35mm film screenings of the Jurassic Park movies

Up until this month, I only had the pleasure of seeing two Jurassic movies on the big screen, and the first of those was Jurassic Park III. The biggest so far was Jurassic World, but I hated missing out on seeing the first two as they would have been presented. Then I got the chance to see the first two movies at the Prince Charles Cinema in London, so I can safely say I saw all of the JP movies on the big screen, and it was absolutely worth the trip! I thought I'd share my thoughts on it.

Prince Charles Cinema screening on 17th June:

There were some problems with the first film's screening, some of the film stock wasn't in the best condition resulted in small snippets of scenes skipping due to splicing the film. For example, Nedry didn't call Dodgson out the first time in the version I saw. So when Dodgson says "You shouldn't use my name." it doesn't make sense. And another instance where a few lines in the dialogue between Hammond and Gennaro in the jeep got cut out. This really truncated the scene and made me worried about the rest of the film.

With that said, it was still a solid presentation, with great sound quality, a rich visual palette (kinda like the 3D blu ray release but way more balanced) with a lot of contrast and deep shadowy scenes set at night, appropriately magical and awe inspiring scenes, and an audience that was eagerly into the film. I got a real kick out of the audience reactions, from shouting in fear to laughter and applause heightened the "cinema-going spirit" of the viewing. And despite the problems highlighted earlier, this really did not destroy my enjoyment of the film. Throughout, I was grinning from ear to ear, like I had gone back in time to see the film in 1993.

Meanwhile, The Lost World was actually in much better condition, with less dust or scratched film and hardly any noticable spliced moments, and an incredible dark yet natural colour scheme, with striking greens, rich dark blues, smooth orange lights and darkness, adding to the primeval character of Isla Sorna. The CGI actually felt more enhanced on this format than on the blu-ray. The feeling was much the same as the prior film, like going back in time. And the audience applauded at the end of both films (though much louder for JP unsurprisingly). Overall, both of these felt like some of the most pure cinema going experiences I ever had, and despite my gripes with the JP screening I would happily go back there for more special screenings.


But over to you guys, do you remember (if you were old enough) seeing any of the Jurassic films on vintage film, or had any opportunities to see them presented at special screenings near you?

An arthouse theatre once played JP1 at a Midnight Matinee and I managed to go. This was probably around 2010. I wore a bird costume I'd made, for some reason (they're beaky, why not). The print had certainly seen better days, one of the control room scenes had been spliced. But overall it was great. Lots of JP shirts, the place was packed, and all the ladies went "wwooooo!!!" during The Goldblum scene.

The theatre did not have a JP standee, so they modified a JP/// standee to be Jurassic Park. So that was kind of funny, it was JP but had the spinosaur on it instead. The theatre people wanted me to bird up in front of it, wish I knew where that photo was.

These theatres were kind of small screen and I'm not sure their sound system did the DTS stuff it's due. I really liked the JP3D for what that was worth, seeing JP again fully equipped sound system was great.

How could I forget, I did see TLW, however I think that might have been on DVD. Somewhere in 2014~5. The Science Center had a most excellent Jurassic Park night, soooooo many people dressed up as Grants and Ellies and Arnolds and dinosaurs it was just the best. I wore my Fences & Containment rig and a friend whipped up a lab scientist costume from nothing, and had a hatching dino egg. We had an excellent time, I think everyone who went came out better.
The movie played in an IMAX theater, although TLW was shown very not IMAX, it was in it's little 16:9 format on a small fraction of the screen. Besides some crying kid somewhere behind me it was a great showing with good enough sound.

Just a heads up, use the edit button to add to your previous post, it saves some space . Sounds like a lot of fun though!

BarrytheOnyx wrote:

Up until this month, I only had the pleasure of seeing two Jurassic movies on the big screen, and the first of those was Jurassic Park III. The biggest so far was Jurassic World, but I hated missing out on seeing the first two as they would have been presented. Then I got the chance to see the first two movies at the Prince Charles Cinema in London, so I can safely say I saw all of the JP movies on the big screen, and it was absolutely worth the trip! I thought I'd share my thoughts on it.

Prince Charles Cinema screening on 17th June:

There were some problems with the first film's screening, some of the film stock wasn't in the best condition resulted in small snippets of scenes skipping due to splicing the film. For example, Nedry didn't call Dodgson out the first time in the version I saw. So when Dodgson says "You shouldn't use my name." And another instance where a few lines in the dialogue between Hammond and Gennaro in the jeep got cut out. Talk about making no sense.

With that said, it was still a solid presentation, with great sound quality, a rich visual palette (kinda like the 3D blu ray release but way more balanced) with a lot of contrast and deep shadowy scenes set at night, appropriately magical and awe inspiring scenes, and an audience that was eagerly into the film. I got a real kick out of the audience reactions, from shouting in fear to laughter and applause heightened the "cinema-going spirit" of the viewing. And despite the problems highlighted earlier, this really did not destroy my enjoyment of the film. Throughout, I was grinning from ear to ear, like I had gone back in time to see the film in 1993.

Meanwhile, The Lost World was actually in much better condition, with less dust or scratched film and hardly any noticable spliced moments, and an incredible dark yet natural colour scheme, with striking greens, rich dark blues, smooth orange lights and darkness, adding to the primeval character of Isla Sorna. The CGI actually felt more enhanced on this format than on the blu-ray. The feeling was much the same as the prior film, like going back in time. And the audience applauded at the end of both films (though much louder for JP unsurprisingly). Overall, both of these felt like some of the most pure cinema going experiences I ever had, and despite my gripes with the JP screening I would happily go back there for more special screenings.


But over to you guys, do you remember (if you were old enough) seeing any of the Jurassic films on vintage film, or had any opportunities to see them presented at special screenings near you?

Sounds like an awesome experience. JP 3 was the first jurassic park movie that i got to see in theatres and then i saw jurassic world. i hope to see jp and tlw on the big screen one day.