Jurassic Park III Review
by Tim Wick
I have a tough time remaining objective about this movie.
On the one hand, you have the fact that this film is so far advanced from
every other action/adventure film released this summer (heck, this whole
YEAR) that it cries out for five beakers in simple gratitude.
On the other hand, I wasn't really blown away by the film either. I'm not
really sure if the reason is shortcomings in the film or the fact that I
really didn't feel like I was watching anything new.
In my review of The Score, I defended a formulaic heist movie by pointing
out it only had to do a few things to be successful. The same rules apply
to a Jurassic Park movie. The movie followed all the rules so I should just
like it and be done with it.
But....
Well....
The thing is that this time around, "bigger" seems to be more important than
"scarier." Case in point: the major enemy in this picture is the
Spinosaurus, a carnivore much larger than a plain old T-Rex. In an early
sequence, we get to see just how much of a bad ass this mega-meat eater is.
Why, then, was he never as scary as that T-Rex was in the original Jurassic
park lo those many years ago?
Part of it is familiarity. Jurassic Park already did the great big meat
eater is about to have you for lunch thing. We've seen it. We know that a
few characters are red shirts and marked for death and others are at the
very least sticking around for one more scene so there will be somebody for
the next dinosaur to kill. That's fine. That's what the movie is about,
but I was left with a sort of ho hum feel about the whole thing. I didn't
really get too wrapped up in the characters I figured on being dino lunch.
Another part is that the dinosaur reveals in this picture aren't as
downright scary as in the original. I'm not talking Lost World here -
that film doesn't deserve to enter into the debate. With Indiana Jones and
the Temple of Doom, The Lost World stands as the best argument against
Steven Spielberg doing sequels.
But think about the reveal of the T-Rex in Jurassic Park. We didn't even
see it at first. At first, we just saw the ripple of water in a cup. So
much was spoken about that mass of the creature who created that reaction
and we'd not even seen it yet. Our first view of the Spinosaurus is as he
leaps out of the jungle and chomps someone. The suspense is lost. We
aren't breathlessly waiting for the beast. There was a jump in the
audience, but nothing compared to the jump in the original when the goats
tail landed on the truck. Again, we hadn't even seen the T-Rex yet, but we
sure had a good idea what he could do.
In all fairness, that is not the purpose here. Velociraptors can never be
spookier than they were in the original film. We didn't really know what
they were back then. We thought that the T-Rex was the top of the Dino food
chain and the most dangerous threat to our band of bait. Turned out that
the dinosaurs who are really dangerous are the ones who can open doors and
are small enough to pass through them.
Too late to do that in Jurassic Park III. Instead, we get Pteranadons
because that way we need to be looking over our heads as well as around
every tree.
I'm not going to argue about the coolness of Pteranadons because they are
inherently cool. Flying dinosaurs add an element of danger that hadn't been
there before. Of course, they are also still locked in a cage and are
something less than a perfect threat. Instead, they are an episode to be
survived (by most) and then left behind. We do have a moment where we think
it will be different, but - alas - that moment is a mere red herring.
This is not a bad movie. Heck, it's even a pretty good movie. I can't help
but wonder if my opinion of the film is colored more by the fact I can see
most of the ways in which the first film is so superior to this one. Were
this movie Jurassic Park I, would I like it more? I think I probably
would. The characters are sketches, but should be nothing more. The action
sequences are certainly better than what has been presented so far this
year. The dinosaurs are big and cool and having people for lunch.
The only reason I want more from a dinosaur movie is because of the dinosaur
movie this film is derived from. That is, I'm sure, extremely unfair of me.
I want the rippling water glass. I want the clever quips of Malcom. So
what I need to do is go out and buy the DVD for the original. But I also
need to tell you that if you enjoy action films and you like your dinosaurs,
you should definitely see this movie. You don't really have any better
action film to see. Trust me, I've been looking.
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