Jurassic Park III
I now own all four “Jurassic” movies on Ultra HD Blu-Ray. I was reminded of why I didn’t own the third film for a while. Watching “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” again in 2015, my initial assessment of it as an enjoyable B-movie with some interesting ideas on game hunting and keeping animals in nature was confirmed. After I figured out that this franchise is basically a B-movie blockbuster series for Steven Spielberg to let filmmakers play in, I was hoping that, when I revisited Joe Johnston’s 2001 movie this year, my initial thoughts would be changed.
The fact that the director of “The Rocketeer,” the original “Jumanji” and “Captain America: The First Avenger” made what I would consider the worst movie in the “Jurassic” franchise is less an indictment on him and more on Spielberg as an executive producer. I hate to say it, but Spielberg feels like he rushed this through production, and the 93 minute running time shows it. Indeed, he and Johnston scrapped the script shortly before filming started, and the rewrite is obvious…and painful. The fact that Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor (“Election,” “About Schmidt” and “Sideways,” for crying out loud) couldn’t make these characters interesting, or smart, is baffling to me, but not surprising given how quick a polish it was. “Jurassic Park III” is anything but polished, though.
The film begins with Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) visiting Ellie (Laura Dern) and her family while on a break from digging in Montana with his colleague, Billy (Alessandro Nivola). We see him giving a lecture about the discoveries he has made about velociraptors, but all people want to ask him about is his time at Jurassic Park, which is- needless to say- a sore spot for him. After the lecture, he is approached by a couple (William H. Macy & Tea Leoni) about guided them around Isla Sorna- Site B for John Hammond- for what, he is told, is a wedding anniversary. Once they get to the island, however, the truth is a bit more perilous, and once they land, so are their chances of survival.
When it occurred to me just what Spielberg’s game was with the “Jurassic” series- that it’s basically a big-budget franchise for him to be Roger Corman to other filmmakers- I was actually more eager to revisit Joe Johnston’s film than I have been at any time since I watched it in 2001 to see if, like “The Lost World,” it held up somewhat better than I remembered. That makes it all the more disappointing that I really didn’t like this third film. As I mentioned earlier, the writing is not polished- the film commits the sin of seemingly smart characters doing dumb things- and it feels like Johnston was truly up against a clock while making this. This film feels more rushed and haphazard as you would hope from the director, and it’s painful to think he got short-shifted at his one chance with this franchise. He isn’t the only one, though; the composer on this film is Don Davis from “The Matrix” trilogy, and I hate that his score is little more than adapting Williams’s themes for this film, without giving him the leeway to put his own stamp on the film like Michael Giacchino was able to on “Jurassic World.” In his defense, the effects and look of the film, courtesy of cinematographer Shirley Johnson, and Johnston stages the scene with the pterodactyls quite well, but man is this film a letdown from not just its director, but the executive producer he was working with.
