Jurassic Park III (2001)
DIRECTOR: Joe Johnston
CAST: Sam Neill, William H. Macy, Tea Leoni, Alessandro Nivola, Trevor Morgan, Michael Jeter, John Diehl, Laura Dern
REVIEW:
Ironic for a series about genetically resurrected dinosaurs, the Jurassic Park franchise just keeps devolving. 1997’s The Lost World had its moments but was a step down, and now Jurassic Park III is easily the weakest entry yet. With Steven Spielberg moving on and replaced in the director’s chair by Joe Johnston (he of such mediocre titles as Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and Jumanji), the third installment has descended into a pointless hour and a half of generic scurrying around that when it’s over barely feels like it happened.
Just as The Lost World manufactured contrived reasons for getting Jeff Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm back onto a dinosaur-populated island, Jurassic Park III has now done the same for Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill), who’s lured away from his beloved Montana fossil excavation sites, along with hunky assistant Billy (Alessandro Nivola), by a hefty paycheck dangled by the (supposedly) wealthy couple Paul and Amanda Kirby (William H. Macy and Tea Leoni), who want the dinosaur expert to be their tour guide on a flyover of Isla Sorna which they insist will stay at a safe distance. It’s not long before Grant finds out the Kirbys are not what they present themselves as, and are neither wealthy nor happily married, but an estranged couple brought back together in a desperate rescue mission searching for their missing son Eric (Trevor Morgan), who’s lost somewhere on the island, and it’s not much longer than that before he’s once again being menaced by T-Rexes and Raptors, along with a “new” menace, a Spinosaurus even larger and more powerful than a T-Rex.
The limitations that have been present in the franchise since day one are now glaring. Character interaction and characterization, never a strong suit of the series, is now virtually nonexistent. The dinosaurs, while still well-rendered on a technical level (though there’s too many shots of less polished CGI, indicating the special effects team is getting lazy and not putting the same level of care and attention that went into the original film, possibly as a result of Steven Spielberg no longer captain of the ship) have lost their sense of awe and grandeur and are relegated to generic movie monsters chasing the equally (or even more) generic humans around. The movie plays out like a non-interactive video game, rehashing the “lost on an untamed island” basics of The Lost World but in even more rote fashion, hurtling from one generic action setpiece to another. The movie has no real “climax”, just a deus ex machina. And it zips by so fast (an hour and a half) that there’s a feeling of “is that all?” when it’s all over.
When it comes to the dinosaurs—which everyone knows are the main attractions, no matter what human “stars” are in the cast—Jurassic Park III serves up some new entries, including a sequence in a Pteranodon aviary (a plot element adapted from a scene in the original Jurassic Park novel) and most prominently the new “big bad” the Spinosaurus, but while the Spinosaurus is a formidable adversary, it’s just a generic “big monster” that pops up whenever we need another action sequence. The Raptors’ ostensible intelligence has been bumped up even more so, with Sam Neill monologuing about them being “smarter than dolphins or primates” (which feels like rather an exaggeration based on anything we actually see from them), and them setting traps for the humans and “speaking” to each other (one is left half-surprised the movie doesn’t throw in subtitles this time). There are also three unforgivably irksome points. One is the shoddy treatment dealt out to the T-Rex, who makes a fleeting cameo before being unceremoniously dispatched to clear the way for the Spinosaurus as the new “big bad”. It’s like watching Darth Vader get killed off in the first few minutes of The Return of the Jedi. Another is the way the movie cheats its way out of a “heroic/redemptive sacrifice” in contrived and unlikely fashion (Steven Spielberg gets called a “feel good” director, but in The Lost World he had no such problem giving a “good guy” arguably the most gruesome demise in the movie). The third is undoing the “happy ending” of the original movie with an early scene making it clear that Grant and Ellie (Laura Dern in a cameo) are no longer a couple (she has a husband not named Alan Grant, and children). Ellie has only a couple minor appearances, is not directly involved in any of the action, and nothing would have changed plotwise had she and Grant been allowed to remain a couple. It’s a minor, but irksome point.
It’s clear the movie was trying to hang onto some respectability by managing to bring back Sam Neill, but one can’t help but wonder how much acting is involved in Neill’s grumpy demeanor as the long-suffering Dr. Grant is dragged back onto an island full of dinosaurs he thought he’d never have to go through again. It’s undeniable that Neill’s returning presence is welcome and enjoyable, but he’s relegated to playing the “straight man”/”expert no one listens to until it’s too late” to an ensemble of goofy sidekicks. As for the supporting cast, they’re hands down the weakest bunch yet in a Jurassic Park movie, and considering the characters have always been thinly-developed, it’s saying something how much of a step down this batch is. Not only do William H. Macy and Tea Leoni make for an odd couple—and their lack of any chemistry doesn’t help—but the bumbling Kirbys are as inept as they are annoying; one could hardly have blamed Grant for abandoning them to fend for themselves and finding his own way off the island (especially given the way they conned him into this mission in the first place, albeit with motives more desperate than villainous). Alessandro Nivola fares a little better as the hunky Billy, who seems like the only person other than Grant who has any idea what he’s doing, until making a thuddingly ill-advised decision. Trevor Morgan is adequate, but a child going full-blown survivalist on a dinosaur-filled island feels eye-rollingly unlikely, and his “bonding” with Grant feels forced and unnatural (Grant’s bonding with Lex and Tim in the original felt more credible). Laura Dern makes a glorified cameo, and Michael Jeter and John Diehl are onhand as our requisite redshirts.
In my review of The Lost World, I said the lack of freshness and falling back on generic “trapped on monster island”-esque tropes left room for doubt that there was anywhere else for this premise to go. Jurassic Park III has proven this franchise is out of gas; in fact, it feels like a generic rehash of The Lost World itself. It’s uninspired and obligatory, and when all is said and done, it feels like a superfluous side tangent whose existence is unnecessary.
* * 1/2