Customer Reviews

Jurassic Park Adventure Pack (Jurassic Park / The Lost World: Jurassic Park / Jurassic Park III)

5 star:		(179)
4 star:		(59)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

In the light of so many negative customer reviews of this set, I decided, before writing this review to do a direct comparison between the DVD version of Jurassic Park vs. the Blu-ray. I made it a point to set my BD player audio compression to wide range and set the volume levels for each version to be approximately at the same level for the spoken dialog to give each version a fair comparison.

I chose four sections to compare:

1. The scene at Sam Neill's dig beginning with the brushing away of sand from a fossil.
2. The helicopter ride into Jurassic Park.
3. The first encounter with the brachiosaurus beginning when the jeeps come to a stop and Sam Neill and Laura Dern first see the creature.
4. The night storm scene with the T-Rex encounter.

All of the above begin at a chapter change of both disc versions, making them quick to locate.

The video: In no instance can the DVD version compare with the Blu-ray.

In scene 1, the sand particles are fully defined in the Blu-ray and are a blur with the DVD. When Sam Neill rises into the frame the landscape is richly defined in the Blu-ray until the camera refocuses onto Neill's face. Later we see the sheen of sweat on Neill's face with the Blu-ray which is not noticeable at all with the DVD. The improvement in facial definition of the people standing behind Neill when he is lecturing them.

In scene 2, the improvement in the definition of the sea water below the helicopter, the facial definition of the passengers, the clear definition of the weave in Sam Neill's hat. Later the foliage clarity as the helicopter (a miniature, I believe) flies through the canyon.

In scene 3, the improved definition of the tree foliage which is a blur with the DVD and outstandingly defined in the Blu-ray. The definition of the details of the creatures they are observing.

In scene 4, the improved details in the night scene, objects really look wet from the rain. The amazing definition of the wet scales of the T-Rex.

The audio: When I first heard the audio of the DVD, I knew that it was shamefully compressed compared with the LD (Laser Disc) issue that I still have. Also missing are the fundamentals in bass sounds which also have been fully restored with the DTS sound track of the Blu-ray.

In scene 1. When the seismic charge in detonated, you can feel it in the floor with the BD. Not there at all with the DVD.

In scene 3. When the brachiosaur rises on its hind legs and howls, it is really loud with the BD, terribly compressed with the DVD.
When it falls back down onto its forelegs, you feel it in your chest. No such thing with the DVD.

In scene 4. The sound of the thunder, the bass elements of the T-Rex growls, the thumps of its footsteps are all very powerful with the BD and missing in the DVD. When the T-Rex howls at the children and they clap their hands over their ears you see why they are doing it with the Blu-ray.
The DVD doesn't get this at all.

The above noted audio differences will not be noticeable at all when using standard TV speakers. A decent home audio system is required with the Blu-ray player set to wide range audio (least compression). I recommend monitoring your volume setting carefully at first to safe-guard your speakers.

I can say without reservation that all three of the films in this collection benefit immeasurably with the Blu-ray format in picture and sound.

The films themselves:

Jurassic Park: Of course the film most people will remember because it made the greatest initial impression. It deserves to be remembered because nothing quite like it had been previously accomplished from a technical standpoint. It's an enormously entertaining and absorbing picture with a fine cast and somehow manages to convince you of the possibilities implied, at least for a while.

The Lost World -- Jurassic Park: The most disappointing of the three, especially considering that it was directed by Spielberg. It more resembles a "monster movie" in the class of "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" or some such -- one highly improbable crisis after another. There are a few CG errors noticeable even in the DVD version. In the stegosaurus scene, the creature's front foot suddenly unrealistically moves horizontally in the pond water without being lifted, which should have been corrected.

Jurassic Park III: An interesting title considering that there is no film titled Jurassic Park II. Still, a greatly entertaining film in the style of a grand adventure. The search for the missing young boy makes the story more compelling. This film also benefits from a fine cast which the second film generally lacks.

I would have preferred the packaging to be similar to the book form used for the "Star Wars" saga in the interest of saving shelf space but I certainly find the collection to be very entertaining and technically very impressive.

Yeah, I know the title of this review is corny, but you have to admit that this is a pretty nice boxed set. It contains all three films from the "Jurassic Park" film series. The first film stands alone as one of the most impressive and progressive films of its time. It featured the best special effects of its time and each film builds on these effects. Let's break each film down:

"Jurassic Park" Five stars
Perhaps the greatest dinosaur film ever made, "Jurassic Park" features brilliant special effects, wonderful acting and a great plotline filled with suspense and horror. With Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, and Richard Attenborough heading up a small cast of characters including Samuel L. Jackson, this film is sure to be a winner in anyone's collection. Briefly, this is the tale of a man who hopes to cash in on genetically bred dinosaurs by creating a sort of theme park that allows the average man to get an up-close-and-personal look at T-Rex, stegosaurus, and those wicked velociraptors. Of course, when a small group arrives to approve the park, things go awry. Highly recommended flick worthy of multiple views.

"The Lost World" Three Stars
The weakest flick in the series. Jeff Goldblum reprises his role from the original flick as he goes to a second island where the dinos from the original film were allowed to grow before being shipped to the park. He's there to help a small group study the dinosaurs in an environment untouched by man. Then a gang of hunters come along in a last ditch effort to save the pocketbooks of the JP stockholders and bring a T-Rex back to San Diego, CA to cash in. Unfortunately, this film was weighed down by eco-terrorism and way too many characters. Though the cast was very good, there just wasn't enough to work with here. Not worthy of many viewings, but it's nice to have in the set.

"Jurassic Park III" Four stars
The best sequel and it saves the saga from the forgettable "Lost World." This film brings back Sam Neill's character who gets conned into going back to the islands and ends up having to save the son of a wealthy and on-the-outs couple(played wittingly by William H. Macy and Tea Leoni). It has a brief but wonderful cameo by Laura Dern and takes a potshot at the purple dino, Barney. This film is the most wide open of the bunch as it ditches the suspense of the original and the morality tale of "Lost World" and goes straight for the action. It's a wonderful popcorn flick that works well for what it is. Definitely worthy of multiple viewings and definitely worth owning.

As a whole, this set is really wonderful to own. You get all three films for less than the price of two of them if you purchased each separately. The packaging is pretty cool since it resembles the opening gates that are so famous from the first film. There are plenty of extras for folks into that kind of stuff and two out of three of these films is worth watching more than once. The original flick is timeless, "JPIII" is a rollercoaster ride, and "The Lost World" is nice to have if you're a completionist. Get this set today if you can't get enough of the dino-action and dino-horror that is the "Jurassic Park Adventure Pack."

I bought this new release with some concern regarging the negative reviews (by some) of the blu-ray transfer quality. I viewed this on a new panasonic LCD TV and a new panasonic disc player. The quality of the image was not a problem. I'm a very critical viewer who has sensitive eyes and has to turn off the back light function for all viewing during day and evening. This lack of back light can be compensated for by turning up the brightness. That being said, I was impressed with my viewing of disc 1 "Jurassic Park." The image was sharp and clear. I've noticed that scenes in dark, low contrast conditions tend to be less so with Blu-ray, in general. Using the back light function will compensate for this, but I choose not do so to avoid the eyestrain that will result. Jurasic park was better than the other movies I've seen in this regard. In fact it was almost not noticable in comparison to other Blu-ray films I have seen. Overall I was very impressed with the quality of the viewing image. I suspect that those who had problems with the quality may have had a disc player that needed some updating.

My only complaint with the film is after a few minutes on pause, the image is lost to a Universal screen logo, and you can't get back into the film by pressing "play." This is a result of the "timeline" bookmark feature that comes up whenever you press the pause button. Just press the green button on the remote and the feature will resume where you left off (whether you originally chose to bookmark the pause or not). If you don't do this you will find yourself in the main menu starting the film from the beginning if you press other buttons trying to get back into the film.

Overall, the image is quite good and anyone who is a fan of this film will enjoy it immensly in this format and will probably not even notice or care about what some of the negative reviewers have chosen to focus (no pun intended) on.

"Jurassic Park" is one of the top 10 movies of all time on any sane list. Steven Spielberg took filmmaking to a completely different level with this masterpiece. In compilation with the outstanding work of Stan Winston, and the wonderful music of John Williams, you can't take your eyes off of the screen. Although Jurassic Park II and III aren't up to par of the first film, they provide good, edge-of-your-seat entertainment that will keep you watching them again and again. It is good to see all three of these films put together in such a nice package. My opinion as a DVD collector is that this is worth the upgrade.

We liked all three of the movies although the second one wasn't as interesting once the t-rex was brought to the U.S. It seems to be more edge-of-your-seat when the heroes are stranded on the dinosaur's home turf and at a disadvantage. I would rate the first movie as the best, with the third being next best and The Lost World coming in third. We already have all three on dvd but I liked the packaging on this release as it takes up less shelf space and keeps all three movies together, making them easier to locate. With three kids running loose that's a big plus! Unlike some multi-disk packages the container on this one is sturdy and protects the movies, and looks pretty cool, too. The disks themselves look great with dinosaur scenes in color on each, unlike the older red, black, and white versions. Also, I discovered that the third movie can be heard in DTS 5.1 as well as Dolby 5.1 just like the first dvd release for those of you with a DTS decoder. So, to sum it all up, I agree with the first reviewer of this Adventure Pack: You can't beat it for the price!

This gift set collects the three Jurassic Park movies for a very low price. It's been awhile since I've sat down and enjoyed these films, and they hold up reasonably well. The first is the best, as it uses the initial awe and wonder to draw you into the story. The second trades awe for darkness and suspense, and works well despite the annoying environmental overtones. The third strips away all pretensions of plot from the second film and gives viewers an action-packed spectacle. All three films are entertaining in their own right, and the appearance of respectable actors helps give credibility the later films might otherwise lack.

These discs are actually reprints of the discs released in 2001, which may still be on store shelves. The menus, video/audio, bonus features are exactly the same. Whats missing is the 4th disc of bonus features that came with the 2001 box set. It wasn't anything super-special, but Universal really could've added it here and chose not to. Also annoying is the cover flaps of the gift set box, which hang open with nothing to keep them secured. Otherwise the box is very nicely designed.

Even without the 4th disc, this is a solid set. Those who have the films will find nothing new here, but anyone who doesn't will find a lot of fun and value.

There have been a few other boxed sets that were a bit "glitzier", with more bells and whistles. This Adventure Pack is simply designed and includes only the 3 discs in a tri-fold cardboard case within a hard cardboard box. You get the 3 Collector's Edition discs that were released individually over the years. The box itself is cool, although the front flaps hang open, with nothing to keep them closed - kind of annoying, but not a big deal. The discs are well-protected.

All 3 Jurassic Park movies for under $20.00 is quite amazing.

I won't bother rating the movies since they've already been reviewed by trillions of people here.

Be aware that Amazon doesn't seem to be selling this collection as a "fold-out" version of the "Adventure Pack" packaging (not anymore, anyway): The 3 pics of the original collection and packaging posted at the top of the page are from a customer, not Amazon.

The package consists of:
1) A printed hard paper DVD case sleeve that looks identical to the "foldout" container pictured, except that it obviously doesn't have "fold out" doors.

2) Inside the sleeve is a DVD holder that looks identical to the one in the customer pics.

3) The printed art on the DVDs is different for each disc, unlike the customer pics which show them as printed specifically for the Adventure Pack (black with a red Jurassic Park logo). It's as though the discs were taken from individual retail packaging and placed in this set. Bummer. However, the disc menus appear to be made using the same theme or template (you'll see what I mean), so who knows? Each disc is 8GB dual-layer, and each contains many extras like "Making of..." and more.

It would be nice to have gotten the fold-out version of the set, but in all it's certainly worth the $14 I paid for it. I'm sure if you don't have the expectation of getting the original packaging, you'll be happy with this set as well.

How they could even dare call this set "digitally re-mastered". The Blu Ray transferer on "Jurassic Park" was just plain terrible, I think my DVD actual looks better. The image was so soft and grainy I truly don't understand what they were thinking. "The Lost World" was the best transfer of the 3 by far with "Jurassic Park III" (while although also grainy) was a distant 2nd but was no where near as bad as the original. I feel I wasted $50 on a set I was looking so forward to. Lesson learned, I will wait for reviews before buying other major sets. Don't tell me it was because it was an older movie either. As Universal did a great job with the "Back to the Future" trilogy and did you see the Star Wars (1977) "New Hope" Blu Ray version? No excuses on this set, Universal dropped the ball on this much awaited Blu Ray. My advice is to skip it and save some money as well as the disappointment.

AMAZON, you need to start separating your reviews into categories. Stop mixing DVD reviews with the Blu Ray.

I am finding what many of the bad reviews have already offered up, so I won't rant. Very inconsistent video quality. At times VERY grainy and at other times of blu ray crispness. Audio quality is superb. The scene with T-Rex is wonderful. Using a sound bar with subwoofer makes the living room shake when T-Rex roars. Overall, worth it if you get it at a discount (I got the Amazon $29.99 deal). I would wait to see if the price goes down after awhile. Video quality disappointing, audio quality awesome.