Review of Jurassic Park III (2001) by Charlie B — 06 Jun 2015

Beginning with a somewhat tense scene involving a group of tourists parasailing around Isla Sorna and then disappearing after their boat is attacked; Jurassic Park III picks up more or less eight years after the original movie, Jurassic Park (1993). Alan Grant has now gained notoriety for the events on John Hammond's island, which was made worse by the San Diego incident in The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), but is largely ignored when it comes to actual dinosaur research, while Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) has now married a completely random character, and she returns in a smaller capacity merely for plot reasons later on in the movie. With his assistant Billy (Alessandro Nivola), Grant heads to Isla Sorna with the Kirby couple and, naturally, encounters trouble.

It's rather run-of-the-mill at this point; people go to one of the two dinosaur islands and bad things happen. While the first movie stuck fairly close to this survival formula, it was aided by amazing writing and equally amazing characters that did their parts in keeping the movie exciting, thrilling and fast paced. The formula began its wear and tear in The Lost World: Jurassic Park, as the amazing set of characters were replaced with lacklustre characters - except Ian Malcolm - and generally wore the structure thin. In Jurassic Park III, director Joe Johnston and the three writers are all just standing around with fossilized dinosaur bones and taking turns beating the formula into the same consistency as a steaming pile of T-Rex turd. Thankfully, Sam Neill is here to save the day as Dr. Alan Grant... and just like Jeff Goldblum's Ian Malcolm in the previous movie, the character's only function is as an exposition tool for the blandly written Kirby family and to the audience for the great looking dinosaurs that grace the screen.

Since the infamous Velociraptors were largely underdeveloped in The Lost World: Jurassic Park, the presence of Grant in Jurassic Park III gives the species a shot at salvation, as the good palaeontologist more than willingly explains how the raptors are much more intelligent than originally believed. This gives a much needed depth and room to expand the formidable and agile dinosaurs, whilst effectively elevating them to the same threat level as the badass Spinosaurus - supposedly the largest of all known carnivorous dinosaurs -, which stalks Grant and the group throughout Jurassic Park III. Where the directing and script falls short immensely, Sam Neill's performance as Alan Grant and the menacing as never before dinosaurs help to sustain Jurassic Park III's mediocrity.