Dr. Grant must venture to Isla Sorna to help a couple
rescue their son, who is lost on the island full of dinosaurs. ACTION/SCI-FI
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Jurassic Park III (2001)Directed by Joe Johnston
Written by Peter Buchman, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor Starring Sam Neill, William H. Macy, Téa Leoni, Laura Dern, Alessandro Nivola, Trevor Morgan, Michael Jeter Sequel to 1997's The Lost World: Jurassic Park Based on characters created by Michael Crichton |
While not as exciting as the first two, Jurassic Park III does have its moments. It seems to be missing the spark of whatever made the first two so good, probably Spielberg's involvement and the lack of a great script. I do appreciate Sam Neill's return to the role, which definitely adds some much needed gravitas to the movie, but even he doesn't help this threequel.
Like I said, Jurassic Park III has its moments. The birdcage scene, for instance, is brilliant and terrifying. I never saw pterodactyls as scary monsters before that and now I can think of them as nothing else. I didn't like the new raptors, as they were too smart to be believable. In the first two, they were smart but they were still animals. In this one, they were so smart that they were trapping humans and planning complex schemes. Frankly, it's pretty stupid. Also, Jurassic Park III had very little tyrannosaurus action. We saw him once. The majority of the film is dominated by the less than imposing spinosaurus, which looks neat but is nowhere near the level of iconic that the tyrannosaurus has reached. Overall, this film is pretty disappointing and falls flat. |
While Jurassic Park III pales in comparison to the past two movies, it does have some genuine moments of greatness. The film feels like there is something missing from it. This feeling is only intensified by the fact that Spielberg didn't direct it and it had absolutely no connections with any of the books, resulting in quite the weak script.
Sam Neill comes back for this installment, and while it's a joy to see him return, he also seems like he's not all that interested. The rest of the cast is also hit or miss, with some characters being great and others being less than great. As for the dinosaurs, the Spinosaurus proved to be a terrifying villain. Even though I would have preferred the T-Rex, the new dinosaur fit in nicely. The scene with the pterodactyls was great and very creepy. The raptors in this installment didn't really excite me. While I have no issue with them being smart, I had issues with them having feathers, causing them to look more like chickens. I know it's more scientifically accurate, but this is a film series about dinosaurs being brought back to life, so I can live with less than accurate versions dinosaurs. Jurassic Park III tries very hard to successfully follow from the last two movies, but falls very short. With a main actor that seems less interested, the removal of everyones' favorite dinosaur, and raptors that look like chickens, this was a less than impressive movie. |