Jurassic Park III

The Jurassic Park franchise had to add something new. It had to add something invigorating. It couldn't recycle old dinosaurs and a tired formula for the next installment in one of the studio's most successful series. If you're to make a third film, you need to separate it from the others. It has to have something unique in its emphasis and its content. Thankfully, the chosen creators of our new dino flick had a couple of tricks up their sleeves. Jurassic Park III is totally different than the first two films, and while it doesn't even attempt to be the intelligent evolutionary lecture that the first one does, it still manages to entertain.

To keep things fresh, the screenwriters worked off of newly discovered artifacts from 60 million years ago. New bones had actually been found of a dinosaur that perhaps dominated over even the T-Rex late in their rule. Our new dinosaur is Spinosaurus, and he is one mean guy. He's huge, is attracted to T-Rex pee, and snaps necks for fun. Perhaps the most thrilling part of the film is the showdown between the original Jurassic Park's baddie and the new dominant force. Another welcome addition to the dino-team are pterodactyls. These flying menaces swoop out of the fog to drag a body to the mouths of its babies where they peck incessantly, chomping off bits of flesh.

The Raptors are the dominant dino-aspect of the story once again, and it is theorized that their communication, as witnessed in the first two films, is much more complex than ever thought. It seems now that they're able to lay traps, they can call in reinforcements, and would have been the dominant species on the planet if not for the cataclysmic asteroid that struck the Earth.

All this may sound somewhat silly, and you're right. JP3 doesn't really pretend to hide the story's shortcomings. They're there for everyone to see. Once again the proceedings base entirely around a rescue mission, but this time it's of a young kid who has somehow lived for six weeks in dino-ville. The story surely isn't the film's strongpoint, neither is the occasionally horrid dialogue. The film's strengths lie in its special effects and frantic action.

The dinosaurs have never looked so good. Rather than the somewhat glossy texture of the skin in the first film, and, to a lesser degree, in the second film, these dinosaurs are rugged. Their skin is reptile-like, giving them a much meaner, unapproachable appearance. Even the "harmless" dinosaurs register as being a little scary. Their movement is more fluid than in the first two films and they're actually given expressions on their "facial" features. When they get pissed off in this film, you really want to get out of their way.

Once the action starts about twenty minutes in, the film essentially becomes one chase sequence after another. Each is actually pretty thrilling. None resemble any of those before it which keeps things fresh. The script is preoccupied with giving chance after chance for quick action and almost a complete lack of character development. Our lead characters, therefore, are paper thin and we really don't care if they live or die. Actually, to be honest, I was hoping more of them would die at the jaws of local hero Spinosaurus.

The film's a lean 88 minutes. It glides along in its action and lack of character development. The script is nothing to be admired, but who cares. Those who see the film, myself included, want to see action and dinosaurs. What I got was abundant action and neat looking new dinosaurs. While Jurassic Park III isn't a milestone picture, it's at least entertaining and pretty much what I expected and wanted.

On a scale of 1 to 10 spine-breaks : 6