Jurassic Park III
Dr Alan Grant (Sam Neil) is persuaded by rich adventurers Paul (William H Macy) and Amanda (Téa Leoni) Kirby to join them on a sightseeing flight over Isla Sorna (Site B from JP2). Grant brings along a young trainee Billy Brennan (Alessandro Nivola) and all seems well until the Kirby’s land the plane on the island...
Plot
Dr Alan Grant (Sam Neil) is persuaded by rich adventurers Paul (William H Macy) and Amanda (Téa Leoni) Kirby to join them on a sightseeing flight over Isla Sorna (Site B from JP2). Grant brings along a young trainee Billy Brennan (Alessandro Nivola) and all seems well until the Kirby’s land the plane on the island.
Immediately all hell breaks loose as they come across the islands new inhabitant the terrifying Spinosaurus. Dr Grant soon learns of the real reason they came to the island. With no ready means of communications they need to fight for they’re lives and escape the Spinosarus, the T-Rex and of course the deadly Velociraptors.
Review
After some initial comments from some other site members, (see the cinema reviews forum) I was expecting to be very disappointed with this film. Maybe it was because I went into it with low expectations, but I actually found myself rather enjoying the whole experience.
There are a few things that make it a different experience to the first two films however. Firstly the plot is nowhere as detailed and involved as either of the other two films. This film is 90 minutes of dumbed down intense Dino action, this is a real popcorn movies and doesn’t pretend to be anything other. I think as long as you approach it with that frame of mind you can get a lot of enjoyment out of it.
One thing that I’m sure no one could disagree with me on is how good the special effects look in this film. The combination of CG and Animatronic Dinosaurs is faultless, I certainly could not tell one from the other. Two notable sequences are the T-Rex / Spinosaurus fight and the Pteranodon scenes. If there ever is a JP4 I’m sure we’re going to see a lot more flying dinosaurs in it.
The cast are all very good, although they don’t really get to do much more than run away from dinosaurs screaming during most scenes. I always like William H Macy’s work and he does a fine job here, along with his on screen wife Téa Leoni. It’s also good to see Sam Neil back as for me he was sorely missed from Jurassic Park 2.
Whether or not you’ll enjoy this film depends on what you want out of it. Personally I enjoyed it but definitely found it to be the weakest of the three. However my brother thinks it is the best one yet as it has so many action sequences one after another.
Audio/Video
Whether you like the film or not, this will be a great DVD for showing off your system. The 1.85:1 Widescreen Anamorphic picture is superb, very sharp with strong colours and not a defect in sight. Both the Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS audio tracks are awesome. With such an action packed film there are plenty of chances to give all the channels a good work out and they are definitely taken. The DTS track just had the edge to me, simply because it seemed louder and slightly more beefy.
Extras
The Feature Commentary is not from the director as you might expect but from some key members of the special effects team. We have Stan Winston whose company is responsible for the animatronic dinosaurs, John Rosengrant live action effects supervisor, Dan Taylor Animation Director from ILM and Michael Lantieri on the mechanical effects side. If you are at all interested in the technologies used in the JP series of films then you’ll love this commentary track as it’s packed full of information. One of the things that impressed me was the use (for the first time) of CG and animatronics on screen at the same time; it’s impossible for me to tell the difference between the two. The commentary is also available as a subtitle, if you prefer to watch that way.
The Making of feature is around 22 minutes long and features plenty of interviews with cast & crew along with some behind the scenes footage. It doesn’t go into anything in any great details but is an interesting overview none the less. The New Dinosaurs of Jurassic Park III is about 8 minutes long and is another very similar making of feature; in fact there is some repetition of interview clips from the making of feature.
Tour of Stan Winston Studio is a short 3-minute feature that shows some of the stages involved in creating the animatronic dinosaurs, this feature is far too short and just leaves you wanting more. A Visit to ILM is a much better extra, it is broken into four sections titled Concepts, The Process, Muscle Simulation and Compositing. Each section is broken into sub sections that start with an introduction and then various clips revealing a lot of details about the CG process.
Montana: Finding New Dinosaurs is a 4 minute feature that shows a real dinosaur dig currently taking place in Montana. Behind the Scenes is a collection of three scenes from the film with final scenes spliced with behind the scene footage. To be honest it doesn’t really add anything that isn’t available on the other extras. Storyboard Comparison once again contains three scenes from the film; the screen is split in two with the storyboard on top and live action underneath. Finally there’s a Photo Gallery, Dinosaur Turntables, which is a selection of rotating CG characters including one of the human cast and a selection of Trailers. The trailers include Jurassic Park I, II and III, the new version of E.T. and the eagerly awaited Back To The Future trilogy DVD release.
There are also some additional DVD-Rom extras including screen savers, some game demos, some film stills and various dinosaur statistics. The film is broken into 21 chapters and contains subtitles in English as well as commentary track subtitles.
Overall
This is a very well presented DVD, generally the extras are worth watching although there is some repetition amongst them. Video and Audio quality are both exceptional and the film itself is a reasonably fun romp as long as you approach it with an open mind. For me it gets a well deserved above average 3.5 out of 5.
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