Before I go on and on about how much I love Jurassic Park, I first have to admit that while growing up The Lost World: Jurassic Park was my favorite (of the two, at that time). This was solely because my love, Jeff Goldblum in his coolest role of Malcolm, plays the lead in the sequel. I could not have been a happier girl.

Now I know that there’s more to movies then hot men (super super hot men) and can say with confidence that the sequel is not better, even though Malcolm gets more screen time.

Jurassic Park and Terminator 2 are to me what Star Wars was to most children (or to children of a slightly older generation). But who cares about childhood! There’s nothing nostalgic about Jurassic Park. My god, the effects are better than anything I’ve seen in even the last ten years. Those dinosaurs look real. Terrifyingly real. I don’t think that will ever change.

I don’t need to convince anyone about how great Jurassic Park is. The first release grossed just under a billion dollars worldwide. Since yesterday, the re-release of Jurassic Park in 3D has grossed 22 million. And man, does it deserve it. Even if I haven’t been a fan of 3D…

For the first 15 minutes of Jurassic Park 3D I found myself horrified at the card board cut outs walking around the screen. Yes, the image had 3 or more planes of reality, but the actors look flat and the background looks green-screened, even though I know this movie so well. It was scary to loose such a perfect movie to the special effects.

But, I was thankfully proven wrong. While 3D is still in its infancy, Jurassic Park is masterfully done. I was distracted because I am used to something else- the current language of cinema. Cinema created for a 2D reality. And that 2D reality so immerses us in a new world, that we even forget in it’s 2D and believe in a 3D reality.

Jurassic Park is a 2D movie, but the 3D is done so well that even I could forget about it at times. And I am trying specifically to learn from it so I notice all the little changes, as well as the large ones. So forgetting about a gimic is an accomplishment in itself.

There are distracting things in Jurassic Park. Like I would not put my face so close to someones butt. Or stick my head in cake. Or bump into tree branches (well ok, I might do that). Those sorts of things are a part of the original shot’s composition, but are placed absurdly close to us in 3D. Well, what could they do about that? This movie wasn’t filmed to be 3D. It was converted to 3D. And converted very well. I loved the 3D of when the car is stuck in the tree. And when the velociraptor jumps at Lex in the ceiling. And of course, there’s the T Rex. That bit of cinema will never die, 2D or 3D. I couldn’t tell you which one is better.

The best uses of 3D I have seen have appropriately been science fiction films. Everyone remembers how “cool” Avatar looked. I will admit, that though I dislike the graphics look of the movie, I did like the small touches that Cameron did in 3D- even little floating dust particles were in 3D. That was nice. And now, Jurassic Park, once an innovator of special effects (and still a special effects movie we can learn from) now takes on 3D. And it is an experience and an experiment. Not all movies can benefit from this experiment  But sci-fi is the perfect medium to show off technological advances. And this is one you have to see.

However, I firmly believe that 3D movies need to develop their own language. And that is very exciting. We need to throw away what is known to cinema now, invent something entirely new before 3D will come into its own. Right now, it is a copy of the 2D language. We need to see something more, something where the audience is not a viewer, but a character. And that means no crazy shots from an angle I would never be in as a participant, or some distracting foreground item that I would never put my face close to, or cutting people in half by panning to their partial body in frame. That is what is messed up about 3D, and what is beautiful in 2D.

I used to be really opposed to 3D. Now after seeing such advancements, I might be up for the challenge. After all, it’s not often that there is a desperate need for the invention of an entirely new language. A language that the creatives at Jurassic Park have begun.

Don’t miss Jurassic Park 3D in theaters. It’s worth it.