Jurassic Park: Which one rules the world?
I loved the Jurassic Park movie so much growing up that I can still quote a good portion of the film (just ask my husband). From the moment I started the novel I knew I was going to have a hard time not comparing every page to my beloved flick. Here are my final thoughts (*please note – since I watched the movie all through my childhood and read the book almost 25 years later, I’m going to do this a little backwards and compare the book to the movie instead of vice versa):
The beginning of the book followed the movie very closely. The main detail that is missing from the movie that I found important is that the reason Dr. Grant is invited to the island is to investigate the stability of the park, as there are reports of “strange creatures” biting tourists on lands bordering Isla Nublar (where Jurassic Park is stationed). On the flip side of the coin, I thought the movie actually did a better job of explaining the science of how Hammond and his researchers brought the dinosaurs back to life; I will always love that little cartoon DNA strand!
At this point in the book I’m thinking “Why am I trying to finish this book…when it’s basically just a written version of the movie. They aren’t going to change anything!” Once I got to the point where the T-Rex pushes the car full of people over the concrete ledge…everything changed! The journey of Grant and the kids takes them to so many other parts of the park (many that are shown in the Jurassic World movie) and the T-Rex actively follows and hunts them throughout the park. There are little pieces throughout the book, where it would line up with what they put in the movie…but there was SO..MUCH..MORE!
In the end I was really glad I stuck with the novel because I ended up feeling like I often do when comparing it to the movie adaptation: the book just gives so much more detail. With that being said, I lost no love for the movie. I still feel like it is an action packed revision of the book…and I will watch it just about any time it’s on TV. So in the end, I would tell movie lovers that they got a great thing on their hands; but I would also tell people who like to read to run and pick up the book and to “hold on to your butts.”