‘Great, just great. We’re in the worst place in the world and we’re not even being paid…’
It’s astonishing really that there are now seven films in the Jurassic Park/World franchise. The concept of Jurassic Park is so perfect that it is literally impossible to improve upon it – ‘add more dinosaurs’ is no way to develop a franchise. The Lost World, the first sequel in the franchise, is… fine, I guess. This third entry, while nowhere near as bad as some of the later films in the franchise, still feels totally unnecessary. What are we doing here? Who is this for? These questions are never answered in a way that is convincing…
Despite the fact that we have already seen what happens when humans descend upon an island filled with dinosaurs (twice), we once again find ourselves in a situation where humans have very much descended upon an island full of dinosaurs. This time, the humans include a returning Sam Neill as Alan Grant, as well as William H. Macy, Tea Leoni and Alessandro Nivola. The latter three are obviously playing characters, but these characters are so poorly defined that I have already forgotten every single thing about them.
While the characters are so thinly drawn that they barely exist, director Joe Johnston does know his way around CGI having already been at the helm for Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and Jumanji. As a consequence of this, the one saving grace of Jurassic Park III is that the visual effects still look great, even almost thirty years on. Unfortunately, that is not enough to make anyone care about the characters. If Jurassic World: Dominion taught us anything, it’s that bringing back beloved characters is not enough. Neill does his best here, and there are also a couple of scenes with Laura Dern that threaten to revive some of the old magic, but ultimately, Jurassic Park III is a classic example of diminishing returns. Without the steady hand of Steven Spielberg behind the camera, we are left with a serviceable family adventure movie that would probably have benefitted from being surgically removed from the Jurassic Park franchise altogether.
I first saw Jurassic Park III around 15 years ago, and in the intervening years I had forgotten everything about it. This second viewing has already started to slip from my memory and it’s been less than 15 days – competent, but forgettable.
