Jurassic Park III

Just as pointless to make as the last film. At least the raptor effects were back up to specs.

**_Alan!_**

_Final rating: ★★½ - Had a lot that appealed to me, didn’t quite work as a whole_.

Reverse Darwinism - survival of the most idiotic.

Eight years after the horrors of Jurassic Park, we find Dr. Alan Grant happy with his lot, nothing on Earth could coax him back on to one of the "InGen Islands." Trouble is, is that Paul and Amanda Kirby, in the search for their missing son, get him to Isla Sorna without his knowing anything about it, and sure enough, dinosaurs are set to rule their evolved world once more.

Clocking in at just about 83 minutes in actuality, you sense that director Joe Johnston (Jumanji) knew he had to get in quickly, do his job, and get the hell out of Dodge ASAP. Sure enough, JP3 feels like (is) a quick coin in, the formula is straight up simple from the executive desks, dump a load of annoying characters on an island and see if they can survive being chomped on by dinosaurs. That the makers managed to get Sam Neil and William H. Macy on board with such a turgid script, is nothing short of amazing. Perhaps just as Neil's character is duped in the film, so shall it be in real life...

Still, it's no abomination by any stretch of the imagination. Johnston, realising that the audience wants dino action, wastes no time in letting the critters loose on our motley crew. Which in spite of the child friendly nature of the piece (think more chase movie adventure than monster peril) is all rather spiffing and enjoyable. You may find yourself hoping the irritable Téa Leoni gets eaten, and you may find yourself laughing at some of Alessandro Nivola's scenes when you are not meant to (is that a Superman homage?), but at least it's fun enough to get away with the bad points. Thanks in the main to the creatures and the relatively short running time. 5/10

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I can understand why some viewers find Jurassic Park III fun enough. I just can't tolerate it, sorry. It feels more like a parody than a serious attempt at making a good sequel. The suspense and sense of wonder are totally gone. Even the CGI-animatronics combo looks terrible.

I also couldn't stand the new characters, ugh. I may come back tomorrow and think differently, but Fallen Kingdom has more redeemable qualities, despite it also being pretty awful and even offensive to fans of the saga.

I just don't imagine myself rewatching III ever again.

Rating: D-

I guess you could call this Jurassic Park Lite. Everything about it is reduced. It has a much shorter running time and the plot is contracted to the point that it is just about a handful of people looking for a child in a violently wild zoo. They enticed Sam Neil back into the cast, and to a lesser extent Laura Dern, but the movie seems to feel the absence of Jeff Goldblum’s Ian character. The script seems to recognize this lack as they have Alan Grant whipping out quotes and theories of Ian’s. Meanwhile I think William H. Macy’s talents might have been a bit wasted in his role.

It is an entertaining little film, at least, as they threw in the obligatory sigh-inspiring shots of herds of large dinosaurs and spots of humor. I could have done without the ascension of the raptors to the status of being thinking, plotting creatures who would have been superior to humans if they only hadn’t been wiped out by that pesky asteroid. I thought that was a bit extreme. I thought the best moment came when Alan realized the the bridge they were crossing was part of an aviary for the pterodactyls.

No longer a theme park. People still go to the island. A small group gets stranded on the island, and encounters the dinosaurs.

I have to say that I found this, though still a poor relation of the first film, eminently better than the second. Sam Neill is lured to the Isla Sorna (the reserve isle) by a businessman - ostensibly as a glorified aerial tourist guide - only to discover it is a rouse to help "Kirby" (William H. Macy) & his wife "Amanda" (Téa Leoni) recover their son who went missing whilst paragliding over the island some weeks earlier. It's the usual adventure fayre with loads of great big beasties, velociraptors and dodgy sat-phones. There's plenty of fantasy gore and roar and it does it's job well enough - though I have to say I would gladly have fed Blake Michael Bryan ("Charlie") to any one of the carnivorous monsters from about 30 seconds after his fiercely irritating character hit the screen.