Dino Flicks/Franchises: Jurassic Park. Jurassic Park III (2001)

In December of 2000, I got a surprise early Christmas present from, if I remember correctly, my sister and brother-in-law: the 25th anniversary edition of Jaws on VHS, which came with two tapes, one for the movie and the other for bonus features. While it wasn't something I'd asked for, as I wasn't that familiar or enamored with Jaws at the time, having only seen bits of it on TV, it was a welcome surprise, nonetheless. On the tape with the movie, there was an advertisement for the DVD releases of both Jurassic Park and The Lost World, both of which were already out at that point. Moreover, the ad noted how these discs came with, "A DVD industry first: an exclusive live hot-link to the set of Jurassic Park III." Like with The Lost World, I had hear rumors about a third Jurassic Park movie (I didn't know it had been officially announced as early as June of 1998), but this ad made it official for me. That said, I wasn't nearly as excited for it as I had been with the first two. Part of that may have been because, when I saw this ad, I was thirteen, and was fourteen by the time the movie came out in the summer of 2001. In other words, I was no longer that wide-eyed six-year old who saw and became obsessed with the original back in 1993, or the nine-year old who was equally enthused about the second. My love for the first two movies, especially the original, hadn't wavered, but my tastes were changing, and I was getting much more into R-rated horror movies and the James Bond movies, so I was kind of indifferent about yet another Jurassic Park. Another reason for my attitude may have been how, just as others felt about The Lost World, Jurassic Park III felt like a cash-grab to me. Granted, both the second film and the book it was based on were only made because the first one was a giant hit, but you still had Steven Spielberg directing and some of the original cast members returning, with their characters being taken in new directions. Even though, as I said, I've always had mixed feelings about The Lost World and can now see how Spielberg, as he himself admitted, lost his enthusiasm while making it, at least it still felt like there was genuine intent behind making it. But when I heard that Spielberg wasn't directing Jurassic Park III, it made it feel like this was nothing more than a way for Universal to see how many more bucks they could squeeze out of the franchise. And the title alone made it feel uninspired: just Jurassic Park III. While I've always been a bit annoyed that the second one didn't have a II in its title, at least it had something more eye-catching than simply Jurassic Park II.

I didn't see Jurassic Park III in the theater. In fact, to this day, it's the only one of these movies I didn't originally see in the theater, which shows how jaded I was at the time. If the opportunity to go see it had come around, I wouldn't have protested, but I wasn't clamoring to see it like the first two. I did see some behind-the-scenes footage and clips on that Cinema Secrets show on AMC that I've mentioned before, but that was it, until not long after Christmas of 2001, as my mom got the movie on VHS for me as a present. And after I watched it that first time, it seemed like my gut instinct about this being a hastily put together cash-in was right, as my reaction was merely, "Meh." I didn't think it was horrible, and it was definitely watchable, but the wonder and enchantment of the first movie was almost completely gone to me. Two things in particular made me feel this way: the story and running time. The plot came off like no care was put into the writing, with the only major thought behind it being, "Let's just find a way for people to become stranded on the island again so we can have more dinosaur action." Also, as much as I love Sam Neill and the character of Alan Grant, bringing him back felt like the safest, most predictable, and unoriginal casting decision after having Ian Malcolm lead the second movie. And then, there was the length: just 92 minutes, whereas the first two, and all the others made since, have at least been just over two hours long. That, again, made it feel hastily put together and that the filmmakers just wanted to get the characters on the island as quick as possible, so we could get to the dinosaurs as soon as possible.

After that, it probably won't surprise you when I say that, for a long time, Jurassic Park III was my least favorite of the franchise. But things change and, over time, my opinion on it has softened. I still don't think it's a great movie, and the story's rushed set-up, the overall plot, and the short running time still make it feel like the most unambitious entry, especially given the big swings the franchise has taken since. But, that said, I think I've grown to prefer it The Lost World, mainly because it doesn't have any of that movie's major pacing problems or choppy story structure. Indeed, for all its faults, Jurassic Park III is not boring. It's as lean and mean of a movie as you could ask for, with a pace that feels fast, fluid, and consistent from beginning to end, and it doesn't take any unnecessary detours, which The Lost World sometimes did. Also, like all of these movies, the special effects, both on the digital and practical side, are top notch (95% of them, anyway), especially the latter, and it's filled with a number of really exciting and well-shot action sequences and setpieces. And most of the characters, especially the returning Alan Grant, are worth rooting for. Even more so than the second film, it is mainly just a monster/survival movie, with little-to-none of the first film's sense of wonder. But, given the choice between a movie with that mentality that's as sluggish as The Lost World can be or one as tight as this, I'd go with this one. It makes for a more enjoyable summertime popcorn movie.

Despite it's having been officially designated as restricted, a twelve-year old boy and a man go parasailing near Isla Sorna. However, their initial elation and excitement turn to panic when the small boat they're tied to is badly damaged by something after it passes through a fog bank, and the two men onboard disappear completely. The boat threatens to crash against the rocks and, with no other choice, the pair disconnect from it and glide towards the island. Some time later, Dr. Alan Grant, who, in the years since the disaster at Isla Nublar, has continued working as a paleontologist, has fallen on hard times. Desperately seeking funding for his research into the intelligence and sophisticated social structure of the Velociraptor, he instead finds that people are more interested in Jurassic Park and Isla Sorna, with his research viewed as obsolete. Returning to his dig site in Montana after a failed attempt to secure backing, Grant breaks it to his young assistant, Billy Brennan, that they're going to have to close up shop soon. He then gets an unexpected visitor in Paul Kirby, the head of Kirby Enterprises, who invites him to have dinner with him and his wife to discuss a "proposition." Though Grant is reluctant, Billy presses him into going. Meeting Kirby and his wife, Amanda, at a bar, they tell Grant and Billy that they've chartered a plane to take them on an aerial tour of Isla Sorna, and they want Grant to come along as a guide. Naturally unwilling to do so, Grant is convinced when Kirby promises to make a huge contribution to his research. He and Billy join them on the flight, along with their associates, Udesky and Cooper, and the pilot, Nash. Upon reaching the island, flying low enough to see the dinosaurs, Grant is alarmed when he hears they plan to land. Despite his protests, they do so, and are promptly attacked by enormous, carnivorous dinosaur, a Spinosaurus, which destroys their plane, kills Cooper and Nash, and even kills a T-Rex that challenges it. After escaping the creature, Mr. and Mrs. Kirby confess that they're actually divorced and their twelve-year old son, Eric, disappeared near the island eight weeks earlier, along with Amanda's boyfriend, Ben Hildebrand. They tricked Grant into coming because they thought he'd been on Isla Sorna before, and now, they must try to find a way to escape, as well as find Eric, if he's still alive. In doing so, they not only have to avoid the Spinosaurus but also a family of persistent Velociraptors.

Like the first two, Jurassic Park III was originally meant as another collaboration between Steven Spielberg and Michael Crichton, but the latter would leave the project very early in its pre-production, instead opting to write his novel, Timeline. Spielberg was the one who came up with the idea of bringing back Alan Grant, initially having him living on Isla Sorna, a la Robinson Crusoe. The first screenwriter was Craig Rosenberg, who'd written and directed 1996's Hotel de Love, but his initial story, about a group of teenagers being stranded on Sorna during a family vacation gone awry, was deemed too complicated and focused too much on teen angst. Peter Buchman, a Seattle-based playwright who would go on to write Eragon and the Jackie Chan film, The Foreigner, was brought in to rewrite Rosenberg's script. What Buchman came up with would be stripped down to its basics for the final film, particularly the main action on the island, the parasailing at the beginning, and Grant being persuaded to go to Sorna in exchange for research funding. However, even though this script was the one that was greenlit, with location-scouting and set construction underway, just five weeks away from filming, Spielberg

and director Joe Johnston decided they didn't like it. They met with David Koepp, who had no part in writing the final screenplay this time around, but suggested that they simplify the story by getting rid of a subplot unfolding on the mainland, one suggesting that dinosaurs had not only managed to get there but were breeding, and instead focus solely on Grant and how he ends up on Sorna. Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, who'd been nominated for an Oscar for writing 1999's Election (which Payne also directed), and had done some rewriting on the screenplay for Meet the Parents, were then brought on to rework Buchman's script. The two of them worked intensely for a month to get it ready in time for shooting, knowing they had to write around existing sets and action sequences. They not only came up with the ultimate plot, but also tweaked a number of the characters and their relationships, and also had Ellie Sattler appear, as Laura Dern had starred in their film, Citizen Ruth.

In the end, Buchman, Payne, and Taylor were the ones who received credit for the film's screenplay, although work on it didn't end before filming. In fact, they went through the entire shoot without a complete final draft, with another writer, John August, who'd written Go and was a co-writer on Titan A.E. and the first Charlie's Angels movie, being brought in after filming began, and Buchman being brought back after him. Even very late into the shoot, several plot-points hadn't yet been worked out, including how exactly the movie was going to end. The ending that was ultimately used wasn't written by Buchman until December of 2000, and was shot in January. Needless to say, these constant rewrites made shooting very hard for both the actors and Johnston, and when the film was released, Payne and Taylor were disappointed to find that a lot of the humor they wrote into it wasn't used. It also explains why the movie feels so thrown together, because it basically was.

According to that advertisement I mentioned at the beginning, the hot-link to Jurassic Park III would enable you to, "Witness the creation of Steven Spielberg's newest dinosaurs." That would have you think that Spielberg was again directing, as it did me, but, again, he decided even before he began shooting The Lost World that he would step away from the franchise afterward. But, as noted, he was quite involved with Jurassic Park III's development, not only coming up with an initial story idea but also insisting that the Pteranodons finally have a prominent appearance in one of these movies. He storyboarded action sequences and, along with Johnston, decided that the screenplay they were intending to shoot wasn't to their satisfaction. However, while there are pictures and footage of him on the set, as you see here, according to William H. Macy, Spielberg wasn't there much, even though a chair with his name on it was. That's mainly because he had his hands full developing both A.I. Artificial Intelligence, which would come out around the same time as Jurassic Park III, and Minority Report.

Joe Johnston had started out as an effects artist and art director, working on films like the original Star Wars trilogy and Raiders of the Lost Ark (for which he was one of four to collect an Oscar for his work), and was also a second unit director on Batteries Not Included, as well as a producer on Willow. He made his directorial debut in 1989 with Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and, in the following years, directed The Rocketeer, The Pagemaster, and Jumangi with Robin Williams (the latter two I remember liking a lot when I was a kid, though I haven't seen them in years). He had expressed interest in directing The Lost World but, of course, Spielberg had already decided to direct that himself. However, he promised Johnston that, if they made a third one, he could direct it and, sure enough, it came to pass. When I first did this review, I said that, like most effects artists turned directors, Johnston is great at directing action scenes and big effects extravaganzas, but when it comes to acting and character development, he sucks. What I didn't know at the time was that he'd ,directed the down-to-Earth, very human story, October Sky, which I saw back when I was in high school and remember liking. After re-watching Jurassic Park III and warming up to it, and thinking back to the performances in Jumangi, especially Williams, I retract what I said before. Johnston still may not be one of the greatest directors ever, but I now think he's more talented than I and others people have given him credit for.

I also have more sympathy for Johnston now, as I've learned that, as would later happen when he did The WolfMan, shooting Jurassic Park III was rather nightmarish for him. Here, at least, he was the director from start to finish, but the constant script rewrites were so bad that he's admitted he sometimes thought about quitting, describing the shoot as, "A living hell on a daily basis." By the time he got to the end of production, he was more than happy to sit down and edit it. Reflecting on it in the book, Jurassic Park: The Ultimate Visual History, he said that he does have mixed feelings about it but feels that, overall, it's fairly good, especially given the circumstances of its creation. He was involved off and on with the fourth movie, which was stuck in development hell for over a decade, but, by the time it finally emerged as Jurassic World, Johnston was long gone.

As much as it may have initially felt to me like they were going through the motions in bringing him back, I can't deny that it is nice seeing Sam Neill reprise the role of Dr. Alan Grant. And even though he doesn't get a ton to delve into (although he himself has said that he thinks his performance here is better than in the first), I do like how Neill approaches the character here. While he didn't suffer the public and professional ridicule that Ian Malcolm did, the years since the events of the first film have not been kind to Grant. Now that everyone knows about Jurassic Park, as well as Isla Sorna and the living dinosaurs roaming free there, paleontology is viewed as rather obsolete, leaving Grant running low on funds to continue his work. As he sadly tells Ellie Sattler at the beginning, he's, "The last of my breed." Jurassic Park and the public's obsession with it has also left him quite embittered. After giving his speech at a symposium where he hopes to gain funding for his Velociraptor research, a Q & A begins, and just about everybody in the audience raises their hands. But, when he asks if anyone has a question that doesn't have to do with Jurassic Park or what happened in San Diego, which he adds he didn't even see, a good number of the hands go down. Still, someone asks him if his research has any merit now, adding that scientists will eventually go to Isla Sorna and see the real thing. To that, Grant says, "Dinosaurs lived 65 million years ago. What is left of them is fossilized in the rocks. And it is in that rock that real scientists make real discoveries. Now what John Hammond and InGen did at Jurassic Park is create genetically-engineered theme park monsters. Nothing more and nothing less." And when asked, he adds that there is nothing that could get him on that island... which, of course, he turns out to be very wrong about, but we'll get to that. Upon returning to his dig site in Montana, he breaks it to Billy Brennan, his assistant and protege, that they're going to have to pack it up soon. Even though he's impressed when Billy manages to use 3-D printing to replicate a Velociraptor larynx, he breaks it to him that it's just a tad too late. 

And that's when he gets roped into having dinner with Paul and Amanda Kirby, who ask him to be their guide during an aerial tour of Isla Sorna. Naturally, while Grant is reluctant to go, and makes up various excuses as to why he can't, when Paul promises to make a large contribution to his research, it's hard for him to refuse. Having Billy come with him, telling him that it's his fault he's in this situation to begin with, Grant is counting on their not seeing anything. But, when they reach the island and see herds of

dinosaurs down below, he can't help but get excited, saying, "My God, I'd forgotten." He actually starts acting like a tour guide, pointing out the different kinds of dinosaurs to the passengers. And even after they get stranded, that scientific curiosity and fascination does come back now and again, as he and Billy try to come up with a suitable name for the Spinosaurus after their first encounter with it, and he's intrigued when they encounter the Velociraptors and they prove to be just as intelligent as he theorized.

Still, Grant is not at all happy when he hears Paul and the others talk about landing, and is knocked out by Cooper, one of the mercenaries, when he tries to intervene. Upon awakening and learning that they did land, he tries to get them back up in the air as quick as possible, but the appearance of the Spinosaurus and the destruction of their plane puts an end to that idea. Once everything settles down, Grant demands that the Kirbys explain themselves. He then learns about their son, Eric, as well as why they roped him into this, which is when he breaks it to them that he's never

been on Isla Sorna before. And upon learning that Eric has been missing for eight weeks, Grant, doubtful that he's still alive, is more interested on getting off the island in one piece. Along the way, he advises them on what not to do when tromping through the jungle and what to avoid. In the end, he gets separated from the others when the Velociraptors attack, and is saved by Eric. The two of them grow a nice bond while they're together, showing that his newfound affection for kids at the end of the first movie had indeed stuck (his first scene with Ellie's young son was already a clear indicator).

While insight into the characters mostly takes a backseat to the action, Neill more than holds his own during these sequences, and makes Grant nicely competent, coming up with the idea to use an abandoned riverboat to make it to the shoreline, and calls Ellie for help when they need it badly. Grant also has something of an arc, as his view of the dinosaurs softens and he begins to see them as majestic, wondrous animals again. This comes to a head in a very good scene during the third act. After he

discovers that Billy stole some raptor eggs to sell on the mainland to fund their research, Grant becomes extremely angry, telling him, "Billy, as far as I'm concerned, you're no better than the people who built this place." But, in the following sequence, it seems like Billy has been killed and Grant regrets what he said. After having a chance to think about it, he tells Eric that he realizes, while what he did was foolish, Billy was just an eager young man who wanted to come to the island to experience something as amazing as living dinosaurs, rather than just dig up

their bones. At that moment, the riverboat passes by a clearing of magnificent Brachiosaurs, Stegosaurs, and Ankylosaurs, and both he and Eric realize that there was something to what Billy wanted. And by the end, he's not at all alarmed by the sight of Pteranodons flying free in the sky, commenting that they're probably looking for a home in this new world to them (granted, he and the others should be a bit concerned, given the circumstances, but I'm able to let that go). Finally, going back to his intelligence and competency, at the climax where they're cornered by the raptors, Grant's earlier decision to keep their eggs pays off, and he uses his knowledge of their behavior and the larynx model to keep them from attacking.

Laura Dern also makes a brief reappearance here as Ellie Sattler (though, for a while, I thought it was a different actor playing the role, I guess because she's a bit older and has longer hair), who's now married and has apparently retired from paleontology to take care of the two kids she now has. Regardless, when Grant tells her about his new discoveries concerning Velociraptors, she can't help but be absolutely enthralled. Speaking of which, it's never explained why it didn't work out between her and Grant (their no longer being a couple was something Joe Johnston wanted, as he didn't felt they worked as one; I don't agree but, whatever), but you could surmise that she probably realized she was never going to have the family and life she wanted with him. The way they reveal it is rather cruel to the audience, as you see Grant talking with Ellie's three-year old son, Charlie, with another baby in her hands, and it's framed as though as they're parents... until her real husband, Mark, comes home from work, Ellie kisses him, and Charlie calls him daddy, then tells him that Grant is the "Dinosaur Man." If nothing else, at least Grant and Ellie are still on very good terms and care about each other. When he's leaving her house, she tells him, "I just wanna say, if you ever need help with anything... sometimes, you forget to ask. So you can call me. Anything, anytime... You're still the best. I mean that." As she then watches him leave, she has a rather sad look on her face, feeling bad about how his life could be better, as a soft, poignant version of one of the original themes plays in the background. 

While screenwriters Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor never intended for Ellie to go to Isla Sorna, as there was no reason for it, Dern was initially not keen on coming back for little more than a cameo. However, their and Johnston's involvement convinced her, and Spielberg came up with the idea of having her part in the film be more significant, in that she's the one who gets everyone rescued. After she gets a frantic satellite phone-call from Grant during the attack on the riverboat, and he just barely manages to tell her where he is, she realizes what's happening and ends up calling both the Marines and the Navy. It may seem like a stretch that she would be able to make that happen, given how no government will have anything to do with the island, but since her husband, Mark, works for the State Department, specializing in international relations, I think it's safe to say he had a hand in it. In any case, I agree with what Eric says: after that display of devotion, Grant had better let Ellie know how much he appreciates her being in his life, which he says he doesn't think he ever has! 

It's strange how we had Vince Vaughn and Julianne Moore in the previous film, after which they appeared in the Psycho remake, and now, we have William H. Macy, who was also in that movie (but then again, both he and Peter Stormare were in Fargo, so I guess it's not that much of a coincidence). In any case, while the character of Paul Kirby is kind of beneath someone of his talent, Macy, as usual, does everything he can with him. Coming off as a very wealthy businessman, one who claims that, due to all the deals he's made, he's managed to get special permission to fly low over Isla Sorna, Paul, along with Amanda, presses Dr. Grant into coming with them, even promising to make a donation to his research. But, something about them comes off as fake during that scene in the bar, and when they reach the island, Paul's claims start to unravel one after the other. It becomes clear that they don't have permission to fly low, let alone land, and after they're stranded, Grant and Billy learn that Paul is not only nowhere close to being the adventurer he claims to be, but that he only owns a paint and tile store at a shopping mall in Oklahoma. But, while it was rather shady for him and Amanda to trick Grant like this, you quickly understand why they did it, as Paul says that no one, not even the Costa Rican U.S. Embassy, would help them search for their son. Thus, they had no choice but to do it themselves, using their life-savings to hire a small group of mercenaries to help, as well as get someone who had been on the island before (that said, you'd think it would be common knowledge that Grant was involved with what happened at the original park). 

As the film goes on, Paul proves to be a rather decent, likable guy, even if he has some dopey moments, like when he plans on using change at a long abandoned vending machine in the operations building, and when he clumsily puts on his backpack, which tips Grant and Billy off about his lack of outdoor experience. His arguing with Amanda and yelling for Eric, despite Grant's repeated warnings not to, can get a bit annoying, but it is nice how, regardless of their separation, Paul does still care about her. In fact, their

relationship does still seem to be on pretty good terms overall. When they discover Ben Hildebrand's corpse, Paul sincerely comforts Amanda when it proves too much for her to handle all at once, and when they stay up in a tree overnight, he tells her, "No matter how this turns out, it wasn't your fault." And I really like how, when she tells him, "I'm so sorry you have to be here," he responds, "I'm not." Finally, after the family is reunited, Paul, in order to protect them, proves to be very brave when he needs to be, distracting the Spinosaurus' attention when he attacks them on the

riverboat and very nearly getting himself killed in the process. And when they're confronted by the Velociraptors at the end and the one female approaches Amanda, thinking she's the one who took the eggs, Paul tries to get in front of her, but the raptor gets him to back off.

I used to really dump on Amanda Kirby (Tea Leoni) because of all the screaming she does in the film, which sometimes rivals Kate Capshaw in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in terms of sheer annoyance. Like the movie itself, however, I have lightened up on her a little bit, even though she still does some annoying things, like constantly yelling through that bullhorn when they first arrive, yelling for Eric, despite Grant's warnings, and, again, all of her screaming in general, particularly when Ben's corpse swings towards her and she gets tangled up in the parachute still attached to him. Still, like with her ex-husband, I can't fault her for being a concerned mother who wants to find her son and will do whatever she can. I do like some of her dialogue, like when she says that if Eric had been with Paul, he would have been perfectly safe, adding, "You drive five miles under the speed limit, Paul. And I've totaled three cars in three years." Paul then tells her, "The Buick wasn't really totaled. I just said it was 'cause I wanted to get the SUV," which she can't even get mad at. And when she then tells him that she's sorry he has to be there, you can tell she means it. Of course, it is cliche that what they go through brings them back together as a family, with Amanda having now seemingly forgotten completely about Ben, but that's hardly among the film's biggest issues.

Out of all the kids who've ever appeared in the Jurassic Park franchise, I think that Eric Kirby (Trevor Morgan) might be the best of the bunch. He may not have nearly as much as screentime as Lex, Tim, or Kelly, but not only is Eric not shrill or whiny in the slightest, but he's shockingly smart and resourceful. He single-handedly saves Grant from the Velociraptors with some gas bombs, and that's to say nothing of his surviving on Isla Sorna for eight weeks. We don't learn exactly what happened when he got separated from Ben after they landed but Eric made good use of the supplies and equipment that InGen left behind, including a supply truck in the jungle, which he uses as shelter. He was also smart enough to stay close to the operations building, figuring that any rescue team would head there first. He even managed to somehow get a hold of some T-Rex urine, which he uses to keep away some of the smaller dinosaurs. Once he and Grant meet-up and he's later reunited with his parents, Eric becomes just another member of the group, and does have to be rescued a few times, but the kid is definitely brave, especially given what he's been through. When Amanda has to leave him momentarily at one point and she gets all protective, he tells her, "Mom, I've been alone in a water truck for eight weeks. I think I can manage the next two minutes without you." And like I said, the bond that he develops with Grant is a nice one.

We barely get to know Ben Hildebrand (Mark Harelik), as he's really only in the opening scene, and is long dead by the time the main cast reaches Isla Sorna. Regardless, while Paul seemed to think he was reckless (which he's not wrong about), he comes off as a nice guy and, when the movie first begins, you could easily think that he and Eric were a friendly father and son. Despite being foolhardy enough to have the captain of the boat he rents get him and Eric close to the restricted island, when it's clear they're in trouble, he quickly does what he can to save both of their lives. However, his only recourse is to detach from the boat before it crashes onto the rocks and drift towards the island. A big question is how Ben died. The main group finds his corpse still dangling by the sail from a tree where he and Eric came down, as seen in their video camera, but, while he's badly decomposed, he doesn't like he was attacked by anything. It seems more like he couldn't get down, died of thirst and starvation, and just hung there until he rotted. But, at the same time, his corpse doesn't seem to have any legs, suggesting that something did have a go at him. So, again, what exactly happened after he and Eric were separated? Unlike the question of what attacked their tour boat, which I do have my own personal explanation for, which I'll get into later, I have no idea on this.

Billy Brennan (Alessandro Nivola), the young grad student who's been working as Grant's assistant at his dig site, is another character whom I used to think didn't have much to him but now, I think otherwise. Like Paul Kirby, Billy comes across as an overall decent guy, but he makes a very bad judgement call at one point. He and Grant have a close kinship, coming across as lifelong friends despite the age difference, and you can also tell that Billy respects Grant as a scientist and what he stands for. However, unlike Grant, Billy is much more up to date on the new tools for paleontology, using a 3-D scanner to create a synthetic Velociraptor resonating chamber. And he also has a desire to "experience" rather than "observe," which is why he's so eager to go to Isla Sorna when the chance comes up, roping Grant into the trip, despite his protests. Though he certainly didn't want them to get stranded, when they do, Billy, like Grant, can't help but contain his scientific curiosity, identifying the Spinosaurus, admiring the intelligence of the Velociraptors, and such. And when Grant gets separated from him and the Kirbys, Billy knows that he would head for the coast, as they planned. However, Billy makes a very stupid mistake when he steals a couple of raptor eggs, planning to take them back home and sell them to get money to continue funding their work. After he gets caught, he admits it was a dumb idea that's put them in even more danger, but insists he did it with the best intentions. That doesn't mean much to Grant, though, who says that Billy is no better than the people who built Jurassic Park, which absolutely devastates him. 

Just like how Lex's computer hacking and Kelly's gymnastics came into play late in their respective movies, the same goes for Billy's experience with hang-gliding, which he mentions to Grant on the plane (also, like Sarah's lucky pack, Billy's camera bag has a "lucky strap," as it saved his life during said hang-gliding). In an effort to make things right, he pulls off a very risky rescue attempt when Eric gets attacked by some Pteranodons, using the DINO-SOAR sail that Eric and Ben were gliding on at the

beginning. While he manages to save him, Billy is apparently killed when the Pteranodons turn on him, leaving Grant feeling very bad about what he last said to him. Fortunately, Billy turns up maimed but alive at the end of the film, having been rescued by the Marines and Navy. Not only do he and Grant reconcile but Billy tells him that he saved his hat, which he lost during the Pteranodon sequence. (Billy's fate was one of those plot-points that they still hadn't decided on, even when shooting drew to a close. Ultimately, Joe Johnston felt having him die would be too much of a downer.)

As Udesky, the late Michael Jeter could've made for a cool addition to the cast, but he gets killed early on, which is a shame. There's not much depth to Udesky, one of the three mercenaries whom Paul and Amanda hire to help them find Eric, and he doesn't get a chance to do anything that significant, but Jeter was one of the actors that you just liked seeing onscreen. While he comes off as a bit overly confident in his introductory scene, I like that Udesky is a decent enough guy to where he doesn't like that the Kirbys basically kidnapped Grant. He also has some humorous moments, like when, after Grant and Billy first walk off without them, he tells Paul and Amanda, "We search for you son... in the direction that they're going." Also, when they're walking through the jungle and the Kirbys are arguing, Udesky tells Billy, "If we split up, I'm goin' with you guys." Most notably, like the Kirbys, Udesky admits that he's not who he appears to be; rather than a mercenary, "I'm like the booking agent." He adds, "One of the... guys got sick and couldn't come." After the group first runs into the Velociraptors at the operations building and rush off into the jungle, Udesky gets separated from the others and is ambushed. He gets pinned down by one raptor, which stabs its toe claw into his back (Jeter had a way of screaming that sounded really pained and tortured; check out his character's slow and horrific death in The Green Mile for proof), and they then use him as bait to try to trap the others. When he's outlived his usefulness, one of the raptors kills him in a bloodless but still cringe-inducing way by snapping his neck with its jaws.

I've always felt that Jurassic Park III was the most visually uninteresting entry in the series. The cinematographer this time is Shelly Johnson, who would go on to work with Joe Johnston again on Hidalgo, The WolfMan, and Captain America: The First Avenger, and while I can't speak for the former, I remember those other two movies looking really nice; Jurassic Park III, on the other hand, just comes off as really bland to me. Some of it looks nice, like the opening scene, the flyby sequence with the dinosaurs roaming on the ground below the plane, the moment

between Paul and Amanda in the tree, lit by an oil lantern, and the scene in the enormous Pteranodon aviary, which is wonderfully atmospheric, with the thick fog and the gloomy, overcast look. But, for the most part, the cinematography has a murky quality to it, especially in some of the interior scenes early on, which I'm not fond of. The many scenes in the jungle look similarly "blah" to me. I know they're trying to create the feeling of the foliage being so thick that the sunlight is just barely able to penetrate it, given the many shafts of light coming through the trees, but, as

much as I'll compliment the production design in a minute, I prefer the way Dean Cundey and Janusz Kaminski shot the previous movies. Also, when it comes to direction, Johnston doesn't seem to understand the notion of subtlety. The best example is when they come upon the Velociraptor nest. Billy walks onto the site shortly after Grant has seen the eggs, then it cuts to the group making their way through the jungle again, when Grant realizes that Billy isn't with them. He goes back and comes upon

Billy loitering behind, claiming he was taking some pictures of the nest. The way the camera lingers on him as he follows after Grant, looking back in the direction of the nest, all but screams that he stole some eggs. The revelation that he did doesn't come until much later, but even then, Billy's preoccupation with the bag when Grant ends up with it is very suspect, so it's hardly a surprise when you learn what he did.

That's not to say that Johnston's direction is completely uninspired, because it certainly isn't. Again, the initial flyby over the island is done very well, with nice shots of the landscape, both below the plane and through its windows, and the Spinosaurus' introduction is a great one, as you initially only hear his roar, and then get quick glimpses of him when he comes in and kills Cooper on the runway, and when Amanda panics when she sees him looking at them through the cockpit's windshield. Some really nice moments come when they reach the operations

building, such as when the camera lingers on Amanda before she joins the others as they walk on and, in the background, you see a Velociraptor run by. An especially good fake-out comes when, down in the lab, Amanda is looking at various baby dinosaurs in large vats, when she comes upon what seems to be the head of a full-grown raptor within one. She goes in for a closer look, when the raptor's eye moves and it's revealed he was standing behind the tube, as he immediately goes on the attack. Speaking of Amanda, there's another moment where she finds herself

hanging upside down from a tree branch, as two raptors jump up and snap at her, and there are some shots from her POV as she hangs there, with the raptors' jaws coming right up to the camera. POV-wise, there's a memorable one from Grant that goes black when Cooper knocks him out when he tries to stop them from landing, and another when the group rushes through the jungle after first escaping the Spinosaurus. The shot of the Pteranodon slowly emerging from the fog when it walks towards Eric on

the walkway has to be one of the scariest images in this whole franchise, and the same goes for when one turns to see Grant and Paul while Billy is seemingly being pecked to the death in the background. I also love how, during the Spinosaurus' attack on the riverboat, Grant, having called Ellie but gotten Charlie instead, tells him to take the phone to his mother. But he gets distracted by Barney the Dinosaur on the TV, and it cuts back and forth between that and the Spinosaurus' ongoing attack. And finally,

Johnston does manage to come up with some images that hearken back to the wonder of the original, like when the riverboat passes by the herd of peaceful and magnificent Brachiosaurs, Stegosaurs, and Ankylosaurs by the riverside, and they curiously watch the boat. That wide shot, inter-cut with the people on the boat looking at them in awe, does make me smile, and the same goes for the final shot of the Pteranodons flying through the sky.

Like with the first film, much of the location work was done in Hawaii, but this time, instead of restricting themselves to just Kauai, the filmmakers decided to branch out to more of the state. Kauai was where they shot the one scene on the riverboat that I mentioned up above, specifically on the Wailua River, and the ending, which was at Pila'a Beach. The opening scene with Eric and Ben parasailing was shot off the island of Molokai, while the flyby sequence was shot on its coastline. And Oahu is where the airfield sequence, after they first land on Isla Sorna,

was filmed, at the Dillingham Airfield, as well as the dinosaur stampede, done at the He'eia Kea Ranch. All the other scenes set in the island's jungles were on soundstages at Universal Studios, and this is where I have to give it up to production designer Ed Verreaux and his team, as it's amazing how much they managed to make those sets look and feel like a real jungle. Not only does all the thick foliage and trees give off that feeling, but so does the mist that's often hanging in the air, and those shafts of light coming through the

canopy. Johnston has said that, when he looks at the movie now, he has trouble distinguishing what was a set and what was actually shot in Hawaii, while William H. Macy has said that the sets were even more impressive than the actual locations! As with the original film, the locations and sets come together to make Isla Sorna come off as a very lush and lovely place.

The big problem with that, though, is it makes this feel more like Isla Nublar. While this kind of terrain may be more believable for an island near Costa Rica, and I personally prefer it, as we saw in the previous movie, Isla Sorna's topography was made up of redwood forests and other environments more akin to the Northwestern U.S., and there was a feeling that it's humid but cold. Moreover, the island, for the most part, doesn't feel nearly as foreboding as it did in The Lost World. That said, though, as in that film, there are some abandoned human installations that have

something of an atmosphere about them. Notably, the group stumbles across the operations building and worker village, and these are, indeed, the same sets from the previous film, which Verreaux and his team refurbished (if you look closely, you'll notice that the main doors are the same). And, for my money, I think this is one of those instances where the film manages to come off as creepy, with how utterly quiet this long abandoned, overgrown building is, and with those shafts of light coming through holes in the skylight.

Moreover, we get to see something that we missed in the previous movie: the breeding compound. The characters walk down some stairs into this enormous chamber filled with smashed egg incubators, pieces of eggshell all over the place, even on the floor, and dinosaurs in various stages of growth contained in huge tubes of liquid. It is a very eerie setting, made all the more so by the music that plays during the scene and the exchange between Amanda and Grant: "This is how you make dinosaurs?" "No, this is how you

play God." Even though we've seen these processes in action in the original, and they were framed to come off as positively wondrous there, this gets across that feeling that InGen was messing with stuff that they shouldn't have. And when the first Velociraptor gets after them, he chases them into an area in the back full of cages, which is obviously where the dinosaurs were kept before being shipped off to Isla Nublar. 

The other noteworthy InGen installation here is the Pteranodon aviary, though the characters don't realize what it is initially. When Eric is reunited with his parents, they're separated by an enormous fence with huge spikes lining its top, which he and Grant have to run through when the Spinosaurus shows up. He chases them towards an innocuous-looking building that, amazingly, has steel doors strong enough to keep him out. Built along the side of a cliff, the immediate interiors appear to be something of an observation deck, and the characters descend down a spiraling

staircase into an eerie, foggy area made up of metal walkways, chain-link fencing, large platforms and scaffolding, and garters. When Grant sees the roof of the structure, he realizes what it is, right as a Pteranodon appears and attacks Eric. The place is enclosed within a large canyon, where the Pteranodons make their nests on ledges and rock pillars. The river at its center runs out past a large gate with an enormous bolt, which the characters escape through. The riverboat they were planning to use to make their way to the coast is moored just downstream, and when they get onboard and make their escape, you're able to see just how big the entire structure of the aviary is.

In terms of typical everyday environments, while we don't get as many as we did in The Lost World, the brief bit of the first act that takes place on the mainland actually has more than in the first film. Right after the opening, we spend some time at Ellie's suburban home in Washington D.C. (actually shot in South Pasadena), and it looks as though she and Mark are doing quite well for themselves (they've got a pet parrot, for God's sake). Occidental College in Los Angeles was used for the scene where Grant gives a lecture hoping to secure funding, and there's also a

country bar near the dig site at Fort Peck Lake, Montana, where Grant and Billy first meet up with the Kirbys (actually shot at a studio). The dig site was shot at a rocky quarry in Irwindale and seems to be much bigger than the one Grant and Ellie were working on in the first film, with more tents and trailers set up, and more people working there. Regardless, it has that isolated feel that, like the site in the original, always appeals to me. And El Mirage

Lake, a dried up lake bed in the Mojave Desert, was used for an early scene where Udesky's team tests some equipment they plan to use on Isla Sorna. In the context of the film, this location seems to be something of an aircraft graveyard, and they blow up an old plane as part of their testing..

If I were to pinpoint Jurassic Park III's biggest failing, it's that, in the grand scope of the series, it's the most unnecessary entry. Regardless of what you may personally think of each of them, all of the other sequels have added something to the world created in the first movie, and have had some deeper thematic meanings to them. Some of the initial drafts of the screenplay did feel like they were attempting that (albeit in ways that didn't sit well with the filmmakers or the studio, and might not have gone over well with audiences), but as it stands, this story is little more

than an excuse to get Alan Grant both back into the action and on Isla Sorna for the first time, and to have as many exciting action sequences as possible within 92 minutes, with very little in regards to character or story..Even the ending, which does try to add something to the world, with the Pteranodons leaving the island to look for other nesting sites, isn't paid much attention, and is ignored in Jurassic World. Now, what the movie does do, it does very well, and as I've said before, there's nothing wrong with just

being pure entertainment. But it's still kind of disappointing to think of how this was made without much intended thematic impact or semblance of the intelligence of Michael Crichton's original novels which the first two movies, if nothing else, tried to adapt.

After the T-Rex had dominated the first two movies, the filmmakers, particularly Joe Johnston, decided it was time to introduce a new antagonistic dinosaur to terrorize the humans and came up with the hulking monstrosity that is the Spinosaurus. He has the same basic body structure as the T-Rex but is more massive, with a longer, narrower, crocodile-like snout, larger and stronger arms, and a huge, Dimetrodon-like sail on his back. Besides being a very well-designed creature, he also proves to be a truly threatening antagonist, as he relentlessly pursues the group across the island, stalking them almost like a slasher movie villain. Indeed, it does feel like he's following them less for food and more out of malice, with even his roar coming off as full of sheer hatred rather than just primal fury. According to Eric, rather than being repelled by the smell of the T-Rex urine he managed to collect, the Spinosaurus is attracted to it, suggesting he's so ferocious that he actively hunts Tyrannosaurs! And unlike the T-Rex or the other dinosaurs, you're not even safe from him in the water, as he swims towards the riverboat like a massive shark during the third act. Because of this, I've always assumed that he was what attacked the boat that Eric and Ben were attached to while they were parasailing at the beginning. If he can swim so easily in a river, I doubt the open ocean would be much of a challenge, and that river does give him access to it as well. Finally, I thought it was a nice idea to have the Spinosaurus swallow Paul Kirby's satellite phone when he eats Nash, the pilot, and its silly jingle of a ringtone becomes a frightening warning that he's nearby.

One thing that puzzles me about the Spinosaurus is his origin. After their first encounter with him, Billy mentions that he doesn't remember the Spinosaurus being on InGen's list of cloned dinosaurs. Grant says that's because he wasn't, indicating that he was either some sort of a secret experiment or they just didn't put him on the list, for whatever reason. Either way, the question is, where was the Spinosaurus during the events of The Lost World? You could say he hatched afterward but, according to what Hammond said there, Isla Sorna was abandoned shortly after the

events of the first movie and he had been trying to keep the island and the dinosaurs therein hidden from the public for the four years since. Thus, Malcolm and Ludlow's teams should've run into the Spinosaurus, rather than just the two Tyrannosaurs. You might argue that he wasn't grown at the time but, given how quickly animals grow and develop compared to humans, I would think that, after four years, the Spinosaurus would've already been big enough to be a major threat. One of the taglines, though, was, "Something Unexpected Has Evolved," suggesting the Spinosaurus is something other than simply the end result of an experiment. Whatever the case, I think it's obvious that the filmmakers just wanted to come up with a new dinosaur and didn't really think about flying in the face of the previous movie..

For a while, the Spinosaurus wasn't all that popular with Jurassic Park fans, myself included, because of the scene where he battles and ultimately kills a T-Rex. When I first saw the movie, that scene did make me more than a little mad because of how much I love the T-Rex and, in the original version of this review, I made that abundantly clear in a rather whiny way. Johnston himself was well aware that that might not go over well, which is why it happens less than half an hour in, just so they could get it out of the way. Nowadays, I've made my peace with it because, one, I

understand that the T-Rex had gotten enough screentime in the previous films and it was time to bring in a new threat, and two, I know full well that this is not the same T-Rex that ruled the first movie and probably not the two parents in The Lost World, since they were always together. I did once wonder if this was the baby now grown up but, according to a frequent commenter, the official Jurassic Park website says he isn't, as he has a different skin coloration. Also, the scene was necessary to show

how much of a lethal creature the Spinosaurs is and that he's going to be to be a serious threat for the characters. All that said, though, I'd be lying if I said it's not still wince-inducing to watch the Spinosaurus snap the T-Rex's neck with his jaws, fling his body down to the ground, and stand over him and roar triumphantly. For better or worse, the movie might not have had the same impact were it not for this scene, and the T-Rex, of course, would come back in full force in the Jurassic World era, but it still stings. 

If the movie wasn't too generous towards the T-Rex, it more than made up for with it the Velociraptors, who have a much more prominent role than in the previous film. Notably, rather than reusing the design from the original, the effects artists gave them something of a makeover and made them feel more birdlike. Since it's also now widely believed that real Velociraptors had feathers, they decided to give the males, one of whom appears to be the leader of this pack, a crest of bird-like quills on the back of their heads and necks, while the females have the same

general look as the raptors from before, only with different color patterns (which I prefer to those in the previous movie). Also, for the first time in the series, we get to see them running at full speed out in the open, seeing that they are as fast as Robert Muldoon originally said they were. Most significantly, their intelligence and sociability is emphasized much more than ever before. I really applaud the filmmakers for that approach, as the raptors are just about as awesome here as they were in the original film. The

aforementioned "leader" raptor seems to trick Amanda into getting close by acting like he's an inert creature within one of the vats of liquid containing aborted embryos, then attacks. When he gets temporarily trapped after he chases the characters, he lets out a distress call and, after he gets loose, runs outside and barks for his comrades, prompting them to chase the group. And throughout the film, you see them barking and chattering to each other, and it's obvious they're either giving orders or having discussions. 

One of their best moments is when the raptors manage to get Udesky and injure him, but don't immediately kill him, instead using him as bait for the others. And when their trap doesn't work, I like how the one raptor just kills Udesky by snapping his neck with its jaws after he's outlived his usefulness. I also like their last scene, where they corner the group and one particular female seems to demand that they return the eggs Billy stole. Thinking that Amanda is the one who took them (probably because she can sense that she's only the female in the

group), she comes up to her and sniffs her, trying to see if she has the eggs. They more than likely would have killed everyone after Amanda gave the eggs back to them, but Grant uses the model resonating chamber to try to communicate with them. While the raptors are initially confused and agitated by this, he's able to stave off an attack until they retreat upon hearing the rescue team approaching. That's the thing about the raptors here: this is probably their most balanced portrayal, especially in the original trilogy,

in terms of intelligence and their still being animals at the end of the day. This isn't like the original, where they came off as actively monstrous, or the second, where they were little more than dangerous but brutish animals. Here, you see their intelligence and cunning, but the reason why they're after the group is because they want their eggs back, rather than any sort of malice.

Steven Spielberg did indeed get his wish about the Pteranodons finally make a substantial appearance. Although there isn't much to say about them in terms of "characterization," as they're portrayed simply as animals doing what they do, and they only have a major role in this one sequence, like all of the dinosaurs, they're very well-designed and look quite real. They also prove to be a pretty legitimate threat, given their ability to fly, their speed, and agility, and they're about as relentless as the raptors can be in attacking their prey. As I've said, the first time you

see one, when it emerges from the mist, walking towards Eric, it's pretty terrifying. Even the small babies are threatening, coming off as ferocious and deadly as the Compies from the previous movie in how they fly after, then swarm Eric, biting and pecking at him when their mother attempts to feed him to them, and also due to the bones you see near their nest (since some of those bones are human, it suggests that Eric and Ben weren't the first to get too close to Isla Sorna).

Those are the main featured dinosaurs, as all the others either have fleeting glimpses or small roles. The Brachiosaurs appear during the flyby sequence but are also the center of my favorite moment in the entire movie, where the riverboat passes by a group of dinosaurs in a clearing and a curious Brachiosaurus, along with several others, watches and follows them for a short distance. The Ankylosaurus makes its first appearance in the franchise, munching on some plants in one shot and also appearing along the riverbank, along with some Stegosaurs. The Compies reappear

briefly when Grant is with Eric, prompting the latter to close the lid on his supply truck hideout. Various others, like Triceratops, Corythosaurs, and Parasaurolophus, can be glimpsed in both the flyby and when the characters get caught in the midst of a stampede while running from the raptors. One particularly funny moment involving a new dinosaur is when the characters have to find Kirby's satellite phone after the Spinosaurus has crapped it out. After digging through steaming mounds of dung in order to

get to it, a Ceratosaurus, which looks like a red-colored T-Rex with horns on its snout, appears and walks up to them in a threatening manner. But when he smells them, he recoils and just walks away groaning, as if to say, "The hell with this." Some people think he does that because they now have the Spinosaurus' scent on them but I think it's simpler than that: they smell like crap, so he's not going to touch them.

For the most part, the CGI lives up to the lofty standards of the first two movies. I say "for the most part" because there are some instances where it's wonky-looking, such as during the fight between the T-Rex and the Spinosaurus, some of the shots of the raptors and Pteranodons, and in some of the close-ups, like with that Ceratosaurus, but, for the most part, they're still as convincing and photo-realistic as before. Once again, though, the really amazing effects are the animatronics courtesy of Stan Winston's studio, and it's sad that this is the last Jurassic Park to

use a balanced blend of practical and digital effects. The enormous animatronics for the T-Rex and especially the Spinosaurus are just as jaw-dropping as those in the previous films. The latter was so huge, weighing 24,000 pounds and measuring 44-feet long, that Stan Winston declared he would leave the film industry before making anything bigger. Unfortunately, while filming the fight, the T-Rex was a little worse for wear and had to be mostly digital, but I will say, they did manage to convincingly pull

off a practical dinosaur biting a CG one. The Velociraptors also look great and, again, I liked that they mixed digital ones with the animatonics and suits, best seen in scenes when they surround the characters. The Pteranodons were initially meant to mostly be played by a man in a suit, but Joe Johnston wasn't satisfied with the performance, feeling the movements were too human-like, and decided to go completely digital with them. The babies, however, were a mixture, and both approaches look really great, especially those cable-controlled puppets.

There are instances of blue-screen work and matte paintings that are, overall, a bit more of a mixed bag. At the beginning, when Eric and Ben are parasailing, you can tell that the background of Isla Sorna in those shots was done via blue screen. However, the shots where they added sets and structures to footage they shot on location, like the InGen operations building and the yard in front of it, Grant and Eric standing on the edge of the canyon after spotting the moored riverboat down below, and the exterior of the aviary following the sequence with the Pteranodons, all look really great. And when the characters see the Pteranodons outside the helicopter windows at the end, that looks pretty good, too.

Like the original film, Jurassic Park III does something noteworthy right when it begins, with ominous music playing over the Universal and Amblin Entertainment logos, both of which ripple like water, and we all know by now what that means. When the title comes up, it initially just says Jurassic Park, but three huge claw marks are then slashed across it to create the III. The camera goes through the slashes and into the first shot of the movie, that of Isla Sorna, and the establishing caption for it is

replaced with big, red letters that say "RESTRICTED." A plane flies overhead, while down below, on a small boat, the Hispanic captain keeps an eye on it with his binoculars. Once it's passed, they start moving, as Eric Kirby and Ben Hildebrand prepare for their parasailing, the latter telling the captain to get them as close to the island as possible. The boat heads toward a channel and their sail is deployed, lifting the two of them up high into the air. They both yell in excitement, and as they drift

through the air, Ben films the island with his video camera, though he doesn't see anything. Down below, the boat approaches a large fog-bank, but the captain tells his mate to continue on through it. Looking down below, Eric has lost sight of the boat in the thick fog, when he and Ben are suddenly jerked downwards. They're then violent pulled continuously, and when the boat clears the fog, they see that it's been badly damaged, with blood on the deck, and the two men are nowhere to be seen. As Eric and Ben try to figure out what's happened, they see that the boat is

heading straight for some rocks up ahead. Eric panics but Ben reaches around and scrambles to disconnect them from the boat. He manages to do so right after it hits a small rock and before it crashes onto the larger ones and tips over on its side. With no other recourse, Eric and Ben drift towards the island.

Thanks to the movie's quick pace, Dr. Alan Grant, Billy, and Paul and Amanda Kirby are introduced and on their way to Isla Sorna before we've even reached the twenty-minute mark. En route, we get arguably the strangest scene in the whole series. Grant takes a nap on the way, and seems to wake up to find the plane completely deserted. He then hears something and looks to his left to see a Velociraptor, which actually says his name, in Billy's voice! Grant promptly wakes up, as Billy is calling to him, telling

him that they're almost there. For or better worse, it is a moment that nobody forgets. (While it's meant to indicate that Grant is still haunted by what happened to him on Isla Nublar, note that the raptor he imagines is of the newer design, which he hasn't seen yet.) As Sorna comes into view, up in the cockpit, Udesky and Nash receive a call that they're flying into restricted airspace but they opt to ignore it and continue on. They fly in low, coming down past some mountains and above a large clearing. It isn't long before large herds of dinosaurs appear below them, with some

smaller ones scattering due to the sound of the plane. Grant begins acting as the tour guide he expected to be, pointing out some Brachiosaurs and Triceratops, when Nash tells Paul that he sees a landing strip up ahead and asks if he wants them to set down. Paul says he wants to circle the island, then land, and when Grant hears that, he gets to his feet and attempts to intervene. Before he can, the other mercenary, Cooper, who was sitting in the back, gets up and knocks him unconscious, the sight of which causes Paul to wince.

Grant awakens in the plane, where Billy breaks it to him that they not only landed but that the Kirbys are apparently looking for someone. They walk out and see that they've come down on a landing strip, with the mercenaries setting up a perimeter. Amanda is also yelling through a bullhorn and Grant tells Paul to make her stop, saying it's a bad idea. Just as he yells at her, and she yells back through the bullhorn, they hear a loud roar nearby. Billy says it was a T-Rex but Grant notes that it sounded bigger, as they also hear

gunshots. Udesky and Nash come running out of the jungle, exclaiming that they need to leave immediately. They run straight back to the plane and herd everyone else back onboard, not stopping even to explain what happened. Billy notes that Cooper isn't with them and Udesky says he's a professional and can handle himself, when they hear more gunshots in the jungle. Once on the plane, everyone straps into their seats, as Nash gets the aircraft moving down the runway, trying to get into the air as

fast as possible. Cooper, holding his left arm, runs out of the jungle and stands in the middle of the runway ahead of the plane, tearfully pleading for them to stop. While the others sees him, Nash talks out loud for Cooper to move, saying, "You know I can't stop this plane." The plane almost reaches Cooper, when the Spinosaurus comes charging out of the jungle and quickly snatches him up before he can even make a run for it. Nash quickly pulls up, slicing across the back of the dinosaur's fin, spraying blood on the windshield, and causing him to lose control of the

plane. It goes down, slicing through the canopy, and losing half a wing, a fuselage, and the tail rudder, before finally coming to an abrupt stop. As everyone calms down, and Udesky and Nash try to call for help using Paul's satellite phone, Grant opens the door, only to find that they're actually wedged within the branches of a very tall tree. He tells the others, "We haven't landed yet."

Nash is unable to get a signal, when the plane is violently jostled and Amanda suddenly screams when she sees the Spinosaurus looking at them through the windshield. He ducks out of view just as the others look, but within seconds, the plane starts shaking violently. The nose is then ripped away and the Spinosaurus lunges his head towards the exposed cockpit. Udesky and Nash try to climb back up with the others, but the Spinosaurus sticks his head inside the plane and grabs Nash's legs in his mouth. Nash

desperately tries to grab onto Amanda but he's yanked out of the plane, swung back and forth, and dropped to the ground. He tries to crawl away but the Spinosaurus pins him with his enormous foot and finishes him off. The dinosaur looks up at the others and roars ferociously, leading everyone to run to the back of the plane in a panic. This causes the weight to shift and the plane's back half falls and crashes onto the ground below. Briefly standing upright, it falls onto its side, tossing everyone around. Before they

can do anything, the Spinosaurus approaches and sends it rolling across the forest floor. Everyone is flung around violently and when it finally stops, Amanda panics when she looks out the window and sees the Spinosaurus coming straight at them. She runs out of the plane but Grant quickly runs after and grabs her. He manages to get her back inside before the Spinosaurus reaches them. He grabs the top of the plane with his arms and rolls it back, then stomps on it, slowly crushing in the roof and blowing out the windows. He next shears through the plane's side with

his snout and sticks it inside the hole, trying to get at his prey. This forces everyone to get out of the plane and run for it. He realizes they're escaping and promptly turns and runs after them. He chases them through a clearing, but they then run into a patch of thick foliage that he's unable to get through.

After running through the jungle a short distance, everyone stops to take a breath, as it looks as though they're out of danger. Grant turns around and moves back some sections of a bush, revealing a dead dinosaur lying on the ground. But then, a very much alive T-Rex lifts his head up behind the carcass and stares right at them. Grant says, "Nobody... move... a muscle," but when the T-Rex roars at them, everyone takes off running back the way they came. Grant quickly joins them, as the T-Rex gives chase. They

don't get far before they find the Spinosaurus waiting for them. Everyone scatters, with Grant falling backwards into a hollowed-out log, as the T-Rex enters the spot and he and the Spinosaurus roar challenges at each other. The T-Rex steps right on the log, but the gap saves Grant from being crushed. The T-Rex bites into the nape of the Spinosaurus' neck, and the larger dinosaur pushes back, knocking over a tree with his tail, as Paul and Amanda run for cover. He manages to break free and snaps back at the T-Rex, who attacks again, biting at and even head-

butting him. Grant watches from nearby as the Spinosaurus manages to turn the tables, bite into the back of the T-Rex's neck, and snap it with one twist of his mighty jaws. Grant joins the others in running, as the T-Rex's corpse falls to the ground and the Spinosaurus plants his foot on his back, roaring in victory.

Finally, there's a lull in the action, with everyone getting what they can from the plane and intending to head to the coast. They come upon the DINO-SOAR sail that Eric and Ben were using, hanging from a tree, but find no apparent sign of them. Udesky, however, finds the video camera that Ben was using and, after he puts in some new batteries, they check the last bit of footage on it. Following some stuff done before they departed, they see the shots Ben got of the island while they were parasailing, as well as of

the boat after it was attacked. The footage ends with Eric and Ben making it to land, but they turned the camera off when they realized it was still running. Grant and Billy go to take the sail to use as a means of signaling for a passing plane, only for a badly-decayed corpse tangled up in a parachute harness to swing right into Amanda's face. She screams hysterically and flails around, tangled up with it. Paul and Udesky manage to pull her free, but she runs off into the jungle in hysterics. Grant tells Paul to get her back and he runs after her, going a fair distance

before he manages to catch up with her. He finally pulls her into a hug and calms her down, expressing remorse for what happened to Ben and assuring to her that they'll find Eric. As they're hugging, Amanda sees something that she calls to Paul's attention and he, in turn, calls for Grant. He joins them, followed shortly by Udesky and Billy, and when he gets there, Paul points him to a nest of eggs, one of several in the spot. He realizes that they're in a Velociraptor nesting site and, in the next scene, they're quickly moving on ahead. Grant notices that Billy isn't with them and he goes back to find him lagging behind. Billy says he was taking pictures of the nest and Grant tells him to come on.

The group comes upon the InGen operations building and heads inside, unaware that they're being stalked from nearby. They find their way into the breeding compound and look at the smashed incubators, bits of eggshell, and the aborted dinosaurs in the vats of liquid. That's when it turns out that the adult Velociraptor whose head appears to be floating in one vat is actually on the other side, as he suddenly lunges at her from between the vats. As everyone else realizes what's going on, they run for it, as the raptor

jumps through a partially broken vat and gives chase. They run into a back area full of cages for housing dinosaurs, only to head down a corridor that's a dead-end. The raptor appears at the back of the corridor and runs at them, as they scatter. He goes after Amanda and Billy, who take refuge in one pen. The two of them try to hold him back by pushing against the door but he manages to overpower and trap them between the door and the cage's wall. The others try to get his attention, but he instead goes to climb up the door and

jump down on top of them. When he does, Amanda and Billy push the door, swinging it out of the doorway and all the way up against another cage. They then slide the latch across, trapping the raptor like he did them. Everyone runs, but when Grant hears the raptor's vocalization, he realizes that the dinosaur is calling for help. He then joins the others, as they run out of the building and back into the jungle. After climbing out of that tight spot, the raptor comes out the door, bounds down the steps, and calls for his brethren. The group runs into a field full of

dinosaurs but they end up startling them, causing a stampede. In the chaos, Billy falls and loses his camera bag, but Grant picks it up and runs with it. Two raptors run across the field after them and Grant yells for the others to head for the trees. They run into the nearest patch of jungle, with Paul and Amanda climbing up a tree. Udesky, however, isn't so lucky, as he gets cornered by the raptors. Paul hears him scream from nearby, and Udesky is shown trying to crawl away, only for one of the raptors to step on his back and stab into him with its toe claw. Billy also comes upon some raptors but hides from them before they can see him. He climbs to safety near the Kirbys, while Grant wanders about by himself.

Billy joins the Kirbys and, from their vantage point, they see Udesky lying face-down on the ground. Though seemingly dead at first, they see his right arm move. Paul and Amanda decide to go down and help him, but Billy tries to warn them that something doesn't feel right. As Amanda climbs down, a vine she's holding snaps and she falls through the branches, before she ends up hanging upside by her feet on the last branch above the ground. The two raptors from before coming running back and jump

up at her, snapping their jaws. They come within inches of getting her, before Billy and Paul climb down and pull her up onto the branch. The raptors back up towards Udesky, as Billy realizes it was, indeed, a trap. Elsewhere, Grant sees the raptors speaking to each other, as the one alpha gives a call that sends one of the two raptors near Udesky running off; the other proceeds to kill him by snapping his neck with its jaws. Back with Grant, after the coast is seemingly clear, he prepares to climb over a log,

when the alpha raptor suddenly appears. He jumps up onto the log and down in front of Grant, backing him up. Two others come in from either side, and a third runs up next to the alpha. Grant is completely trapped, when a gas grenade is suddenly flung through the air and lands in their midst. This promptly spooks the raptors, and when another is thrown in, they run off. As Grant coughs from the smoke, a small figure, wearing some leaves as a bit of camouflage, comes running in, grabs his arm, and pulls him away. Once they're clear of the smoke, Grant follows the figure,

whom he knows is Eric, back to the supply truck he's been using as shelter. They stay there through the night, with Eric closing the panel to avoid some Compies that show up nearby, while Paul, Amanda, and Billy spend the night up in their tree.

Come morning, both groups leave their respective hiding spots and prepare to head to the coast. Grant, using a pair of binoculars he took from the supply truck, spots a boat moored down by the river running through a canyon, and he and Eric begin making their way down to it. As the two of them are walking, Eric stops, hearing something. It turns out to be the ringtone for Paul's satellite phone and he excitedly runs through the jungle, calling for his dad. Elsewhere, Paul and Amanda, while walking with Billy, hear Eric calling for them and run off to follow

the sound. They meet up with their son, although they're separated by an enormous fence running through the island's perimeter. It doesn't matter, as Paul and Amanda embrace him through it. Grant, reaching the fence, shakes Billy's hand, then tries to find a way to get through the fence. Eric then tells them how he knew where they were, when Paul says he doesn't have his satellite phone. That's when he remembers that Nash was the last one who had it, as they hear the ringtone again. They all turn around to

see the Spinosaurus standing at the edge of the jungle, the phone ringing from inside his stomach. Grant and Eric run as he chases after them, with the others running along the other side of the fence. He quickly catches up to Grant and Eric, and almost gets them, when they find a hole in the fence and run through it. The group is reunited on the other side, as the Spinosaurus lets out a frustrated roar and seems to walk off to try to find a way around the barrier. But just as everyone takes a breather and laughs out of relief, he smashes through the fence, sending them running towards a nearby building. They duck inside and close the large steel door just as he reaches them, and this seems to be too much for him to break through.

Afterward, Grant learns that Billy stole a pair of raptor eggs and are keeping them in his camera bag. Following Grant's angrily telling him off for this, the group heads down a spiraling staircase to try and reach the boat down the river. Reaching a mass of steel walkways and steps along a misty mountainside, Grant attempts to go down a stairway, only for it to give way underneath him and fall down to the river below. Paul keeps Grant from falling with it, and then everyone realizes they need to make their way across a walkway. Feeling how rickety it is, Grant suggests

they go across one at a time, opting to go first. He makes it across, disappearing into the mist, and tells the others to do the same. Amanda comes next, followed by Eric, while Grant explores more of this structure up ahead. He finds some sort of dried, white substance on a railing, while Eric feels the walkway suddenly shutter, stopping him in his tracks. He hears it creaking, as something is clearly on it up ahead of him, while Grant rejoins Amanda and tells her that he realizes the structure is a huge birdcage. Just as she asks, "For what?", a Pteranodon emerges from the

mist, walking across the bridge towards Eric. Eric immediately turns and runs back to his dad on the other side, and everyone else attempts to come to his aid as well. But they're too slow, as the Pteranodon takes to the air, grabs Eric's shoulders with her talons, and flies off with him. Everyone runs about the scaffolding, attempting to keep Eric in sight, which is made difficult by all of the mist. Eric struggles to free himself, when the Pteranodon swoops down towards a set of stone pillars and drops him on one next to a

nest full of her hungry babies. Spotting some human bones next to him, Eric grabs a skull and throws it at the babies, then runs and jumps across the pillars. Everyone else keeps trying to find a way to get to him, when Billy, reaching a proper vantage point, straps his backpack around his waste. Grant, realizing what he's about to do, runs after him, trying to stop him, but he runs up some steps, climbs up onto the railing, and jumps. He deploys the sail, which he stuffed into his backpack, and glides towards the spot where Eric is.

The babies chase after Eric, reaching and pecking at him when he stumbles and falls. Billy comes gliding in and makes a pass to come around for him, as Eric takes off his outer shirt. He hops across the pillars, only to come to the edge of one, and the babies swarm him again. Billy glides towards him, telling him to jump to him and Eric, after flinging the babies off, run across several more pillars, jumps, and grabs onto Billy. Meanwhile, Paul comes to a section of the walkway that has fallen away. When he's joined by Grant and Amanda, the mother Pteranodon suddenly

appears. She tries to land on the edge but it doesn't have any enough space. She then flies up, above the humans as they run through the walkway, gets ahead of them, and lands on a spot where there's a hole in the roof. She falls down onto the walkway with them, while Billy and Eric find themselves attacked by three more adults. One of them manages to slice a hole in Billy's sail and they start losing altitude. The other Pteranodon menacingly approaches those on the walkway, with Grant actually kicking her in the beak. Billy has Eric let go and he drops into some water not

too far below, while the one Pteranodon chases the others back to the gap in the walkway. The section they're on gives way under their combined weight and they all plummet to the water below. The humans hit first, followed by the Pteranodon, and before she can fly off, the section of scaffolding falls right on top of her. Up above, Billy's sail gets snagged on the side of the cliff. He dangles from it, as the other Pteranodons swoop down at him. The adults reach the shoreline and head for Eric, who points to Billy's situation.

Grant and Paul go to help him, while Amanda and Eric head for safety. After fruitlessly trying to pull his sail loose, Billy unbuckles himself and drops into the water. As Grant and Paul run to his aid, he runs through the shallows, when one Pteranodon swoops in, grabs him, and lifts him up into the air. He drops out of his backpack and falls back to the water, as Eric and Amanda reach the entrance to the aviary. Billy, still being attacked, yells for Grant and Paul to get away. Another Pteranodon comes in and they

overwhelm him, pecking and clawing at him as he's washed downstream. Another Pteranodon sitting nearby turns and sees Grant and Paul, who run for the entrance. Eric and Amanda get on the other side of the gate, as the others come running, with the Pteranodon flying after them. They dive back into the water and swim under the edge of the aviary, while Amanda closes the door to the gate. With the Pteranodon unable to continue chasing them, they make their way to the riverboat, joining Eric and Amanda. Unbeknownst to them, however, the latch to the aviary wasn't put in place and it comes loose.

That night, as they're making their way down the river, they hear the sound of the satellite phone ringing. It's just up ahead and everyone tenses up, as they round a bend, expecting to see the Spinosaurus standing there, waiting for them. Instead, they find piles of his steaming dung. Still hearing the phone ringing, the adults jump off the boat and try to find it before it stops. They dig through the dung, pulling out various stuff like articles of clothing and bones, before Amanda finds the phone. When she pulls it out, Grant takes it and answers the call, but it

turns out to be, of all things, a telemarketer. Eric yells at them, as a Ceratosaurus emerges from the jungle and approaches them. But when he sniffs them, he's repulsed by their current smell and walks away. They then continue on down the river, in the middle of a rainstorm. Looking into the water and seeing a bunch of fish fleeing, clearly having been spooked by something, Grant advises Paul to get the boat's engine going. While he tries to start it, Grant makes a call using the satellite phone, opting to call Ellie.

Unfortunately for him, four-year old Charlie answers and Grant tells him to take the phone to his mother. He goes to do as he's told, while Paul continues trying to start the engine, when a certain fin emerges from the water ahead of the boat. It's rammed with a huge force, knocking everyone off-balance and causing Grant to drop the phone. The Spinosaurus emerges from the water next to the boat with a mighty roar, and everyone takes cover inside a large containment cage on the boat's deck, as he starts destroying the bridge.

While Charlie looks out the window to see his mother sending her husband off to work, the Spinosaurus continues tearing the boat apart. Charlie is then distracted when he sees Barney the Dinosaur on the TV in the living room, while the Spinosaurus is rocking the boat back and forth, causing the cage to slide across the deck, as the satellite phone goes across the rail. The Spinosaurus then moves along the side of the cage, trying to find a way to get at them, when Charlie remembers the call and finally goes to take the phone to his mother. As fuel leaks all over

the boat's deck from a smashed drum, the Spinosaurus grabs the cage and wrenches it back and forth. Charlie brings Ellie the phone, telling her that it's "the Dinosaur Man," and she tries to answer Grant. At that moment, he and the others are scrambling for anything they can use as a weapon, when Ellie calls Grant back. They hear the phone's ringtone and scramble to get it, reaching out through the cage as it slides along the rail. Grant manages to grab it, when the Spinosaurus pulls the cage off the boat and into the water. It quickly sinks and Grant only has enough

time to yell to Ellie, "The river! Site B!" The phone goes dead, but Ellie, having heard the screaming in the background, realizes what's going on, especially when Charlie happens to roar like a dinosaur in excitement. Meanwhile, everyone struggles to breathe as the cage sinks to the bottom of the river, while the Spinosaurus digs through the water with his hands and then his snout. Paul gets tossed out of the cage's hatch and it then lands upright, with the other end sticking up out of the water, allowing the others to

surface and breathe. Surfacing, Paul sees the Spinosaurus reaching down into the cage through the open hatch. Paul swims back to the boat and climbs up the large crane on it, while the Spinosaurus manages to grab Amanda and cut her side open. Paul yells at the Spinosaurus, distracting him enough to where the others can climb out of the cage, but finds himself hanging from the crane's arm when the dinosaur rams into it and knocks him off-balance. He dangles just feet away from the Spinosaurus' jaws,

while Grant swims down to the bottom and grabs a flare gun that they found earlier. Surfacing, he points and fires. The flare bounces off the Spinosaurus' side but ignites all of the fuel that's been spilling into the water. Grant swims for shore, as the Spinosaurus becomes surrounded by flames and begins panicking. However, the crane bends in the middle and collapses into the water, with Paul still hanging on. Everyone onshore watches in horror as Paul is seemingly killed, while the Spinosaurus retreats from the fire. But, naturally, just as everyone is about to start mourning Paul, he shows up nearby and is reunited with his family.

The next morning, they continue on, when they hear the sound of the ocean nearby. They make a run for it, when the Velociraptors appear and immediately surround them. As one of the female raptors approaches, challenging them, Grant tells everyone to get down onto the ground. The raptor focuses on Amanda, and when Paul tries to shield her, the raptor snarls a warning at him to stay back. She then nuzzles Amanda's head and sniffs her, trying to pick up the scent of the eggs. She stops sniffing but snarls at Amanda, and she tells Grant to give her the eggs. He

opens the bag, and once the eggs are within sight, the raptors call to each other, while the female hisses as Amanda takes the eggs and puts them down on the ground. Spying Billy's synthetic resonating chamber in the bag, Grant takes it and blows through it, creating a sound that gives the raptors immediate pause. However, it seems to agitate them even more, and Paul tells Grant to call for help instead. Grant changes the vocalization, further confusing the raptors. The one male lunges towards them but the

female growls at him, prompting him to back away. They then hear the sound of helicopter blades and the female chatters at the other raptors. Those behind the group run off, while the female and male each take an egg and join the others. As the humans realize a helicopter is approaching, they run on and reach the coastline. They see a man in a suit standing near the water, when he calls to them through a bullhorn. Remembering what happened when they first landed, they run to the man, telling him not to do that, only for an armada of Navy and Marines to suddenly appear and storm the beach.

Once everyone is onboard a helicopter, Grant sees that they found and rescued Billy. The two of them reconcile, with Billy showing Grant that he managed to save his hat. He and everyone else buckles in, and they take off. It's not long before they get a surprise when several Pteranodons, having escaped the aviary, fly past the helicopters and head off into the sunrise. Grant says they're probably just looking for some new nesting sites, while everyone else is just content to be going home. The movie ends with the helicopters heading towards some waiting Navy ships, while the Pteranodons fly on through the clouds.

Since John Williams was busy scoring A.I. Artificial Intelligence for Steven Spielberg, he recommended that Don Davis be brought in to score Jurassic Park III. At that point, Davis' most notable scoring work had been for The Matrix (he would also go on to score the rest of that original trilogy, as well as The Animatrix), but I have to say that I don't remember much of the new material he composed for this. That's probably because he reused a lot of Williams' themes, specifically from the first movie, successfully re-orchestrating them in different ways to fit the mood, be it the soft, sad piano version of that lovely, majestic theme during the moment when Grant is leaving Ellie's home, and the shorter reprise when they spot the dinosaurs on the riverbank and at the end when the Pteranodons are flying through the clouds, as well as the classic adventurous main theme, which you hear various times, including at the start of the ending credits. I cannot, for the life of me, go into much detail about Davis' original music, as it's rather generic, to be honest. The film opens with a menacing piece that is Jurassic Park-like in nature, but doesn't give me chills like the very foreboding music that Williams composed, and the music that Davis creates to characterize the relationship between Eric and his parents is okay and is touching enough, but it's hardly memorable. The same goes for how he scores the action sequences: it helps make them tense and exciting enough, but it's not nearly as memorable as the action music in the first two movies. The most memorable bit of music he came up with is the haunting piece for the scene in the breeding compound, which is scored with distant, vocalizing female voices, akin to what you might hear in a Jurassic Park movie that was directed by Tim Burton and scored by Danny Elfman. And there's also the appropriately low-brow music for the scene where they have to dig through Spinosaurus dung.

I've read that Davis tried to create a theme for the Spinosaurus that was big and brassy, akin to Max Steiner's score for the original King Kong, but in the final mix, the brass was toned down, so it doesn't sound all that distinctive. I've also read that the fight between the Spinosaurus and the T-Rex was supposed to have a mix of this theme and Williams' original one for the latter but I didn't hear any music during that scene (Davis says that there was about twenty seconds or so cut from that scene). As a result of all this, the film doesn't have its own compelling musical identity, unlike the previous movies and as would also be the case when Michael Giacchino scored the initial Jurassic World trilogy. Finally, why is there a Randy Newman song on the soundtrack of a Jurassic Park movie? In the scene at the bar where Grant and Billy meet with the Kirbys, you can hear Big Hat, No Cattle playing, and while I don't doubt that you would hear a song like that in such a bar, I find it so out of place in this kind of movie.

In closing, Jurassic Park III is a film that I've definitely warmed up to over time. It may not be high art or anything, but it certainly isn't, nor has it ever been, a horrible movie in my opinion. Also, now knowing about its fairly troubled production, I can say that, while it still has a rushed feel to it, it's a miracle that it came out as well as it did. And make no mistake, it does have quite a bit going for it. For the most part, it keeps the same quality of visual and practical effects that the series is known for; it has

some good, likable characters once again, especially Sam Neill in his second performance as Dr. Alan Grant; there are plenty of exciting, well-constructed action scenes to grab your attention; the sets and locations look great; and it doesn't drag its feet at all, which makes it much easier to sit down and watch than The Lost World. It may not have the heart and sense of awe as the first film, the original music in the score is quite bland, and the story comes off as uninspired and adds little to the world of this series, but if you just need a quick and easy Jurassic fix, this one is definitely your best bet.