Basic Plot: A couple entice Alan Grant back to the island
to help rescue their son.
Jurassic
Park 3 opens with the Universal logo that ends with a water
ripple effect mimicking a scene from the first movie. A great
touch and the first of many enjoyable features that this film
has to offer. This time round the filmmakers haved spared
us the scientific aspects/ facts behind the process of creating
the dinosaurs that both the first film and The Lost World
heavily featured. Sure there is a little of that here, but
Jurassic Park 3 focusses on set piece action almost from the
start.
It is great to see Sam Neill back as paleontologist Alan Grant.
Here he's joined by a superb cast. We've got Tea Leoni (Bad
Boys), the excellent (as always) William H. Macy, one of my
current favourite actors Alessandro Nivola (Face/ Off, Best
Laid Plans) and even a short appearance from Laura Dern who
also reprises her role (Ellie) from the first film. Finally
in the role of Eric, the boy lost on the island, is fourteen
year old Trevor Morgan who we've seen briefly in The Sixth
Sense and The Patriot. This film is more character driven
than the first two and even the dinosaurs themselves develop
personalities. The Kirby's (Macy and Leoni) are on the island
for a reason, their son is missing and with the US Embassy
and Costa Rican authorities refusing to help. So they are
their sons final hope and out of desperation go themselves
coaxing Grant into helping them too. All actors give great
performances, Macy again standing out as he always does.
Onto the other stars of the film, the dinosaurs themselves.
Well, here we have a couple making their debut. The Spinosaurus
who is the real star of the picture taking over from those
Raptors and the Pterodactils, you know those flying 'saurs
that we caught a glimpse of in the second film. Here, they
too have a larger role as our heroes stumble upon a 'birdcage'
full of them and their offspring. The effects in the movie
are without doubt better than anything i've seen before. The
technology has developed so much since 1993 when we were first
treated to Jurassic Park. The only thing that I will say,
and this is really just picking holes, is the first scene
where Eric and his friend are paragliding, you can tell that
they have been super-imposed and with the outstanding CGI
moments elsewhere in the film, you would have thought they
could have cleaned that minor effect a little better.
To end, and to summarise a little, Jurassic Park 3 is a true
popcorn movie and achieves what it set out to do. It easily
out does The Lost World when is comes to entertainment factor
and equals the original. Johnstone brings a slightly darker
edge to the series, but in terms of edge of your seat frights
and subtle comedy moments, he equals the two films that Spielberg
brought us. I may go even as far as to say that he has delivered
a better movie. I may say that, but at the moment i'm still
making up my mind.
Paul Heath
Editor, The Z Review
