Review: Jurassic Park III

Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and his partner/protégé Billy (Alessandro Nivola) are approached by a wealthy couple (William H. Macy and Tea Leoni) who want to pay him to act as a tour guide whilst they fly over the island that housed “Jurassic Park”. He reluctantly agrees, but pretty quickly he realises that there’s more going on here than a scenic flight, and he ends up back on the island having to protect a bunch of morons (some of whom aren’t who they claim to be) from gigantic -and sometimes carnivorous – dinosaurs. Bruce A. Young, Michael Jeter, and John Diehl play the other members of the trip, whilst Trevor Morgan plays Macy and Leoni’s son. Laura Dern appears briefly reprising her character from the first film.

 

Further proof that my views aren’t like other people’s. This 2001 Joe Johnston (“Honey, I Shrunk the Kids”, “The Rocketeer”, “The Wolfman”) sequel is the only “Jurassic” movie I like. It’s imperfect, but it’s the only movie in the entire franchise that to me seems to understand the Saturday matinee B-movie that the original could’ve and should’ve been. Spielberg tried to go for a hi-tech version of what he pulled off with “Jaws”. Unfortunately, he didn’t pull off the miracle twice, and so the first film was pretty flat, largely populated by dull characters, and hugely disappointing. The FX only carried the thing so far for me, especially when Spielberg committed the cardinal sin of showing the dinosaurs too early, unlike “Jaws” (and boy wouldn’t that be a lesser movie if we saw ‘Bruce’ from the get-go?). This one though, works pretty well by forgetting about trying to be a big blockbuster and just gets on with being a fun Saturday matinee adventure. It’s free of all the hype of the first film, and armed with a B filmmaker in Johnston and at least a few interesting characters. The first two films only had Jeff Goldblum to cling to. Yes, it commits the same sin of showing the dinosaurs too early, but this is the third film so that’s hardly important anymore. Also, the film runs less than 90 minutes as opposed to the 2+ hour previous films, so this one has the advantage of getting in and out before you have a chance to get bored.

 

Johnston also starts the carnage early, which has the bonus of selling just how dangerous this situation actually is. Since you don’t have to worry about showing the dinosaurs too early, you might as well get off and running with the danger. They’re gigantic dinosaurs for chrissakes, and even the herbivores can cause some damage, even if they don’t necessarily mean to. Hell, we even get dinosaurs eating each other in this one, which is bloody marvellous. Despite star Macy’s claims that the film was being shot without a complete script, the film even has an actual plot. That’s instead of what the original offered which was ‘Oooh, a dinosaur park. Neat-o’. Or the second, which was ‘Oooh, sequel to the dinosaur park movie. Neat-o’, whilst the “Jurassic World” movies are merely ‘Oooh, dinosaur theme park movie. Neat-o’. We get more than just the amusement park attraction or amusement park attraction run amok idea here, more of a search-and-rescue plot with dinosaurs as the source of the film’s conflict/danger. You won’t remember much afterwards, but it mostly delivers the goods, even if it retains the wrong guy from the first film. Some will be glad to see Sam Neill brought back into the fold here, but the best I can say for him is that he’s better company in this one than he was in the first film. He also gets off a good, thinly veiled dismissive swipe at the second film (which not even Jeff Goldblum was able to save). There’s also a very funny nightmare scene with Neill and a talking ‘raptor. However, as was the case with Goldblum in the first film, I think the supporting cast here are a bit more interesting than Neill, especially William H. Macy as a likeable schmuck and Tea Leoni is perfectly cast at time where she hadn’t become overexposed yet. Here she’s like a more tolerable, less annoying Kate Capshaw in “Temple of Doom”. Alessandro Nivola is also quite good as Neill’s associate, whilst Michael Jeter is amusing as one of several characters who aren’t what they originally claim to be here. As for the cameo by Laura Dern, it’s such scant use of her that frankly it’s beneath any working actor to have accepted the part. How much was she paid for it?

 

Away from the performances, it’s nicely shot by Shelly Johnson (“The Wolfman”, “The Expendables 2”), whilst Don Davis (“Bound”, “Valentine”) solidly mixes his own work with the familiar John Williams musical cues. When I say the film is a B-movie, I’m not talking about budget or aesthetic quality, which is mostly perfectly fine. Although the projection work has dated, the CG here is still very much top-shelf stuff, and a bit improved from the 1993 original, as one would expect. I think the dinosaurs come across as more lively, quick, and flexible here than they did back in 1993 or even in “The Lost World: Jurassic Park”. If the film has a major problem, it’s one that the previous two films share: Velociraptors are boring dinosaurs that no one had ever heard of before the first film came out. You know I ain’t lying, they’re freaking dull. Thankfully, we get an array of other dinosaurs here too, especially a nice bit involving a ropey bridge, thick fog, and pterodactyls (even baby ones!). Yeah I know, pterodactyls technically aren’t dinosaurs, but who cares, they’re cool!

 

I’m pretty much the only one who liked this film, let alone thinks it’s the best in the franchise. However, if you go into it expecting a B-grade Saturday matinee adventure, you’ll get what you expect. It’s more “King Kong” (the 1933 version, and best version) than “Jurassic Park”, and that’s what I wanted anyway. I came away from it amused enough, and it’s one of Johnston’s better B-movies. The screenplay comes from the interesting combo of Peter Buchman (best known for “Che” parts one and two), Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor (the writer-director team behind the popular “Election”, the terrific “About Schmidt”, and the critical darling “Sideways”).

 

Rating: B-