JURASSIC PARK 3

It's July 4th and as usual it's time for me to review a sequel from Steven Spielberg's unofficial Monster Trilogy. Considering that the new generation of Jurassic Park movies "Jurassic World: The Fallen Kingdom" was released less than a month ago (that I did not see yet), I say now would be the perfect time for me to review the third installment to the "Jurassic Park" films...

I've only seen the film once during my Middle School years in the same year when I decided to give "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" a re-watch. I remember my experience viewing the film vaguely, except that I was more entertained by it than the second movie. The only other thing I remember about the film was how much it was hyped up during the promos for the DVD releases of the first two films, as the DVDs themselves would contain a live hotlink to the set of the third film and a teaser trailer. It wasn't until the announcement for the release of "Jurassic World" when I began to hear critics, comedians, and people on social media constantly talk about how awful the third film was, since everyone at the time was re-watching these films to hype themselves up for the new one. So, for a while, I've began debating on which one of these two was the worst of the sequels before "Jurassic World", and now after witnessing the film once more, it's officially time for me to make that conclusion! ON WITH THE REVIEW!

Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neil) still continues to dig for dinosaur bones after the events of the first film, and has gained fame from what happened at the park in which he feels a bit frustrated that people only care about his experience at the park, than the factual information about dinosaurs that he uncovered from his own discoveries. Grant vows to never ever return to "Jurassic Park" until (through a weak and lazy re-trend of what brought him to the Island in the first movie) he is offered a large sum of money to fund for his digging by a wealthy couple (played William H. Macy and Tea Leoni) if he will provide them an aerial tour of the island from the second movie for their anniversary. Upon reaching Site B, Grant discovers that the couple are divorced and that they're actually going to the island to rescue their son Eric (Trevor Morgan) who went missing while going parasailing by the island with Leoni's boyfriend, and needed Grant as an escort. Grant has never been to the second island and therefore doesn't know his way around, while the couple who hired him admit that they lied to him about being rich and can't pay him. Grant, the couple, his assistant Billy (Alessandro Nivola), and a mercenary (Michael Jeter) than get stranded on the island after crashing their plane when being chased by one of the dinosaurs, and must survive from the dinosaurs living on the island as they look for Eric and figure out how they're going to get out once they find him or what's left of him.

Some of the key problems that I hear many fans of the franchise complain about is the film being shorter than the previous two films and as a simplistic chase movie with no moral or theme regarding science and nature to tie the dinosaur action together. The reasons for why the film is nothing more than a simple chase B movie involving dinosaurs running at a shorter pace is mainly due to the fact that no one had a clear vision of what the film would be like until filming wrapped up. As a matter of fact, filming for the movie began before the script was completed since so many ideas were rejected. The writer of the two books Michael Crichton offered a few ideas that were turned down; the director of the last two films Steven Spielberg had the idea to have a story of Dr. Alan Grant living on the Island in a tree to study the dinosaurs for not being allowed to further his research on dinosaurs, that was rejected since the film's director Joe Johnston didn't believe that Alan would return to the island after his near-death encounter with the dinosaurs; and a story involving teenagers stranded on the island was dropped because Johnston felt that the concept seemed like "a bad episode of friends". After the idea involving the teenagers, a second script was completed that involved Alan and Billy along with a group of other people (who are in many ways similar to the characters in the film) visiting the island to conduct an investigation surrounding mysterious and unusual killings happening on the mainland that they believe are escaped dinosaurs. Arriving at the Island they crash land and use their skills of survival when encountering the dinosaurs. Meanwhile on the mainland it would eventually be revealed that the creatures responsible for the mysterious deaths were the Pteranodons. The project was then green-lit, and effects, costumes, and sets were being created, as the casting for the lead roles were complete. However, 5 weeks before shooting began, Johnston and the film's producer Steven Spielberg abandon the entire script feeling that it was too complicated. With little time to start filming and to figure out a plot to tie all the dinosaur action together, David Koepp who wrote the screenplay for the first two films suggested that the film's story should just be focused on recusing a kid stranded on the island, since it will be easy to make and will allow Johnston and the team to do as much as they want with the dinosaurs, and use ideas that were left over from the previous two films that were cut out for time or budget constraints. Considering how much trouble that Johnston and Spielberg had with the scripts that they were given it's no wonder why they gave us such a short and basic sequel, which is disappointing but truthfully after reviewing the first of the "Jurassic Park" sequels, I'm in many ways glad for it. That's not to say that I don't wish that the film was longer or had a much more cleverly written plot, if anything I wish that the script they had before rejecting it near the last minute was the film's overall story. It’s just considering how overlong and dull the second film was that had a forced and horribly executed animal rights message, I like that the film just tries to play it safe by removing the themes that the previously two films had so it won't seem redundant, and just providing us a non-stop dinosaur action flick for nearly the entirety of the film for its shorter run time. With the film being short and deciding to exploit the dinosaurs more without feeling the need to preach us a message that we've already heard from the first film, of course that doesn't automatically make it a good movie. It still needs to have interesting characters, effects as strong as the last two movies, and a sense of enchantment, adventure, and horror, which were all the elements that made the first film such a classic.

In the second film two of the main characters from its successor were brought back (4 if you count that forced and awkward cameo of Lex and Tim) with the original actors reprising their roles, where this film decides to do the same exact thing. Sam Neil reprising his role as Dr. Alan Grant was nowhere near as disappointing as seeing Jeff Goldblum reprise his role as Ian Malcolm in the previous film. That's mainly due to the fact the film stayed faithful to his character by not taking away all the characteristics that made Grant such an interesting and likable character that Neil himself grandly recaptures. His dry and deadpan sarcasm along with his stubborn and tough attitude are still entertaining to watch. And how he talks about dinosaurs is still amusing for how serious and into it he is. My favorite moment regarding his talk about dinosaurs is in his introduction scene when he tells a kid that's playing with his toy dinosaurs of what dinosaur to use to fight each other when he sees him using two herbivores. I can't think of a time where I found myself being bored or annoyed by Neil's on-screen presence for how highly enjoyable his performance is. The only problem with the character's overall presence in the movie is much like how I felt the second film should have Neil the star, this film should've had Goldblum as the star since his character was at the second island in the last film, when Neil wasn't (that Grant humorously establishes twice in the film). This was most likely because of the problems that went on with the scripts and ideas given to Johnston and Spielberg, and I'll definitely take Sam Neil over Jeff Goldblum who just played a lifeless version of such an excessive character, but wouldn't it be nice to see these two work-off each other again since they were fun to watch when interacting in the first film. It's not like Jeff Goldblum turned down being in the movie, in fact he was never approached to be in the third installment to the franchise. But then again, if Malcolm's character is going to still remain the same way as he was when we saw him last, maybe perhaps it was best to leave him out altogether.

Besides, Goldblum absence wouldn't be as missed as leaving out Grant's girlfriend Dr. Ellie Sattler played once again by Laura Dern. Dern gives her role the same amount of charm as Neil does with his role, where the interaction between them still feels natural as the discussions that they both have about dinosaurs comes across as believable and engaging. When the film ended it was implied that Grant is ready to have kids and that they're thinking about taking their relationship to the next level. And when I saw them together, I was overjoyed to see Grant have a family with Sattler looking completely happy...until we find out in the very same scene that they're no longer together, and that the kids that Grant is with are actually from the family that Sattler is having with another man. It's almost as if the film was trolling us into believing he's with Sattler, than straight up telling us that his character-arc in the first film meant nothing. And the guy she's with only appears briefly in two scenes shown back to back with exposition on what he does that's more easy to miss than Lex being a hacker, whose presence is so pointless (aside from being a tool for the ending) and forgettable (where I don't so much as remember his name, a line he says, or what he exactly looks like) that it baffles me of why these two were split-up in the first place, especially when already acting like a happy couple. If it's because that these two weren't supposed to go to the island together, or that Dern was only available for a short amount of time, I'm sure the writers could've come up with some kind of reason for it, even if it isn't plausible. After all they did come up with weak reasons for why Grant goes to the island, and why he's in this film instead of Goldblum. Just anything except for the two splitting up.

 

Apart from the break-up and the weak writing for why Grant is going to site B, I'm in the very least glad that two of the original cast members from the first installment to the franchise haven't lost their charm, because if they have I would like them just as much as the supporting cast of the film, as well as the characters from "The Lost World". Instead of Sattler always being at Grant's side and going to the island with him, we have a bland college kid named Billy being put in her place. I'm not going to act like he's completely unappealing because there are one or two things that I find interesting about him. His plan of stealing Raptor eggs to sell them is foolish since they're part of the reason for why they're being chased by the Velociraptors, but his reasons for doing so are understandable since he wants to fund Grant's dig site for another 10 years. He could've easily been a needless villain like the poachers in "The Lost World" or Vincent D' Onofrio's character in "Jurassic World" but they instead make him a regular kid who thinks he's doing right as much as Hammond felt like cloning dinosaurs, which I find to be fitting and quite welcoming. I also like that there are subtle hints that he may possibly be the one responsible for the expedition since he seems to know the couple in-need of Grant's help for how they instantly know his name, and how he's fully on board with having dinner with them and going to the island. He probably thought that the couple missing their son on the island and using Grant to help them would be the perfect way of having the two meet and going to the island with them to steal dinosaur eggs. It's not fully implied, but if that's the case, I have to praise what a mastermind this kid is. However, what holds this character back from being anything special is Nivola dull and annoyingly dweeb delivery that prevents his character from being appealing. Michael Jeter who is usually enjoyable to watch isn't given much of a character or a personality in this film, who's talent and presence feels wasted, where he doesn't leave any impression except for his last appearance in the film.

I'll at least give Jeter and Nivola this, they're nowhere near as insufferable as the Kirby’s who lured Grant to the island. I can't remember a single character in any of the previous two films who were as annoying as these two are. William H. Macy is a terrific actor but he's not given much to work with. All he does is act scarred, annoyed, and make jokes (that don't at all feel like are jokes) as he and his wife constantly keep shouting their son's name through the jungle and talk about how smart and strong Eric is over and over to the point where you're praying for the dinosaurs to eat them. Macy gives an awkward performance for the little he's given to do that makes me wish that he wasn't as wasted as Jeter's appearance in the film. But what makes the misuse of such a great actor more painful and why I consider these two to be the most annoying characters in the franchise is Tea Leoni as the wife! She is one of the most annoying, dumbest, dullest, and useless damsel in distress characters I have ever seen a film! When she's not bursting your ear drums while giving you a headache in the process from shouting when she's either in danger, gazing at something horrifying for a long period of time, and calling Eric with her husband (and at one point with a megaphone to heighten the levels of irritation and stupidity), she's as unemotionally cold and lifeless as a robot that has a duh look on its face for how she hangs open her jaw. Even when finding and comforting her son she still comes across as robotic.

The only supporting character who's as likable, interesting, and well-acted as Neil and Dern is the kid they're searching for. I'm sorry to give it away for newcomers of the film, but I do feel the need to address this character. This is a kid who has spent 8 weeks on the island with man-eating dinosaurs as he tries to find ways to survive, which is a concept that I find to be so fascinating that it makes me wish that he was the focus of the film, or had more screen-time showing more of his survival skills. Just how Trevor Morgan explains his skills of survival and interest in science with Grant, makes me believe that this is a witty kid who's been on the island for a while with no sense of how long it’s been. It's a good if not great performance that shocks me that the same kid who starred in something as stupid as "Barney's Great Adventure" can upstage the likes of Macy and Jeter. There's only one major downside to this character. As soon as he's together with all the main characters, he stops being interesting and becomes as much of a helpless victim as his parents are, which takes away all believability that this kid is a strong survivor since we don't get to really see him demonstrate his skills and knowledge afterward.

 

There were fans who were disappointed that Spielberg wasn't in the director's chair and that John Williams didn't compose the music for the film like the other films before it. But I didn't think Joe Johnston was a bad choice since he's been known for directing adventure family classics with dazzling special effects like "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" and "Jumanji". And Don Davis who took over Williams place as a composer does a fine job of composing the score for the film that sounds similar to Williams’ original score but still has an original style to make it stand out as its own thing. Special effects wizard Stan Winston who helped make the dinosaurs look so real, returns to the franchise a third time, where you can tell from the behind-the-scenes footage that plenty of time and effort went into creating the animatronics for the dinosaurs. Most of the characters are either poorly written or not acted well, but at least they hired the right people to try to make the action and visual elements of the film appealing than in the previous films.

However, right from the characters first real on-screen encounter with the dinosaurs, I was disappointed. The CGI used for the dinosaurs look nearly as a cheap as a movie from the Syfy channel for how colorfully 3-D animated they look. The shots of the dinosaurs running in the distant make them look uncanny to the point where you are aware that somebody animated and pasted them onto the backgrounds, and the close-up shots of the CGI dinosaurs make them look faker (and trust me there's plenty of those shots) and downright hideous for how obviously computer generated they are. And don't think that I believe the animatronics look better than the crappy CGI, because they're just as bad. When I watch the animatronic and puppetry for the dinosaurs in any of the two "Jurassic Park" films, I'm fully convinced that they are alive from how they move, breath, and are shot and edited. The animatronics in this film though, I got more of the vibe that I was looking at the dinosaurs from the "Universal Studios" theme park ride for how limited their moments are as their heads just move back and forth as they blink and open their mouths in a very mechanical way. And what makes these effects even more degrading is since they're always switching back and forth between CGI and animatronics it’s easier to spot the changes since neither of them look convincing. Granted, nowadays we can tell the difference between both effects for the dinosaurs in the original films, but they still look fantastically realistic that are still at times hard to spot which one is computer and which one isn't. The only effects that look convincing in this film are the sets and location shots of Hawaii for when the characters are in the jungle, where it’s incredibly hard to tell between the sets and actual locations they used for how they blend so perfectly together.

I'm not going to pretend that every single shot and effect regarding the dinosaurs are dreadful, because there are a few times where the dinosaurs will look convincing. Some close-up shots of the animatronic dinosaurs like the Pteranodons, the Spinosaurus, and the Velociraptors look life-like. There are times where the CGI for the Pteranodons would look believeable, I guess mainly for how grey and dark the backgrounds are which makes their designs easier to blend in. As fake as the dinosaurs looked in the stampede scene, I still felt the impact of it from the sound effects, speed, and how the actors interacted with the fake dinosaurs. And the entire sequence with the Spinosaurus attacking the boat is easily the best scene that whole the film has to offer for how incredibly realistic the Spinosaurus looks when compared to the other scenes. The reason for it is because in order for the effects team to hide its limited movements and cheesy CGI effects, they set the scene in a dark environment full of rain while using fast editing to make the dinosaur appear to be real. And it's not like you can't get a good look at the dinosaur because you do, so it's not using the tricks used in "JAWS", or shaking the camera or blurring things to the point where you can't see a thing. Throw in a scene where the characters are trapped in a cage as they are nearly drowning and about to be eaten as they call for help, and you have the most intense scene in the movie. The only part that ruins this thrilling sequence is when we see a cameo from Barney for when Sattler's kid answers the phone and gets distracted a bit when he sees the purple beast on TV! Unless this is a music video by Weird Al Yankovic, Barney should never ever appear in a "Jurassic Park" film! The effects on the whole are still terrible when comparing them to the other movies, but at least there are moments and a scene or two where they'll look good, if not as outstanding (and most of those scenes where they look good involves them being in darkness)!

In my review of "The Lost World" I expressed how disappointed I was in the appearance of the Velociraptor who lost all sense of scares and intelligence since they were being reduced to as a pack of mindless wild animals. I can't say that they look scary in this movie either, because aside from how fake they look, the tension and jump scares involving them feel just as tamed as they were when we last saw these creatures. The first time we ever see them, and even a dinosaur for that matter in the whole film is during a dream-sequence that Grant has where he sees that everyone on the plane has vanished and sitting beside him is a raptor hanging-loose while causally saying his name. It's a beyond silly and embarrassing way of showing off the dinosaurs for the first time in any "Jurassic Park" film, especially with ones as frightening as the Velociraptors! At least thank God it's a stupid dream-sequence, and not Grant's actual encounter with them. What does however make them look less creepy and more comical when he does encounter them outside of the dream-sequence is the feathers added on to their heads. Now I get that it's been scientifically proven that Velociraptors had feathers, but considering the fact that dinosaurs aren't still roaming around and that these films are more based on Sci-Fi than they are on actual facts, I don't at all mind the liberties that were given to the dinosaurs one bit. That doesn't mean that I'm not opened to seeing actual representations of dinosaurs either, it just doesn't bother me as much as other people may feel for how scary, enchanting, and awesome they look where I see their recreations to part of the Sci-Fi element of the films. Still as less frightening as the Raptors are, what I am pleased about is how the film portrays them as smart creatures again where we witness how they communicate with one another while finding ways to outsmart the humans as they seek to get back the eggs that Billy stole from them. I will admit however that the Raptor whistle that Grant uses against them is a bit ridiculous that just raises a number of questions.

If you're wondering why I haven't brought up the T-Rex at all when discussing the dinosaurs that's because she gets axed off by the new dinosaur the Spinosaurus as soon as she's introduce in a very short fight scene. The reason for it was due to the fact that the neck for the T-Rex animatronic was damaged and repairing it was too expensive to fix, resulting with a central character to the franchise being killed nearly as quickly as Godzilla killed most of his foes in "Final Wars". I don't hate the Spinosaurus because with bad effects aside, she does have all the qualities of what made the T-Rex so great (including having the same implausible but shocking and awesome stealth that the T-Rex had at the end of the first movie) except that she has the advantage to seek out her prey on both land and sea since she can swim underwater when attacking and sneaking up to her victim, and has a larger snout when compared to the T-Rex’s! I just wish the T-Rex wasn't axed off so quickly, and gave us an equal amount of scenes of them chasing after the characters and concluding the film with an epic fight, rather than having the film wrap-up so abruptly that it leaves you with more questions than the Raptor whistle for how little sense it makes that is served complete with a cop-out regarding the fate to one of the characters. But considering what happened to the T-Rex puppet, though it angers me I still can't fully blame the makers of the film for the decision that they were forced to make.

A dinosaur that I wished to see in the original film were Pterodactyls or Pteranadons since I felt that the park wouldn't be complete without a dinosaur that could fly. "The Lost World" had a few, but we didn't see them attack or do anything except appear in the very last shot of the movie, as if the film was saying to us "here's your Pterodactyls, happy now?" And though we'd get a much better scene involving these creatures in "Jurassic World", it was still neat to finally have a scene of these dinosaurs soaring, pecking, and picking up their victims. It wasn't as suspenseful or exciting as I hoped it would be, but there are still one or two unsettling shots of the creatures and a sense of weight despite how fake they look and the environment looking nearly as bland as it did in the last film. I'll at least give the film this, they at least look much more convincing here than they would be in the following film.

I've talked about how the film lacks as much suspense and terror in "The Lost World", well it also lacks its awe and wonder as well.  Remember in the first film when we were given time to admire the dinosaurs like when we saw them for the first time, or witnessed a baby dinosaur hatch out of her egg, or watched the characters get a close encounter with a Triceratops? Well, these scenes come and go by so quickly, that you're not given the same amount of time to appreciate their beauty since they only last for at least 30 seconds if not 2 minutes. And the strange part is when we do get a long and close look at the dinosaurs when they're not attacking the characters, they either look monstrously uncanny or are doing things that aren't nearly as enchanting as the characters make it out to be. Like when the Pteranadons leave the island to find a new nesting ground in a most likely inhabited environment that could mean death to millions of people. Why do the characters find it so wonderful after nearly being torn apart by them?! Did they forget how dangerous they were for how beautiful they look when they fly?! I'm just happy that this moment wasn't used in the first film as Spielberg originally intended.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

This film and "The Lost World" are neither good movie at all. They're not all that enchanting; they're hardly ever fun, thrilling or awesome to watch; the majority of characters in both films are either boring, idiotic, or annoying; and some of the decisions that both films make are downright cringe-worthy for fans of the original classic! But if I had to say which one of these films has a better advantage for being easy to sit through, if not less painful, I would strangely have to go with "Jurassic Park 3". Sam Neil is highly entertaining as the script stays true to his character, while Jeff Goldblum (who is my favorite character and performance in the first film) is as dull as a rock with all his life and characteristics being drained out of him, that I find to be much worse than Grant and Sattler splitting-up (though that still angers me). The fact that this film has no moral or theme regarding the dinosaurs and is just a simple point A to point B action/adventure flick, serves the film better than the poorly written "Animal Rights Message" in the second film, where this one spends most of its time giving us more focus on the dinosaur action while making good use out of scenes that were rejected in the last two films. The shorter run time makes getting through all the crap that the film throws at us more tolerable when the second film went on for so long that it took nearly forever for it to end for how boring it was. As bad as the writing for Grant, Sattler, and Eric can be at times at least are likable, when all the characters from the last film weren't. Everything regarding the film's atmosphere looks more colorful and appropriately dark, when the look for the second film though big is still hideous to look at for how dirty, grey, and dreary it is. And though the film has some terribly goofy moments, they're not as stupid as the Velociraptors poor depiction of being mindless creatures, and the T-Rex's short and cartoony attack on San Diego since it doesn't fit the rest of the film's dark and serious nature. The only two advantages that the second film has is that the effects for the dinosaurs look awesome, while the effects in this film mostly stink; and offers more memorable deaths for how gruesome they can be, as the deaths here are nothing special. "The Lost World" may be better on a technical level, but this film wins on an entertaining level which I find to be a little more appealing by comparison. However, if one thing is certain when regarding any of these two films, they’re both a complete waste of time that has little good in them.