At the time, Siskel & Ebert gave The Lost World: Jurassic Park a lousy review, and since I consider that to be a vastly superior film to this current sequel, I expect the current tag-team of Ebert & Roper to roast and thoroughly lambaste this turkey of a Dinosaur movie that calls itself Jurassic Park III. And I wouldn't blame them, and that's coming from a guy who thoroughly enjoyed the first two films, especially The Lost World, which successfully combined top notch special effects of the first film with a much darker, fast paced story. And to be honest, half way through this film, I almost walked out (which I've never actually done, but seriously considered doing twice before, while watching Very Bad Things and before that, Nothing to Lose except for $8.50 in admission costs and 2 hours of my life).

Jurassic Park III starts out bad and it goes downhill from there. The opening title sequence is corny, nothing like the dark beginnings of The Lost World, or the more optimistic, where will we go opening of the original Jurassic Park. With Jurassic Park III we have a film that's trying to be darker than the first two, but ultimately it's poor pacing and direction just don't grab your imagination.

The setup is also very corny, a young kid and an older guy end up being stranded on the island while parasailing by the island. It appears that the dinosaur islands of the first two films have become a forbidden tourist attraction for the rich, although it doesn't even pan out here, cause the people parasailing don't even turn out to be that rich. And that's just one of this film's many plotholes.

So ten minutes into the film, we have this kid stranded on the island, and we cut back to the continental US, where we find a very disillusioned Alan Grant, played by returning actor Sam Neil, who is trying desperately to raise funds to help continue his paleontological research. He doesn't do well at his fundraising, so when a man comes to him wanting to visit the island with his wife, and a blank cheque, they present Alan Grant with an offer he can't refuse.

Now this sounds like an interesting idea, we have no idea who these people are or why they want to see the dinosaur islands, (ok - we know who they are, they're two cardboard characters played by Tea Leoni and William H. Macy). So they all head off to the island, end up crashing once they get there (surprise, surprise), and their are a few other character twists about Macy and Leoni that come up as they run through the forest trying to avoid becoming Dino-kittie kabootle. But when you think about it, the plot is exactly the same as The Lost World: Jurassic Park, just with different cookie-cutter characters involved this time out.

This is not a Steven Spielberg film, and it shows right from frame one. Director Joe Johnson (Jumanji) was hand picked by Spielberg but seems overwhelmed by the toys given him, and he fails miserably at creating any suspense whatsoever throughout this film. The film is very dark looking, as the shots are not lit well at all, and I actually found myself straining to see what the character's emotional expressions are (the words "having to strain to see" should not come up in any movie review IMHO). And in a lot of other ways, Johnson is really a third rate Michael Bay, that school of directing where fast cutting hides the special effects we've seen so many times before.

To be honest, I'm at school writing this review right now, after coming from a matinee of this film, and I actually have a headache. Straining to see this film, with it's fast cutting and poor lighting was too much for me. I keep thinking back to The Lost World and Jurassic Park where the films were well lit, even at night, scenes coming to life like comic books on the big screen.

Jurassic Park III shoulda been a walk in the park, a fun and mindless thrill ride through a land filled with new, leaner and meaner Dinosaurs (and by the very ending of The Lost World, you just had to know JPIII would have flying Pteranodons, and I do admit, those few scenes featuring the flying creatures aren't that bad. But the sad part is they are book-ended by a plot we've seen before, with Dinos we've seen before. And the musical theme is fumbled big time, again the composer was probably so worried about paying homage to John Williams, that he forgot how to write a score that is dramatic, suspenseful and interesting. Here, in Jurassic Park III the music is deader than a lead fart in the wind.

And why did they call it Jurassic Park III? Couldn't it have been called Return to Jurassic Park (which could have been just as cliche as simply calling it III or something else? I guess technically no, it couldn't be called that, cause technically the movie takes place on the same Island as The Lost World. Word has it that they will make a fourth film in this series, and it would be nice if they could combine the characters from all three films, in one last adventure on the original island, which would now be nothing more than a horror island for cast aways of sorts.

The sad thing is that Jurassic Park III could have been a fun film, but it was missing too much on all levels to do well. Two trips to the park was enough for me, and I can tell you right now that I won't be buying this film on video.

Grade: D-

(c) July 18, 2001, Steven H. Lee





Recommended:
No

Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age