Familiar Diversions
I'm a librarian who loves anime, manga, and reading a wide variety of genres.
Currently reading
Just watched Jurassic Park...
...and it was as good as I remembered. I kept a few "movie vs. book" comparison notes, but it became very obvious that Spielberg streamlined the story a lot.
Some things:
- Darn my modern eyes, I could occasionally see slight jerkiness in the way the dinosaurs moved. Even so, the special effects held up really well. It was still wonderful to see all of those dinosaurs on-screen and looking so real.
- Lex was less annoying in the movie, I hadn't imagined that. She was also given more useful things to do. In the book, she was younger than Tim and was just the massively useless kid who had to be saved because of the "don't kill the kids" rule.
- In the same vein, Ellie Sattler was also given more things to do. In the book, she was mostly Dr. Malcolm's nurse. In the movie, she was more actively involved in trying to get the power back online. And she didn't wear high heels (::glaring at Jurassic World::).
- Hammond sucked a lot less in the movie. Yes, he still talked about "next time," but he was less a greedy businessman and more a naive dreamer.
- I don't know if it was a budget thing or if Spielberg truly preferred the Velociraptors to the T. rex (which was actually two animals in the book), but they had a larger chunk of screentime than they would have had if the book had been more closely adapted.
- As much as I liked the movie, if you want dinosaur variety, the book wins. And the book did have some scenes that were so vivid I thought I remembered them being in the movie, like some of the stuff on the river and the bit in the aviary.
- I'm amused that some things were more important in the book than the movie and vice versa.
(show spoiler)
I could write more, but I should wrap this up and start working on reviews. What it comes down to is that, in my opinion, this is one of those times when the movie is better than the book. And also, I wish I could see one of the animatronic dinosaurs in person.
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