The classic Jurassic Park was a massive box office hit, bringing in $1.029 billion. However, on Metacritic the movie only scored 68%. This rating will come as a surprise to many, including me, as the film seemed to have many well executed scenes, symbols, and mis en scene.
In Jurassic Park Dr. Hammond owns an unopened theme park. Until the very end of the film, he is filled with optimism about what his park could become. On the other hand, Mr. Malcolm is an outside scientist brought in to inspect the park. He is filled with pessimism about how dangerous Dr. Hammond's theme park is. Dr. Hammond, the optimistic one, is dressed in an all white suit throughout the film while Mr. Malcolm is dressed in all black. This deliberate wardrobe choice serves as a symbol for pessimism vs. optimism throughout the movie. Mr. Malcolm's pessimistic remarks also serve as a foreshadowing device throughout the film.
It should be mentioned that the movie heavily uses foreshadowing. The most obvious example of foreshadowing in the film is when everyone is on the tour and the first dinosaurs are not seen in their exhibits. Later the dinosaurs would all escape their exhibits while the power was turned off. Another example is when they find out there is a massive storm headed straight for the island, implying that bad things were about to happen.
Another thing the movie tends to do well is comedic relief. In the middle of the movies most intense scene the lawyer that was on the tour is cowering on a toilet in an outhouse. The T-Rex that has been looking for them manages to knock over ever part of the outhouse in one swing, making the outhouse seem like a house of cards. The only things left untouched in the outhouse was the toilet and the lawyer. The lawyer sat there on the toilet, staring the T-Rex in the eyes. This scene did a great job at giving the audience a sense of comedic relief as the T-Rex mauled the lawyer. Although it was funny and gave the audience comedic relief it kept the serious and dark theme of the scene, allowing it to swiftly return to the characters the viewers are more invested in.
The movie also does a great job with character progression. In the beginning of the movie it is explicitly stated that Dr. Murphy is not a fan of children. In the middle of the movie he even blows off a kid who is legitimately interested in him and his books, just because he doesn't want to deal with him. However at the end of the film he comes around the kids. Dr. Murphy is not the only character to have strong progression though. Lex Murphy, one of the kids Dr. Murphy was protecting throughout the film and Dr. Hammond's Grandchildren, starts out scared of everything. However, in one of the last scenes she saves her brothers life by distracting the Velociraptors that are hunting them. Luckily she does not die, but this is not something the Lex from the beginning of the film would have done. Even Dr. Hammond shows some character progression. Throughout the film he was so optimistic that he could still ultimately open the park once he got everything fixed. However, one of the last scenes of the movie he finally recognizes that his park should never be opened due to how dangerous it was, resolving one of the conflicts of the movie.
Jurassic Park is not deserving of a 68%, even if some of the plot elements are predictable. Steven Spielberg did a great job with this movie. In the end, the audiences opinion trumps the critics opinion and with $1.029 billion in box office sales, the viewers clearly seemed to enjoy it.
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