Among its many other virtues, Jurassic Park is a master class in the construction of cinematic set pieces that combine tension and action in endlessly inventive ways.

Aside from his visuo-spatial IQ & shot blocking ability being off the charts, I think Spielberg's other superpower is his ability to pull performances out of his actors that make you believe they're actually seeing the incredible things they're reacting to.

From a screenwriting perspective, Alan Grant is the perfect embodiment of the idea that you try to give the protagonist what they want...but have it turn out to be terrible. Or give them what they DON'T want, but have it turn out to be exactly what they needed.

When we meet Alan Grant, his two main character traits are: he loves dinosaurs and dislikes kids. So he gets to have his dream come true...seeing dinosaurs in the flesh! And it all goes terribly wrong.

And at the same time, the guy who was established as a grump who finds kids smelly and annoying gets stuck caring for two...and ends up learning to love them. Simple but incredibly effective storytelling on both counts.