JURASSIC PARK

Steven Spielberg's dinosaurs are a genuine achievement — the technical wizardry here reportedly outdoes anything seen on screen before, and that alone makes the film worth watching as a piece of filmmaking history. That's the case for going.

Here's the catch: this was marketed as a family film, and it isn't one. The violence is excessive and frightening — dinosaurs on the rampage, stalking and eating people — and the plot and human characters don't match the spectacle. Tellingly, Spielberg himself reportedly said he wouldn't take his own children to see it. That's worth taking seriously.

If you're an adult who wants to see what all the fuss was about, go. If you're deciding for children under thirteen, this isn't the family outing the T-shirts and Happy Meals promised.

Park designer John Hammond invites two scientists, a visiting mathematician, and his two young grandchildren to tour his new dinosaur theme park and certify it safe. Then a violent storm hits. The power goes down — with help from a greedy computer operator — and the people touring the park find themselves at the mercy of dinosaurs no longer contained. What happens next, we'll let you discover.

Four stars, and here's what that means: as a technical achievement, this is close to flawless. Spielberg's realistic dinosaurs and the film's technical wizardry set a new bar for what audiences had seen on screen, and that craft earns the top rating.

Where the film comes up short is on the page. The plot and human characters "leave much to be desired," and the film leans almost entirely on spectacle and terror to carry it. It's a triumph of what a camera and a team of engineers can build, more than a triumph of story.

There's a mixed message buried in the spectacle. The film includes an environmental message alongside what the source calls a "positive though off-handed statement about creation" — a small nod toward the idea that the created order, dinosaurs included, carries wonder and design rather than mere accident. That's a point in its favor.

But the larger worldview problem isn't theological — it's ethical, and it sits behind the camera as much as in front of it. A park built by human hands to master and monetize creation spins violently out of control the moment nature is treated as a product to be sold rather than a trust to be kept. That's the same warning built into the story itself: dominion misused becomes disaster. It's worth noting, too, that the film's own creator seems to have repeated Hammond's mistake — marketing a genuinely frightening film as family entertainment, by his own admission unwilling to bring his children to see it.

Scripture gives humanity dominion over creation, but as stewards, not exploiters: "And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth" (Genesis 1:28). Jurassic Park is a two-hour parable about what happens when that trust is broken for profit.

Jurassic Park is a marvel of filmmaking craft wrapped around a story too thin and too frightening for the family audience it was sold to. Our answer stays the same one we opened with: worth the trip — adults only. Looking for something to watch with the kids this weekend instead? Start with our latest family-friendly picks.