get to that later. Lastly, the scenes when they arrive at the island and leave the island are almost perfect opposites of each other. When they arrive, Grant takes a prolonged look when they get off the helicopter and Hammond takes his arm around him to lead him into the island. When they leave, the opposite happens, Hammond takes a prolonged look and Grant puts his arm around him to lead him away from the island and to the helicopter. There is also some play with the cinematography in this same regard.

                Here it is, the thing I’ve been holding off on the entire review. The main difference between watching Jurassic Park as a kid and watching as an adult, the 3D. First you should know, I hate most 3D. Especially that new atmospheric 3D that makes it feel like you’re watching through a window. If 3D is going to be in the movie, I want stuff flying at me, not away. And that’s the kind in Jurassic Park, the atmospheric crap. Now obviously they didn’t shoot this in 3D back in 1993. So it’s a conversion, and not a great one at that. I’ve seen 3D movies that were fine, the 3D didn’t add much but it didn’t take away anything. The 3D in Jurassic Park adds nothing and takes away from my immersion to the film. The 3D makes the motion too clear and almost jagged looking, there’s no motion blur. This is a problem for me since real life has motion blur. Also, the depth of field is too shallow for 3D. If a movie is in 3D the depth of field should be deeper than normal, like in real life. In Jurassic Park it kind of hurt my eyes in certain close ups or if something particularly large is in the foreground when our focus is the middle ground. Now the biggest offender of the 3D is the CG dinosaurs. You would think that they would be the easiest conversion, wrong. It actually makes them look more like they’re not actually there. A moment of this that is stuck in my mind is in the raining scene when the T-Rex first gets out. When Grant and Lex are on the ground and the T-Rex snorts Grant’s hat off, the T-Rex looked like he was behind Grant and not directly in front of him because of the 3D.

                Jurassic Park is a great film that provokes the idea of science vs. nature, and how far is too far? It was great when it first came out and it’s great now. If you didn’t get a chance to see it in theaters when it first came out, go see it in theaters if you can. Or if you’ve never seen it and can’t see it in theaters, pick up the DVD. Now if you are like me and don’t like 3D. Try to find a theater playing it in 2D. But if you don’t mind or even like 3D, then by all means see it that way.