I read the book when I heard they were making a movie so that might alter my opinion from yours.

But I always felt comparing the book and movie version of Jurassic Park need to take into account the mediums the stories are being presented in.

The book is kind of a typical Michael Crichton book where a bunch of various scientists are brought together to talk about some new scientific discovery/problem and it really works on that level. It might be my favorite of them. But it's much dryer than the movies and the characters are a bunch of nerds who aren't really going to have character actors like Jeff Goldblum to give them a lot of color and flavor.

The movie leaned far more into the visual spectacle of the dinosaurs, fun characters, and telling a complete story in a 90 minute time frame. As it should have.