The new “Jurassic Park” Digest – In Review

I have viewed my print at least 5 times now and I can say it is a winner on all fronts. This “review” will walk through what is on the print and then provide my thoughts on the Color, Sound, Quality, and Edits.

The film comes with a countdown leader and begins with the “Universal” globe. As the story unfolds we see Hammond, played by Sir Richard Attenborough, visiting paleontologists Dr. Grant and Dr. Ellie Satler to ask them to visit Jurassic Park in the hopes of getting them to “sign off” on the project to appease some of the nervous investors. After a helicopter flight to the island, Grant and Ellie, to their amazement, come across a field with live dinosaurs grazing on vegetation! Then it is on to the park headquarters, and a visit to the lab that creates and hatches the dinosaurs. Grant is concerned when he sees that Hammond is creating velociraptors, and in fact witnesses the hatching of some.

Meanwhile, Nedry is involved in a plan to steal and sell fertilized embryos to a competitor for a briefcase full of cash. To further complicate matters, Hammond’s young grandchildren show up at Jurassic Park’s visitor center. Security chief Muldoon raises the alarm about an approaching tropical storm.

Accompanied by Ian Malcolm (portrayed by Jeff Goldblum), Genarro, and the two kids, Dr. Grant and Ellie board tour cars and start by visiting the T-Rex paddock. Right on cue, a goat is provided as a snack to entice T-Rex for a close-up visit for the benefit of the tourists, with a startling result. The tropical storm intensifies. Nedry shuts down the security system, including the electric fences of the T-Rex paddock, so that he may deliver the stolen embryos to the ship down by the dock. Nedry races against the clock down a rain-soaked road but loses control of his Jeep. The power outage strands the tour cars in front of the T-Rex area. T-Rex shreds the security fences and attacks the tour group, flipping over the car with the children. Genarro panics and runs to hide in a restroom stall. T-Rex is confused and hungry and the restroom building is no match for him. Genarro is now sitting on the toilet, weeping as T-Rex chomps him.

Nedry scrambles back up the muddy slope to his damaged car, but a spitting dinosaur is curious about this human and things don’t end well for Nedry.

The famous rippling rain puddle scene is next, as the tremendous weight of T-Rex’s footprints causes a water puddle to ripple, signaling his imminent return! Ellie, Muldoon, and Malcolm barely escape in their tour car as T-Rex chases them down.
The next scene, shows Grant with the two kids at the visitor center, having survived a scary night in the jungle. Grant leaves the two kids at the visitor center and young Tim is hungry now.

Meanwhile, Muldoon and Ellie are out looking for the kids, who they believe are still missing. But instead they encounter several velociraptors. Muldoon distracts the raptors so Ellie can escape, but he gets cunningly ambushed by a raptor and that is all for Muldoon.

Back at the visitor center, young Tim and Lex enjoy a meal—until Lex spots a raptor in the visitor center! Tim and Lex run into the kitchen to try and hide, with raptors in pursuit!

Hammond, Grant, Malcolm and Ellie are now on the run from raptors. They feel safe in a locked part of a utility building—and say as much, adding “unless the raptors figure out how to open doors”. Well, it turns out the raptors claws can be used for more than just tearing flesh from prey, as one hooks his claw on the door handle and surprisingly opens it!

Now the raptors are on the hunt for the two kids in the kitchen. Lex tricks one of them and the kids end up locking one in the freezer. But there is more than one raptor and the kids run and meet up with Grant and Ellie in the visitor center rotunda. Soon, all four are surrounded by raptors. The raptors are closing in for the kill now. There is a huge crash and an angry T-Rex bursts in and chomps on one of the raptors. The two paleontologists and the two kids escape by jeep to the helicopter landing pad where Hammond and Malcolm are waiting for them. T-Rex screams his supremacy over Jurassic Park as the helicopter takes off. In a fitting conclusion, Grant tells Hammond that they will not be endorsing the park…..and that marks the end of this fantastic digest!

Now for some thoughts on the print itself:

- Color: Color is brilliant. Dave Baker indicates the negative was made from a 35mm print on Fuji stock. It seems that many new prints today have a very slight bluish tinge to them, but I don’t really see that on this print. The colors are bright. Grade = A+

- Sound: Upon examination, the magnetic sound stripe looks perfect. I believe the stripe was added by Alberto in Italy, and it looks smooth as silk. Their is a balance stripe. The actual stereo sound recording and sync is perfect. Sound is booming and brings out the best of this exciting film. Grade = A+

-Quality: The image is very, very sharp. There may have been one tidbit of edge wear flash and maybe a brief cue mark(?) on my print, but absolutely doesn’t detract from this fine film. The film is on Mylar stock with LPP color. Grade = A

-Edits: This is a tough one to grade, as all digests have to make tough decisions on what to include and what to omit, given the restriction on length. The edits and scene selections were extremely well done. There was one scene I would have liked to have seen. It is where Nedry drops the canister of fertilized embryos and we see them rolling down the flood soaked hill. This scene reiterates the author of Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton’s premise that man cannot contain/control nature. Grade: A+

What a great and detailed review! Sounds like this digest is a very good one, for sure.

The dinosaurs died out. So did Super 8, in many ways too with our collection being remnants of a lost past. But the premise of the film is that the dinosaurs came back. I like that part 😊

Fantastic review Greg, makes me want the digest even more, just got to find a way of getting one where I don't have to remortgage the house.

That is one well detailed review Greg, it does look a very fine cut down of a modern classic. The main thing i can see as a much welcome improvement is the sound stripe which by the sounds of it, gives an excellent sound quality compared to that awful oxide stripe Derann used.
One quick question for you, are there any sudden sound/music cuts on this one? That was always something that bugged me on some cut downs in the years come by. Thanks for the review.

Hi Tom,

I will view the print again this week and check for the sound/music cuts on this and get back to you. Thanks for the kind words on the review!

Very good review Greg looks to be a very good cutdown.

Nice review Greg! I was able to see the print at Steve’s outdoor show a couple weeks ago and my memory of the sound/music edit was very smooth .... with nice transitions. Not jarring at all. I am waiting for my print to arrive so I can also post my thoughts again once I screen mine. It is a very well done effort overall and I am glad I got one.

I got mine this week and screened it on Monday....It was fantastic! The print was perfect, image looked great and sound was booming. The edit is very good at telling the story and has plenty of memorable scenes. I tried to put up some screenshots but was having trouble. I remember when the other forum was difficult to load pictures and this one was easy....it seems like the other way around now!

PS well I could not see anything when I tried to preview so I erased them all and I see one showed up anyway.

It looks very nice Bill.

Thanks everyone for the likes...I'll try to add some more pics....










It worked!

Looks really really good. Thanks for the screenshots.