There are two groups of Jurassic Park fans, those that liked Jurassic Park III and those that did not. It was a polarizing film upon release and it's easy to see why. Plagued by production problems from the start and filming starting without a completed script, it's a miracle we got a film at all. While I am a member of the former group, even I will admit that the third film has it flaws.
The film opens once again on Isla Sorna, which we are reminded is considered quarantined after the events of the second film. Moving along the coast is a small motorboat that belongs to a para-sailing company imaginatively titled Dino-Soar that offers parasailing tours of the coast of Isla Sorna where guests can try and catch a glimpse of the islands prehistoric residents. Their current clients are a young boy Eric Kirby (played by Trevor Morgan) and his mom's boyfriend, Ben (played by Mark Harelik). Before long, something goes wrong and the two men piloting the boat disappear after the boat goes through a fog bank (it's heavily implied they were carted off by Pteranodons) and the two of them have to disconnect from the boat and left sailing towards the island.
We then cut to Alan Grant (played by Sam Neill), who is continuing to try and find funding for his digs for fossils but to his dismay all anyone wants to ask him about is Jurassic Park. Upon returning to his latest dig site, he meets up with his young protege Billy (played by Alessandro Nivola). They are quickly joined by Paul and Amanda Kirby (played by William H. Macy and Tea Leoni). They feed Alan and Billy a bunch of lies about being rich thrill seekers and upon promising to fund their dig for several years convince Alan and Billy to join them in flying over Isla Sorna. While we're on the subject, why the lies? Alan is a decent man, wouldn't the truth be better and more likely to result in Alan joining the rescue party? This is just the first of many indicators that script could've used some work. It's only after the plane has crashed on the island and the group is stranded that the truth comes out. Paul is the owner of a tile and bathroom fixtures store and the whole thing was a ruse to rescue their son. So, once again the film becomes about a group of stranded individuals trying to get off an island while avoiding getting eaten by dinosaurs.
Still, the film isn't all bad. It has more than it's fair share of cracking action sequences with both the Spinosaurus (our new main dinosaur baddie) attacking the crashed airplane, it's fight with the Tyrannosaurus Rex and our group's run in with the Pterodactyls as being the big stand outs of the film. It does fall apart a bit at the end though as there is a climactic showdown between the humans and the Spinosaurus that is certainly thrilling, but after they get away from that the group is conveniently rescued by the Marines and the movie just ends with a shrug.
The film's direction is taken over by Joe Johnston this time around and does a fairly good job of keeping the film's brisk pace moving along. The writing this time though is a bit all over the place, with more emphasis being placed on the action sequences than on the characters, which isn't surprising considering the film's brief ninety minute running time. Sam Neill does a good job reprising his role as Alan Grant from the first film and is certainly the best character in the film. Both Paul and Amanda are fairly thinly drawn characters and any good will the audience has towards them are due to the actors performance. Beyond that, the only other character that is well drawn at all is Erik, who managed to survive eight weeks on his own on the island (the boyfriend didn't fare as well, as his remains are found by our intrepid rescue party. Amanda gets over the loss in record time though).
The effects work this time is much more slapdash, most likely another casualty of the troubled production. Among the worst offenders are the shoddy green screen work, the over-reliance on CGI imagery and a rather unconvincing Spinosaurus animatronic. It is disappointing that a film series known for it's groundbreaking effects work took a step backwards.
I have mixed feelings about Jurassic Park III. On one hand, I can appreciate it for the brisk ninety minute thrill ride that it is. But on the other, I can't help but think that if they had just taken a little more time and thought things out a little better it could have been a much, much better film.
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