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A review by quercus707
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
2.0
I feel kind of bad giving this book just two stars, because I think that it was a far more compelling and groundbreaking story when it was published in 1990, and parts of it have worn well. The scientific hubris, the commodification of science, the ethical dilemmas imposed by the abilities to do genetic engineering, the unintended consequences of efforts to "control nature" are just as timely and relevant today. And although Chaos Theory has become pretty ubiquitous, it's partly because of this book that people are as familiar with it as they are. It deserves credit for all those thing.
The thing is, I don't think it's a very good story. There are huge plot problems - leaving aside the issue of actually being able to clone dinosaurs, which you obviously have to suspend your disbelief about. But even given that, could you really expect to have 8 to 20 ton creatures grow to full size and begin reproducing in 5 years? Jurassic period trees and plants of full size? And could you have been able to solve the ecological problems, really - even the ones they solved only temporarily? It's a little too much of a stretch.
And the characters: ok, I get it, they were meant to be flat representations of various kinds of scientific knavery and hubris. But their reactions once things started going wrong didn't ring at all true to me. And I really didn't care about them. And the little girl was super annoying, you almost wanted a dinosaur to eat her.
The movie was thrilling when it first came out. Would it be as thrilling to kids now? Or would they just kind of "meh" the special effects, finding both the story and the visuals kind of tired? I don't know, but that's kind of the reaction I had to this read of the book.
The thing is, I don't think it's a very good story. There are huge plot problems - leaving aside the issue of actually being able to clone dinosaurs, which you obviously have to suspend your disbelief about. But even given that, could you really expect to have 8 to 20 ton creatures grow to full size and begin reproducing in 5 years? Jurassic period trees and plants of full size? And could you have been able to solve the ecological problems, really - even the ones they solved only temporarily? It's a little too much of a stretch.
And the characters: ok, I get it, they were meant to be flat representations of various kinds of scientific knavery and hubris. But their reactions once things started going wrong didn't ring at all true to me. And I really didn't care about them. And the little girl was super annoying, you almost wanted a dinosaur to eat her.
The movie was thrilling when it first came out. Would it be as thrilling to kids now? Or would they just kind of "meh" the special effects, finding both the story and the visuals kind of tired? I don't know, but that's kind of the reaction I had to this read of the book.