"Jurassic Park III"
Steven Spielberg has relinquished the directing reins of his successful dino franchise and gives Joe Johnston ("Jumanji") a chance to play with the big boys in "Jurassic Park III."
A friend described "JP3," for me, without seeing it: Adventurers (with Dr. Grant (Sam Neill) in tow) arrive clandestinely on Monster Island - it's called Isla Sorna, here. They meet a big, mean dinosaur - introducing the new kid, the Spinosaurus - have some of their number eaten, then run away. They see big, cuddly dinos, are chased again by another meanie, and run away. They make their way to "the compound," where more mean dinos try to eat them. Get chased, run away, get chased, run away, get chased, run away. My friend was dead on describing this cookie cutter effort from start to finish. Now, that's scarier than the monsters.
The neat thing about the first "Jurassic Park" flick was the fresh, never-before-seen prehistoric world created by Michael Crichton and put up on the big screen by Spielberg. It was exciting to see T-Rex for the first time or chew your nails as the raptors hunted down the youngsters. Sure there was a lot of hokum with the kids being the heroes, saving the adults from being eaten, but, we could get over the Spielbergian clichés and have a good time. This brave new cinema world was visited again, sadly, with the mishmash that was "Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World." A cross between the original, "The Road Warrior" and "Godzilla," the second outing just rehashed the new technology, poked some fun at itself and monster movies, but was pretty routine, and sometimes boring, with its "more is better" attitude.
This third (and undoubtedly not the last if this makes money) in the series uses formula, rather than originality, to convey its conventional man-against-monster yarn. The newness has worn off the franchise and it is now more of the same. What caused us to wow and wonder in 1993 has become commonplace in 2001. The F/X developed nearly a decade ago have been improved and made even more seamless, but there is not the quantum leap that Spielberg and company made with the debut of the original "Jurassic Park."
The story - the first of the franchise not adapted from a Michael Crichton book - doesn't try to invent anything new as it tells its tale of man against nature, albeit a nature artificially designed by man. The team of writers - Peter Buchman, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor - provides an action/adventure yarn that is exactly as my friend described it to me. There are no surprises and few logical ties to the original. For example, in "JP1" there were no Spinosaurases or flying Pteranodons, but, a few years later, they have miraculously evolved from nothing. A T-Rex is going to make little T-Rexes, not Spinos. It is insulting to the fans of the franchise to be talked down to by the filmmakers. Don't they realize that fans notice these details? Some of us do have an attention span longer than 15 minutes, we should tell them.
I hope Sam Neill gets a good paycheck for this outing. The actor goes through the motions as Dr. Alan Grant and is left to mouth such lines as "Nobody move!" And that is about it for this veteran thesp. William H. Macy and Tea Leoni, as the divorced couple looking for their lost child on Monster Island (that's the basis for the "GP3" story), are adequate. Handsome Alessandro Nivola is conflicted (or constipated, it's hard to tell) as Dr.G's assistant. There is, of course, a kid - Trevor Morgan - as the focus of the search and, yes, he's smarter than the adults. The rest of the cast members, including Michael Jeter, are simply items on the dino lunch menu. Laura Dern reprises her role as Dr. Ellie Sattler and, with about 10 seconds of screen time, saves the day, long-distance.
Technically, as one would expect in a film with Steven Spielberg as an executive producer, this is a high-tech wonder of CGI and animatronics. The glitter has worn off since T-Rex first thumped his foot down, but the craftsmanship given to putting life into these prehistoric creatures should be lauded. The mechanical F/X, like a Spino attack on the adventurers trapped inside the wrecked fuselage of their plane, are first rate. Production design, by Ed Verreaux, does a fine job creating the lush jungle and dangerous compound sets for the monsters to play in.
Maybe it's time for the "Jurassic Park" park franchise to join hands with Toho and Godzilla. I can picture it now. The dinosaurs have taken over the United States and its up to Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan and the rest of the boys from Japan, to save the world and kick some Jurassic butt. I'd go to see it. In the meantime, I give "Jurassic Park III" a C+.
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