Jurassic Park III [M]

The interest in palaeontology is dwindling and Dr. Alan Grant just barely scrapes a living with everyone being more interested in the tales of his nightmarish adventures at Jurassic Park. But there’s a glimmer of hope for Alan when a seemingly rich couple promise to fund a project he’s working on if he will be their guide on a venture to Isla Sorna, the second Jurassic Park site. Not happy about the entire venture, Grant reluctantly agrees but then things take a turn when they make an expected landing and Alan discovers that the couple of ulterior motives for being on the island. 

Like The Lost World, Jurassic Park III falls down a little with its annoyingly simple and relatively weak plot that just works as a narrative device to get the characters from the first movie to set foot on the island and become entrenched in a new, nightmarish, dinosaur-dominated adventure. At this point in the franchise, plots are irrelevant (not that they had much relevance to begin with really). 

What becomes particularly obvious, especially in this movie, is the sheer predictability of, um, practically everything. The writing does not leave much to the imagination with the screenwriters just going through the clichéd motions and dropping foreshadowing clues as big as triceratops dung piles over the viewers. Right from the off we know that there’s a connection between the stupid ‘rich’ couple and the missing kid at the beginning, we know that Alan’s going to take the job for hells knows what reason, and we know that along the adventure there will be raptors, death, and much running and screaming. I suppose because there’s no real plot to begin with, there’s not a lot of room to add twists and misdirections. Sigh. 

But, on a more positive note, the animatronics and computer wizards once again take centre stage with some pretty cool action sequences and, of course, dinosaurs. The raptors are back looking sleeker and shinier than before and their intelligence plays an even bigger part in this movie than it did in the first. Whilst there are no memorable and suspenseful scenes taking place in the kitchen, we do get more of a sense of ‘nature’ as we watch the raptors in this flick in the way that they communicate with each other and work as hunting packs. What’s also exciting about this movie is that we get to become acquainted with the flying pterosaurs, which just elevates the action sequences up a notch. 

Starring Sam Neil, William H. Macy, Tea Leoni (who was just annoying from go to whoa), Alessandro Nivola, Trevor Morgan, Michael Jeter, John Diehl, Bruce A. Young, Taylor Nichols, Mark Harelik, and Laura Dern, Jurassic Park III is really just another dinosaur dirge delivering the same thrills as its predecessors. Filled with action, adventure, drama, romance, and comedy, you get what you expect from it.