Jurassic Park III isn’t a bad film. But it has problems. Put those to one side however, and I’ve long struggled to put my finger on why this one feels so odd. Alas, I’ve figured it out:
- Once again, people are on the island and chased until they’re rescued
- It has absolutely zero flair to it
- JP3 has no bearing on any other film in the series
The film suffers from two major problems; an atrocious production situation, and Joe Johnston. When the crew joke that the wrap gift will be a completed script you know things haven’t gone well. The films abrupt ending is a product of this, since no one knew how the film would end during principal photography. Same goes for Laura Dern’s return as Ellie Sattler, which feels tacked on because it literally is. Ellie didn’t appear in any of the scripts completed prior to filming.
Johnston’s issue is that he fundamentally isn’t Steven Spielberg. He’s a safe pair of hands who does little wrong, but has no panache. He appears incapable of showing off the dinosaur animatronics, and whilst no doubt hamstrung by the script situation, appears to luck into the odd interesting shot.
Then there’s the villain. Completely missing the point that the dinosaurs are just creatures doing their thing while humans are pieces of shit, the Spinosaurus is set up as both a “not a Rex, and the main baddie”. Whilst I understand wanting to change things up, killing a Rex early on in a fight that it should have won doesn’t start things off well. The Spino has an intimidating stance, and comes across very well in its final water based scene. But it also looks really goofy at times, which I think comes down to Johnson’s inability to shoot the dinosaurs well rather than poor design.
It could be argued that the real stars of the film are the Pteranodons. They’re threatening, creepy on the ground, and add a new angle to the danger the human characters find themselves in.
I’ll talk about the humans for a moment. The smaller problem is that I don’t about anyone bar the returning Alan Grant. The bigger problem is that no one of note dies. We know the kid won’t die, and it’s unlikely his parents will. Grant won’t, so that leaves his sidekick Billy. Sadly the film bottles it, swerving away from real consequences. People should die, whether that be for greed (like Nedry), or hubris (Muldoon). Judgement on Man doesn’t carry that much weight when no one actually bites it.
Jurassic Park III is a puddle deep thrill ride that doesn’t do enough to be either great or terrible. If we didn’t know that most Director’s can’t match Spielberg’s skill, watching this would show us.
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