As we know,
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
met with criticism amongst people when it was released back in 1997 - but that
didn't stop it making a small fortune for Mr Spielberg - yet again! So how has
the inevitable Part III faired?
The basic plot of JP3 is that rich businessman Paul Kirby enlists the help of
Dr Grant (Sam Neill from the original film) to help him
track down his missing son - who has been marooned on the dino-infested
island after a paragliding "accident". Needless to say, their rescue plan
goes slightly awry and Dr Grant and his gang of walking dino-bait find
themselves in a similar predicament...
Classic B-movie plot, eh? What separates JP3 from its
predecessors is the wanton disregard for pretension and plot. Jurassic
Park had a pulpy and scientifically intriguing concept and a story based on
a bestselling book to wrap its jaw-dropping special-effects around... The
Lost World at least had apprehensions of a plot due to its book origins,
although they soon gave way to MORE of those jaw-dropping special-effects...
but JP3 has no such crutches.
JP3 does have an enjoyable raison d'etre to get the "meat" onto the
island... but the film sustains its meagre running time with the following
plot-steps: dino attack, escape, dino attack, escape, dino attack, escape,
dino attack, escape, roll credits, the end.
But, hey, nobody's watching this movie for the story! So long as the
characters aren't too paper-thin and unlikeable and therefore worth "rooting
for" during the various prehistoric pitfalls, right?
Well, thankfully, the eclectic cast is very watchable - Sam Neill is
wonderful as Dr Grant, effortlessly giving the movie a gravitas that was
missing from The Lost World. In that movie, Jeff Goldblum's character
wasn't a dinosaur expert, simply a frightened father/boyfriend who had
experienced the hazards dinosaurs can bring. It's far more affecting when an
expert is there to genuinely LEAD the characters through the dilemmas, as
happens in JP3.
Neill is also supported in this mentor-like role by Allesandra Nivollo's
character, who plays a young protoge of Dr Grant's. The "kid" character so
poorly represented in The Lost World returns here, but this time the child
is actually a lot smarter than the adults and as such never drags the movie
down with sentimentality and whiney dialogue to "mom n' dad".
William H Macy is good, although his character's sole purpose is to act like
a wimp and his development is sloppily handled. Tea Leoni, Miss David
Duchovny herself, is perhaps the worst actor in the movie - replete with
her ear-achingly awful accent. She even seems to have been given the full
amount of forehead-slapping moments usually reserved for the child
characters. Very poor.
Okay, okay, the DINOSAURS? That's what you're interested in? Well, I'm going
to stick my neck out here and say... I preferred the work done in The Lost
World. The effects work here looked slightly rushed, occassionally even
out-of-focus, proportionally wrong at times, there were also minimal amounts
of environmental interaction (mud, puddles, etc), and worst of all... it was
quite "cartoonish" in places. In particular, the brachiosaurus' resemble
those from Disney's Dinosaur last year and the pteradons looked like giant
pellicans from
Jumanji!
Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) even chose to make the dinosaurs more
colourful than ever before! There are tiger-striped brachiosaurus's,
red-headed raptors, and even a slightly pink spinosaurus!
But in terms of animation - you can't fault ILM, and the animatronic work by
Stan Winston is better than ever before. In fact, the spinosaurus and raptor
"models" look much better than the CGI work in some scenes! Impressive. But,
yes, when it comes to full-body movement, CGI is still King and JP3
is certainly not UN-impressive in terms of effects. Just... not as
fulfilling as Lost World. Maybe the novelty's just worn off...
Joe Johnston, taking over in the director's chair from Steven Spielberg,
acquits himself fairly well, although he only really gets to shine in two
sequences: the island plane crash and the spinosaurus boat attack. And both
are moments Spielberg would have choreographed much better. Sadly,
Johnston's talents never reach an apex that Spielberg achieved with his
T-Rex attack in JP or the mobile home cliffhanger of Lost World.
Johnston just proves himself to be a very capable director, who got the job
done.
Some other random obervations: the cinematography of JP3 is great - the
lush jungle setting is impressive and believable, especially during the
pteradon attack with the foggy bridge. However, despite some people hating
the constant rain of Lost World, it's strange that the one TRULY tense
moment of the film just happened to be when it's raining... maybe Spielberg
realized this on Lost World after the rain-drenched T-Rex scenes of the
original...?
I also disliked the lapses of consistency in the film. In one scene, a
spinosaurs proves it can easily smash its way through a collosal fence, but
in the next scene it gives up when faced with a wooden door!
Also, JP3 made me pine for the more realistic approach of the original
film. In the original, just the THOUGHT that the velociraptors had escaped
made you want to committ suicide and save yourself an "inevitably" painful
death, but in JP3 you can apparently run rings around the pesky raptors
by hiding up trees and "communicating" with them! Hmmm. Similarly, humans
can apparently outrun a dinosaur that can surely reach 30 mph without
breaking sweat!
For me, these "minor" complaints weren't enough to make me hate the film...
it's just that there were just so many "minor" problems and mistakes, it did
begin to detract from the film and make you realize how superior aspects of
the past movies were.
So, overall, do I recommend JP3? Well.. yes. It does deliver
what it promises - lots of dinosaurs, more CGI onscreen than ever before,
less plot but more action, a better cast than Lost World, and a nice
"popcorn" spirit to it that Summer 2001 has been lacking.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
