Jurassic Park (1993) reviews

The Fuzzy Mushroom take on Jurassic Park

By Fuzzy Mushroom · Updated 11 November 2026 · The Pros 79 · The Punters 94 · Spore Score 82 · How we write our takes

Why The Punters rate it higher

Jurassic Park is the rare blockbuster where everybody agrees on the big moments and only argues about the small print. The Punters give it 94, The Pros 79, and the Spore Score is 82. The 15-point gap comes from critics who, in 1993, admired the dinosaurs more than the people. Audiences, then and now, simply remember being amazed.

What it does well

Billionaire John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) has cloned dinosaurs from ancient DNA for a theme park on an island off Costa Rica. Before opening, he invites palaeontologists Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and mathematician Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) to approve it, along with his two grandchildren. A storm and an act of sabotage switch off the fences.

Steven Spielberg treats the first sight of a living brachiosaurus as a moment of wonder, then turns the film into one of the best-built chase films ever made. The rippling glass of water before the T. rex arrives, the jeep in the rain, and the raptors in the kitchen are pure suspense craft. The mix of Industrial Light and Magic's computer animation with Stan Winston's full-size animatronics was a turning point in effects, and it has aged far better than many films made decades later.

Where people push back

The characters are thinner than the creatures. The plot simplifies Michael Crichton's novel and its warnings about science into a few good lines from Goldblum. The children are there to be put in danger, and the ending arrives suddenly, with a rescue that feels more convenient than earned.

Who it is for

Families with children old enough for a scare, and anyone who wants to see why a generation of film-goers still hums John Williams's theme.

The Fuzzy Mushroom verdict

Must-see, Spore Score 82. The Pros have a point about the script, but the film's sense of awe and its set pieces are close to perfect. The Punters' higher score feels fair.