Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Shoot her! Shooooooot Her!

I was 11 years old when Jurassic Park first hit theaters. I recall reading a juvenile novelization of it and hearing about how my cousins had already seen the movie on opening day...I was jealous. One Saturday in June or July, can't remember, my dad took my brother Cody and I to go see the movie. We were very excited. I'd been dreaming about it all summer. Then...the first scene of the movie happened.

It started with some trees waving back and forth, and I was expecting for a T-Rex or something to pop through and roar. Instead...it was a simple forklift. Little did I know that I was about to go through.

"Loading team step away...Gatekeeper.....Gatekeeper open the gate...."
Then, the outline of the dinosaur ran, kicked against the door, and the poor worker fell down. Then...in true Spielbergian fashion (just like in Jaws) an unseen creature grabbed the guy and pulled him in. The sound effects were horrifying as the raptor pulled the guy screaming into the cage. Muldoon did his best to get his fellow workers to "Work her back!"...but to no avail. Then...his desperate cries of "SHOOOOOOT HER!   SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOT HERRRRR!"   The grip that Muldoon had on the guy's poor hand slipped....and it was all over...

There I sat, my heart had fallen out of the back of my pants and I was pale. I'd been so excited to see this movie and now I was nervous to be sitting there. Truly an epic scene that I wasn't prepared for.

Fast forward almost 20 years to 2 nights ago. I sat with my friends Brent and John in a darkened theater with 3d glasses on for the re-release of Jurassic Park on the big screen.

It did NOT disappoint. Now you must realize that besides the Hobbit, I've never really enjoyed 3d movies. This is especially true of 3d done in post, which was of course the case for Jurassic Park. HOWEVER, they did such an incredible job with the 3d rendering (spared no expense of course) that there was no blur at ALL. The dinosaurs were crisp and kept trying to eat me I swear.
I know this movie like the back of my hand. In fact if I needed to I could quote the whole thing while I watched it...but somehow, on the big screen this was almost new. This is one of those rare movies that makes such an impact that it transcends a "movie" and becomes "an experience." I'm not sure if the girl sitting in front of me had ever seen it before. Based on her reaction to one scene in particular, I'd guess this was her first time.  Ellie Satler had just rebooted the system and turned the power back on in the shed. As the camera goes from floor to her face while watching the lights pop back on, she declares, "Mr. Hammond I think we're back in business" at which point a Velociraptor burst its head through the pipes and screamed at her. We were in stadium seating, but I swear the girl in front of me jumped up to my eye level and SCREAMED loudly. It was AWESOME!  Watch the clip here. 


Thank you Mr. Spielberg....Films of this quality are never made anymore...or don't I mean extinct?

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