Jurassic Park III Review

by Annette Cardwell (cardwell AT filmcritic DOT com)
July 18th, 2001
JURASSIC PARK III
A film review by Annette Cardwell
Copyright 2001 filmcritic.com

Dinosaurs!

While the first Jurassic Park was mediocre and the second film
god-awful, Jurassic Park III finally gets the formula right. These
movies were never meant to be science heavy or overly sentimental; they
should've been what #3 is -- an amusement park thrill ride packed
wall-to-wall with dinosaurs and more dinosaurs, clocking in at less than
90 minutes with as little dialogue and subplot as possible. Plus, big
bonus -- no Jeff Goldblum!

Instead of Goldblum, JP3 brings back Sam Neill as the slightly grizzled
Dr. Alan Grant who seems happy to put his terrifying up-close dino
experiences behind him. Grant and his new protégé Billy (Alessandro
Nivola) are once again looking for funding for their research, and are
coaxed into accompanying a new wealthy benefactor -- Paul Kirby (William
H. Macy) and his wife Amanda (Téa Leoni) -- on a fly-over of the second
Jurassic island, Isla Sorna. But things turn ugly when the Kirbys
announce they plan to land on the island to search for their 14-year-old
son Eric (Trevor Morgan) who was conveniently lost there while
paragliding. When the group ends up crash landing in the jungle, the
movie becomes a race to see who will get off the island and who will
become lunch. (Sounds like a cool idea for the next Survivor.)

While dialogue has never been these films' strongest suit, JP3 remedies
this by having less of it. Regardless, the writers behind this
screenplay-of-fewer-words are pretty impressive: Alexander Payne and Jim
Taylor are the minds behind Citizen Ruth and Election. It comes off as
a bit like how a dumb movie turns out when it's penned by smart people
(like a Wayne's World) -- lots of action peppered with throw-away
goofball lines like, "They weren't making dinosaurs; they were playing
God."

As evidenced by dialogue like that, JP3 doesn't take itself too
seriously, which is perhaps its saving grace; and it pulls no punches
when taking potshots at the other two movies. For example, when Grant
finds Eric (or, rather, after Eric rescues Grant), Eric tells the
scientist, "I've read both your books. I liked the first one better
than the second." Also, the so-called millionaire Kirby turns out to be
a plumber. So much for a repeat of John Hammond.

Above all, JP3 packs in more dinosaurs per square inch than any other JP
film before it. This time, big, angry reptiles are coming out of the
sky and water as well as land, and the filmmakers even introduce a dino
to rival the T. Rex, a massive monster called Spinosaur (that's right,
dino-fighting). And, of course, the raptors are back, and now they can
communicate with each other (don't ask, evolution's a bitch). Most
importantly, none of the humans try to fight the dinosaurs themselves,
so we won't be seeing any unbelievable scenes of kids knocking out
velociraptors with a few gymnastics kicks.

Efficiently crammed with lots of thrills, Jurassic Park III may come off
as a little bit like a big-budget B-movie, but you're not likely to have
a better time at a blockbuster this summer. It's just loud,
smash-and-crash monster movie fun at its finest.

RATING: ****

|------------------------------|
\ ***** Perfection \
\ **** Good, memorable film \
    \ *** Average, hits and misses \
    \ ** Sub-par on many levels \
    \ * Unquestionably awful \
    |------------------------------|

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Director: Joe Johnston
Producer: Steven Spielberg
Writer: Peter Buchman, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor
Starring: Sam Neill, William H. Macy, Téa Leoni, Alessandro Nivola,
Trevor Morgan, Michael Jeter, John Diehl, Bruce A. Young

http://jp3.jurassicpark.com/

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