BESTSELLERS I: MICHAEL CRICHTON: JURASSIC PARK, RISING SUN
Spielberg and writer David Koepp, somewhere along the line, decided to drop a lot of the scientific arguments of the novel, which were just as compelling as the attacks, and concentrate on the dinosaurs (we get Malcolm's "chaos theory" distilled, essentially, into "your scientists were so preoccupied whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should"). He certainly succeeds in creating both awe and menace. The scene where Drs. Grant and Sattler first see the dinosaurs (a brontosaurus is the first, I believe), is awe-inspiring. And, of course, when a T-Rex is smashing up their jeep, it's terrifying. And, thanks to a combination of computer generated imagery (CGI) and other methods, the dinosaurs look realistic throughout -whether you think dinosaurs could be recreated or not, in this movie, you buy it.
The rest of the movie is sort of blah. Again, Crichton doesn't really care for character too much, and Spielberg and Koepp don't really add to it. Also, what they change is for the worst, for the most part. In the novel, Grant gets along fine with Tim because he's a dinosaur freak, while in the movie, Grant hates kids until he's forced to protect them, which is a major cliche. And while having both Hammond and Malcolm killed off in the novel may have seemed too pat, having them both live seems like softening things up too much. And the actors don't really get to do anything distinctive here - Neill and Dern remain likable not because of their characters, but because they have presence. Only Goldblum carries weight here. True, he's been the cynic (THE BIG CHILL) and the geek (THE FLY) before, but his dry humor is welcome here.
Still, I would have to say that by dropping the plot and keeping the dinosaurs, Spielberg made not only the right box office choice (that goes pretty much without saying - this became the highest grossing movie of all time), but also the right artistic one. JURASSIC PARK isn't straitjacketed by the plot of the book. The same cannot be said of RISING SUN. Some see Crichton's novels as merely thesis statements, and certainly, JURASSIC PARK is either "Look out; dinosaurs!", or "Look out; scientists!", depending on your point of view. But in the science novels, that isn't so bothersome. It becomes troubling, however, when he uses it for social views, especially in RISING SUN, which warns us against
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