I think we are all in agreement when I say this film is the weakest of the Jurassic franchise so far. Released in 2001 this was the first of the Jurassic Park franchise not to be based on a book, and the first to be without Steven Spielberg; which may or may not be contributed to its poor reception. As always spoilers will be ahead. I DO NOT OWN THE PICTURE.
Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) has become famous after the first Jurassic Park, but he couldn’t be more than annoyed about it. He and Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) still talk and collaborate on projects but are no longer together; Ellie has married a man named Mark from the State Department and they have two children. One day Dr. Grant is approached by a seemingly wealthy couple, Paul and Amanda Kirby (William H. Macy and Téa Leoni) who say they will finance his dig if he accompanies them on a tour of Isla Sorna. Desperate for money, he agrees. Along with his assistant Billy Brennan (Alessandro Nivola), Dr. Grant goes with the couple and their mercenaries Udesky (Michael Jetter), Cooper (John Deiehl) and Nash (Bruce A. Young) to the Isla. When they want to land, Grant objects and gets knocked out. Grant soon realizes the truth: the Kirby’s are not rich or even together; they are a divorced couple looking for their son Eric (Trevor Morgan) and Amanda’s boyfriend Ben (Mark Harelik) who have been missing after parasailing near the island. Because of their stupidity the group is attacked by a dinosaur called the Spinosaurus. Grant and the group have to find a way to find Eric and Ben as well as find a way to get off the island.
While it was great to see Grant and Ellie again in another film that is about as good as the film gets. The writing and special effects failed to live up the hype after the first two films, and the characters were bland at best. I would also like to add that having another dinosaur other than the T-Rex being the big bad dinosaur was not a good idea; although I did enjoy the fight a T-Rex had with the Spinosaurus. While this is not a bad film compared to other dinosaur movies, I think unless you really liked the Jurassic franchise this one is not worth watching.
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