Movie Review: Jurassic Park III

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.

Movie Review: Jurassic Park

With the fifth film opening this Friday I thought it would be a great idea to finally review one of the most successful film franchises of all time. Based on the 1990 novel of the same time, this 1993 Steven Spielberg movie opened the door to a brand new world 65 million years in the making. For some reason if you haven’t seen the franchise here is a massive spoiler alert. I DO NOT OWN THE PICTURE.

Paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill), his paleobotanist girlfriend Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and mathematician/chaos theorist Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) are invited by industrialist John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), and a lawyer Donald Gennaro (Martin Ferrero) to verify that Hammond’s new park is safe. When they get to the island called Isla Nublar Grant, Ellie and Malcolm are stunned (to say the least) that Hammond and his team, including Dr. Henry Wu (B.D. Wong), Ray Arnold (Samuel L. Jackson) and Robert Muldoon (Bob Peck) have recreated dinosaurs using DNA from mosquito and frogs as well as keeping the dinosaurs all girls in order to prevent breading; Dr. Malcolm quickly disbelieves this famously stating “Life finds a way” as well as dismissing the thought of controlling the dinosaurs. Grant, Ellie, Malcolm, Gennaro and Hammond’s grandchildren Lex and Tim Murphy (Ariana Richards and Joseph Mazzello) go on a tour of the park, called Jurassic Park, and that is when things go wrong. A tropical storm hits the island at the same time Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight), who has been bribed by a competitor to steal embryos, cuts off the security system in order to get to where they are stashed. However because of his stupidity the power goes off as well and trucks with Grant, Malcolm, Gennaro and the kids get stuck right by the Tyrannosaurs Rex area (for those who haven’t seen the film this ends about as well as you think.) Everyone soon has to find a way to survive in Jurassic Park with not only the T-Rex but velociraptors after them until help can arrive. About as far as I should go without giving away the rest of the movie.

I actually avoided this film when I was younger because dinosaurs freaked me out (also seeing people getting eaten on screen makes me nauseous.) However when Jurassic World was coming out my curiosity was getting the better of me and I finally sat down to watch all three films. My reviews for those will come later, as for this this is clearly the best of the Jurassic films so far (not just my opinion but a fact.) This is widely regarded as one of the best films of all time; not just in dinosaur but in terms of Spielberg films as well. Everyone in the movie did a fantastic job acting wise, the script was fantastic and the special effects, given how computers were back in the 90’s, were amazing. The dinosaurs in here are either robotics and/or CGI are so well done you would think they were actual dinosaurs. Of course I cannot forget about the incredible music on the background, one of the most recognizable themes in film and why Jurassic Park won Oscars for its sound mixing, editing and visual effects. While I think the three sequels, as well as the upcoming fourth this Friday, are/may not as good as this one it was still a great way to start off one of the best film franchises of all time. If you haven’t watched the original Jurassic Park I highly recommend it, I’d even call it a must see. In the words of John Hammond: “Welcome to Jurassic Park.”