Reviews

6th film in the Jurassic series that brings back the main 3 actors of the original Jurassic Park movies to share the screen with the main actors of the Jurassic World Movies to give a grand sent off to the entire series. Unfortunately, both sets of actors are split up in two completely different stories that combine towards the climax and one of the stories ( The one with Neil, Dern and Goldblum) is ten times more interesting than the other one ( The one with Pratt and Howard). In fact, with a heavy rewrite and a better director at the helm, the story involving the original Jurassic Park characters would have a been a very good Jurassic Sequel on its own right. Unfortunately, we don't live in a perfect world, so we are stuck with a another bad Jurassic World sequel that does not know on what it wants to be .

The story involving the original Jurassic Park cast is actual a very interesting one that involves corporate espionage and genetic engineering. A story on which if it had a stronger screenplay, a better director and a direct focus on what this series is really about , it would have been a great continuation of Michael Crichton's work and a great bookend to Steven Spielberg's first two Jurassic Park films (The original and it's only true and worthy sequel "The Lost World"). Unfortunately under Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly dimwitted screenplay, the story only scratches the surface of the subject matter and is shoehorned to run parallel with the other story in this movie, which is not very thought out and is really pretty bad . Fortunately for the audience, the characters of Alan Grant , Ellie Sattler and Ian Malcolm are as endearing as ever and the actors are having a fun. Jeff Goldblum can read a phone book and make it interesting, intelligent, funny and entertaining. His character's sarcastic wit is so on point in certain scenes that you end up thinking that Jeff is trying to break the 4th wall to let the audience know on how he really feels about this movie. Sam Neill is great as well, making a welcome return to his character and he actually looks happy to be in this film ( A far cry from the tired performance he gave in the horrible "Jurassic Park 3" but who can blame him) and Lara Dern is as intelligent, spunky and sassy as ever. The charisma and chemistry of all three of the returning Jurassic Park actors more than make up for the half baked plot line they are working with.

The same can't be said for the returning Jurassic World actors, whose plot line is a direct sequel to the events of the horrible "Fallen Kingdom" and it does not help that both Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard look disinterested in their roles. Pratt, who was a welcome addition in "Jurassic World" just looks tired and bored here and Howard, (who in my opinion had a harder character to play and that reason being is the fact that her character changes personalities from one film to the next ) looks ready to move on from this franchise. Their story involving the kidnapping of the clone child of "Fallen Kingdom" and Blue's own baby raptor is so bad that it's an anchor over the neck of this movie. Their story ends up as a bad rip off of the Jason Bourne series. You have shady bad guys, bad stereotypes, a unbelievable plane crash and a fight with dinosaurs in a city (Anybody who still crying over the T-Rex in San Diego in "The Lost World" should keep their mouths shut after they see this terrible sequence in this film). Not to mention the characters striking super hero poses in certain scenes, which makes this story impossible to take seriously. Fortunately or unfortunately if you think about it, the two parallel stories connect towards the climax and our heroes meet for the first time. Which is also eye opening because you can see how shallow the characters from "Jurassic World" are compared to the characters of "Jurassic Park". Not to mention the fact that the "Park" actors are making an effort to bring something to this mess while the "World" actors are just going through the motions.

Which is a shame because Neil, Dern and Goldblum remind the audience on why the original Jurassic Park is such a class act and that was because it had great characters and great actors behind them. Unfortunately, not even their Herculean efforts can stop this film for being crushed by the weight of its own stupidity.

As I rewatch all the Jurassic films in anticipation for the new" Jurassic World", I begin to relive the great memories I had watching each one in the series with what I watched so far. Experiencing wonder and nostalgia of the original "Jurassic Park" that made me a Jurassic fan. Then experiencing the beautifully intense and scary atmosphere of "The Lost World, Jurassic Park" that solidified my Jurassic fandom. Then I had to rewatch the film that literally almost destroyed my Jurassic fandom to the point of wanting to never see another Jurassic film again. That infamous movie was called "Jurassic Park 3", a movie so bad that it put the Jurassic Park franchise on ice for 14 years until the legacy sequel "Jurassic World" came out.

The first thing I notice while i was watching Jurassic Park 3 is how dated and cheap it looks. The Special and Visual Effects that were already a major come down from the first two movies look even worse now. The big bad dinosaur of the film "The Spinosaurus" looks even more like a rubber monster in its close ups now than ever before and the story is just as flimsy now as it was then as well as the horrible acting and dumb characters. Sam Neill does his damn best with the little he has to work with but it does not help that Neill looks tired and beaten up and His character of "Alan Grant" has none of the Intelligence or flare of the "Alan Grant" of the original "Jurassic Park" and just comes across more as a grumpy and greedy chump (The fact that his character did not even bother checking out the Kirby's story before he took their check makes him look even more foolish). And believe it or not, he's the only likable character in the film. Laura Dern phones in her glorified cameo and the rest of the characters are as one dimensional as ever, which is a shame because the cast themselves are a great bunch of actors. William H. Macy, Téa Leoni, Alessandro Nivola and the late great Michael Jeter all have given great performances in other films but not even their great talent could salvage the terrible script they had to work with and the hamminess of the whole production, which comes off as a bad CW show than an actual theatrical film.

Jurassic Park 3 is the worst film in the entire Jurassic franchise and it should be treated as a blemish on its legacy.

Steven Spielberg's original Jurassic Park is not only still The best film in the entire franchise but it's with out a doubt one of the greatest science fiction films ever made and a landmark in practical and visual effects. Spielberg is running on all cyclienters here with Stan Winston and John Williams giving career defining work. The acting across the board is top notch with Sam Neil, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, and The late Richard Attenborough giving their all in a classic morality tale of those who think they have the right to play god. This film has not aged a bit since it's been released and the nostalgia and wonder is still fresh as the day it came out. Like all modern great movies, this was followed by many sequels but none of them were able to capture the lightning in the bottle that the original still has in spades.

10/10.

While it does not hold the wow and nostalgia factor of the original "Jurassic Park", "The Lost World" in my opinion still remains the best and most worthy sequel to that landmark film. Jeff Goldblum shines bright as always as Rebel mathematician Ian Malcolm and the late great Pete Postlethwaite shines as big game hunter Roland Tembo in a tense, mean and wild follow up that has probably the scariest moments Steven Spielberg has done since the original "Jaws". Julianne Moore, Arliss Howard, Vince Vaughn and the late Richard Attenborough rounds out the cast with another masterful score by John Williams. No movie can deliver the wonder and discovery of seeing dinosaurs again like we did with the original "Jurassic Park" but after 3 more sequels ( The franchise killing "Jurassic Park 3", the fun yet very deeply flawed "Jurassic World" and the so bad it's funny "Fallen Kingdom") "The Lost World" not only remains the best sequel to the Original "Jurassic Park" but the most worthy one as well.

8/10.