It's Not All Bad...Jurassic Park III

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It’s Not All Bad… Jurassic Park III

It’s time for another installment of "It’s Not All Bad…," the segment where I take a look at films typically considered awful by the court of pop culture public opinion and remove the simplistic thought process of seeing the movie in only in terms of good and bad and make the argument that not it’s not all bad.  In this edition, I am taking a look bad at the 2001 entry to the Jurassic Park franchise; Jurassic Park III.

If this was the real world, YouTube would be filled with GoPro videos of dudes parasailing
the island and saying "bro" a lot during the video.

Paleontologist and survivor of the original Jurassic Park debacle Alan Grant (Sam Neill) is approached by two individuals posing as wealthy investors.  The couple; Paul (William H. Macy) and Amanda Kirby (Téa Leoni), state that they are prepared to fund Grant’s research if he will give them a guided tour of Isla Sorna; the island where the dinosaurs were first engineered before they were ultimately transferred to the park.  Grant agrees but only to if they never land on the island but the Kirby couple isn’t being the most honest.  It turns out that they are a divorced couple and Amanda’s boyfriend took their son Eric (Trevor Morgan) parasailing around the island’s coast and became trapped there and they are now forcing Grant to help them locate their son…if he is even still alive.

Oh, there he is.  Yeah, he's alive.

The first Jurassic Park film is a masterpiece.  The story is cool, the cast is amazing and the special effects (both practical and early computer generated effects) are astounding and hold up perfectly.  The film was followed by a less-than-stellar sequel that has a decent premise but kinda goes off the rails in the final act (although, I don’t hate it so maybe another Jurassic Park-based "It’s Not All Bad…" is in order).  The third film from director Joe Johnston (Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, The Rocketeer and Captain America:  The First Avenger) feels like the black sheep of the original trilogy.  It’s the one that people point to the most and say, “It stinks.”  There is some validity to this inarticulate criticism as the film feels rushed and has a very short running time, the characters are barely developed, and there’s the talking raptor dream sequence.  However, as is the point with this little thing I do, Jurassic Park III isn’t a terrible film, I’d argue, because it does have some great things in it.

The Talking Raptor dream sequence is strangely not the oddest thing this franchise has done.

One consistent element to this franchise is having a great cast.  Can you honestly picture anyone besides Jeff Goldblum playing Dr. Ian Malcom?  Can anyone besides Chris Pratt be the man who has domesticated raptors?  Jurassic Park III is cool in the fact we get to see Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler return and while Laura Dern’s role is more of a cameo it’s always nice to see Sam Neill show up in a film—because who doesn’t like Neill?  (Monsters, that’s who.)  This film also has the tremendous talent of William H. Macy in it and he does a very fun job of bringing to the story a very timid and completely out-of-his-element guy.  One of my favorite members of the cast was Michael Jeter (Rest in Power) as the hired help of the Kirbys.  It’s hinted that he’s a mercenary but, before he meets his end by means of Velociraptor (the film is 18 years old, the Spoiler Alert for it has spoiled), we learn he is anything but that.  However, Jeter treats the character like a badass and, when you consider Jeter’s small frame and disarming mustache, it feels like an antithesis to how he looks but Jeter pulls it off and made the character very interesting to me.  I wanted to see more of him and learn more about him but, sadly, the story falters with these points.

That's right, Mr. Noodle took on gawd damn dinosaurs.

Like the previous films (and the ones that came later), Jurassic Park III doesn’t short-change you on the action set pieces.  There’s a killer sequence of the Spinosaurus attacking our protagonists on a boat, there’s some cool raptor moments where we see those little brainy bastards set a trap and this film has a very cool sequence involving Pteranadons.  Like all kids, I was fascinated by dinosaurs (and still am, to be honest) and flying dinosaurs are just too cool of a prospect.  This moment in a glorified gigantic bird cage hits the right notes for a Jurassic Park action piece as it is exciting but also has that little bit of horror and terror to make it interesting.  And this brings me to my last point…the dinos.

Oh no, not that one Dr. Grant.

The Jurassic Park films are great examples of sci-fi and one of the coolest things they did was bring dinosaurs to life in a way that is completely believable—from both a story-structure standpoint and a special effects view.  Every film brings in new creatures to take in and this one is no exception.  Whether it is the previously mentioned Pteranadons and Spinosaurus or even the brief cameo of a Ceratosaurus this film gives you some cool new dinos to check out and watch create some havoc.  Not to mention the film still has returning favorites in the form of the T. Rex and raptors.

Run, kid!  You're being chased by a Pteranadon that just so happens to also be the
Tickle Monster.

Jurassic Park III is far from a perfect film as it feels like it is moving too fast and definitely has the stench of obligatory sequel coming off it.  However, it does have some things working for it that shows it’s not all bad.  I mean, it’s not like it is Jurassic World:  Fallen Kingdom—actually, as weak as that one was it too has things about it that makes it not all bad.