JURASSIC PARK III (2001) 2 1/2 stars out of 4. Starring Sam Neill, William H. Macy, Tea Leoni, Michael Jeter, Trevor Morgan, John Diehl and Laura Dern. Written by Peter Buchman, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor. Directed by John Johnston. Approx. 96 minutes. Rated PG-13. By Bob Bloom Journal and Courier, Lafayette, IN.
Four things come to mind while mulling over Jurassic Park III:
1. The running time: The film flashes by in about 95 minutes.
2. The film is fast: It is mostly non-stop chase and run from beginning to end.
3. The dinosaurs are phenomenal: The computer generated or mechanical creatures are so life-like, you can almost buy into the illusion that they are real.
4. Universal knows how to milk monster/horror franchises. This is the studio that took Dracula, Frankentstein, the Mummy, the Wolf Man and their related brides, sons, ghosts and daughters and ultimately made them straight ghouls for Abbott and Costello.
Thankfully, the studio does not sink to that level with Jurassic Park III. Despite its B-movie trappings, this adventure thriller exhibits some wit and style.
And it also is savvy enough to realize its audience. While the movie is brutal, the violence is neither very graphic nor gratuitous. It may scare the little ones, but the teen-age audience for which it is aimed will appreciate the man-eating chomping that runs through the film.
Back from the original cast is Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant, who is lured to Isla Sorna the backup island featured in Jurassic Park: The Lost World under the pretense of leading an aerial tour for a wealthy adventurer (William H. Macy) and his wife (Tea Leoni).
In reality, the couple who are divorced are searching for their son who disappeared with his stepfather while parasailing near the island. However, the expedition's plane crashes on the island, and the race is on.
This Joe Johnston-directed feature seems to sprint through most of its plot points and explanations, leaving many open-ended questions concerning the film's editing.
For example, at the outset, the team which includes veteran character actors Michael Jeter and John Diehl hired by Macy's Paul Kirby makes a big display of showing off a lot of big firepower. But then that arsenal is lost when the plane goes down and one of the dinosaurs plays kick-the-can with the ship's hull.
It feels as if to achieve its running time, a lot of what was shot was left on the cutting room floor.
The relationship between Macy's Kirby and his ex-wife, Amanda, also is murky. Supposedly divorced because he was not a risk-taker and she was, the couple - though united to search for their lost son - do not display the emotional turmoil that would normally exist between estranged ex-spouses.
While the action is first-rate, the character motivation and creation seem sloppy. Neill's Grant, for example, goes through the film as a grouchy curmudgeon, scolding everyone to keep quiet so as not to attract the attention of the behemoths. He constantly corrects his companions about the dinosaurs, calling them merely amusement park attractions, and not considering them the real McCoy because they were genetically engineered.
But most of these complaints are offset by the film's visuals and sly sense of humor. There's a nod to Disney's Peter Pan, for example, as the stranded humans are alerted to the approach of a gigantic carnivore by the sound of a cellphone it swallowed along with the person holding it. (How they retrieve the phone is one of the film's grosser points that will amuse those enamored by scatological humor.)
The party does find the Kirbys' missing son, who has managed to keep himself alive on the island for two months. This self-sufficient lad (Trevor Morgan) explains to Grant how he used T-Rex urine to ward off other predators. When asked by Grant how he got the specimen, the young man says, "You don't want to know," a line that allows the audience to conjure up all kinds of imaginative scenario.
If only the movie itself had risen to that level.
With the exception of an impressive giant aviary, Jurassic Park III has a rather claustrophobic affect. It lacks scope and mostly looks as if the entire venture was filmed on a soundstage.
Jurassic Park III lacks the awe and spectacle of the original, and that is mostly because audiences have become jaded and blasé about the special effects used to create the various animals.
Otherwise, the movie is an entertaining romp, a no-brainer fun time for dinosaur aficionados.
Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, IN. He can be reached by e-mail at bloom@journal-courier.com or at bobbloom@iquest.net. Other reviews by Bloom can be found at www.jconline.com by clicking on golafayette. Bloom's reviews also can be found on the Web at the Internet Movie Database site: http://www.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Bob+Bloom
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