Jurassic Park III is a 2001 American science fiction adventure film and the third of the Jurassic Park franchise. It is the only film in the series that is neither directed by Steven Spielberg (though produced by his production company, Amblin Entertainment) nor based on a book by Michael Crichton, though numerous scenes in the movie were taken from Crichton's two books, Jurassic Park and The Lost World. The film takes place on Isla Sorna in the Central American Pacific coast, the island from the second film, after a divorced couple tricks Dr. Alan Grant into helping them find their son.

After the success of Jurassic Park, Joe Johnston asked Steven Spielberg if he could direct the film adaptation of The Lost World, the sequel to Jurassic Park. While Spielberg wanted to do the project, he promised to give the helm of the next sequel to Johnston, if there was to be one. Spielberg stayed involved with the film by becoming the executive producer. Three years after the release of The Lost World, production of the third film began in August 2000. Although a commercial success, the film was released to mixed reviews.

Plot[link]

Eric Kirby (Trevor Morgan) and Ben Hildebrand (Mark Harelik), go parasailing off the restricted coast of Isla Sorna. The men piloting their boat go missing, causing their boat to crash and them to glide towards the island.

Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) remained close since their incident at Isla Nublar but never married, with Satler having married a lawyer named Mark Degler. After dinner, Grant tells Satler that recent research indicates that Velociraptors were far more intelligent than previously perceived.

At Grant's excavation site in Snake Water, Grant's graduate school assistant Billy Brennan reveals a replica of a Velociraptor's larynx created from scanning a raptor skull. Grant is approached by Paul (William H. Macy) and Amanda Kirby (Téa Leoni), owners of a corporation called Kirby Enterprises. They inform Grant that they wish to hire him to give them an aerial tour of Isla Sorna. He initially refuses, but is persuaded by their offer to fund his excavation.

The plane carrying Grant, Billy, the Kirbys, and three mercenaries arrives at Isla Sorna. Grant objects when he learns the team intends to land on the island, but is knocked unconscious by the mercenary Cooper (John Diehl). Grant regains consciousness when he hears Amanda use a megaphone to call out to somebody in the jungle, which draws the attention of a Spinosaurus. The mercenaries usher the group onto the plane. The plane starts down the runway, but Cooper appears, drawing the Spinosaurus into the plane's path, and causing a crash. The Spinosaurus attacks the plane, killing another mercenary, Nash. The survivors flee. They encounter a young male Tyrannosaurus, which chases them back to the Spinosaurus and the two dinosaurs fight and the Spinosaurus snaps the Tyrannosaurus neck killing it, The survivors then flee.

Grant learns that the Kirbys are actually a divorced couple and owners of a small business. They are in search of their son Eric, who was stranded on the island along with Amanda's friend Ben Hildebrand eight weeks prior. The group heads towards the coast, in hopes of being rescued. They discover a parasail with Ben's corpse and a video camera containing footage from their crash.

The group comes across a derelict InGen laboratory. After exploring the compound, they are attacked by a Velociraptor, which "calls" for assistance. Outside, they are pursued by a Velociraptor pack, which kills Udesky. Grant is separated, but is rescued by Eric. The group reunites after Eric hears the ringtone of his father's satellite phone, which is emanating from within the Spinosaurus that had attacked them at the runway.

Grant discovers that Billy stole two eggs from a raptor nest, in hopes of using them to fund their excavation. Grant berates Billy as being no better than inGen. Grant decides to store the eggs in his bag instead, reasoning that they could bargain with the raptors for the eggs, in exchange for their lives. The group sets out for a boat docked at a nearby river. They pass through a Pteranodon's cage. Billy rescues Eric from the avians, but is viciously attacked and presumed dead. The group escapes onto a boat and while navigating down the river, the phone is heard from within Spinosaurus excrement and is recovered.

While Grant is calling Ellie for assistance, a Spinosaurus attacks them. As the boat is capsizing, Grant is only able to get out, "Site B! The river!" Paul and Grant manage to drive away the Spinosaurus, but are unsure if Ellie will be able to send help.

The group is close to shore, when they are confronted by Velociraptors. Grant delivers the eggs and uses Billy's raptor resonating chamber to communicate. On the beach, Marine helicopters and infantry arrive. The party boards the helicopter where they are reunited with Billy, who is still alive but seriously injured.

As they depart, three Pteranodons fly off into the distance. Paul suggests to Amanda they could remarry.

Cast[link]

• Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant, the World-famous paleontologist who survived the incident on Isla Nublar and has since developed an extensive and groundbreaking theory concerning raptor intelligence.
• Alessandro Nivola as Billy Brennan, a young and overly enthusiastic graduate student from Grant's dig site, he knows how to fly a para sail and he is very physically fit.
• William H. Macy as Paul Kirby, the owner of a hardware store who poses as a wealthy businessman in order to lure Grant onto to help search for his son.
• Téa Leoni as Amanda Kirby, Paul's ex-wife who accompanies the group to Isla Sorna to search for her son.
• Trevor Morgan as Eric Kirby, the 12-year-old son of Paul and Amanda stranded on Isla Sorna.
• Michael Jeter as Udesky, a meek but sardonic mercenary pilot who flies the airplane to Isla Sorna.Also a booking agent.
• Laura Dern as Dr. Ellie Degler, née Sattler, a paleontologist who also survived Isla Nublar.
• Bruce A. Young as M.B. Nash, also a mercenary pilot,according to his dog tags he is a former sergeant major.
• John Diehl as Cooper, a tough mercenary,and weapons specialist, possibly religious.
• Taylor Nichols as Mark Degler, Ellie's husband and an expert in treaty law at the US State Department.
• Mark Harelik as Ben Hildebrand, Amanda's reckless boyfriend.
• Julio Oscar Mechoso as Enrique Cardoso, the owner and operator of the illegal "Dino-Soar" para-sailing service.
• Blake Michael Bryan as Charlie Degler, the three-year-old son of Ellie and Mark.
• Sarah Danielle Madison as Cheryl Logan, one of Alan Grant's graduate student at the Fort Peck Lake dig site.
• Linda Park as Hannah, Ellie's secretary.

Production[link]

Joe Johnston had been interested in directing the sequel to Jurassic Park and approached friend Steven Spielberg about the project. While Spielberg wanted to direct the first sequel, he agreed that if there was ever a third film, Johnston could direct.^[3] The third film was greenlit in August 1999 and was based on a story by Steven Spielberg, featuring Alan Grant after having lived in a tree on one of the islands and studied the dinosaur population. Johnston never had any concrete concept for the third installment, other than stating the film would be "more stand-alone" and feature a lot of flying reptiles.^[4] Before that, Craig Rosenberg wrote a script involving teenagers who get marooned on Isla Sorna.^[5]

New writers were brought in to scribe a story involving Pteranodons escaping from Site B and causing a rash of mysterious killings on the mainland, which was to be investigated by Alan Grant and a number of other characters including Billy Brennan, a naturalist named Simone, a tough military attaché, and wealthy Paul Roby, his teenage son Miles, and love interest. Grant's group was to track the Pterosaurs back to Site B and crash on the island, while a parallel investigation was carried out on the mainland. Supposedly, the aviary sequence and laboratory set piece were much longer and more complex, including raptors stealthily entering the hatchery while the team spent the night. Sets, costumes, and props were built for this version, before Johnston threw out the completed script five weeks before filming in order to pursue the "rescue mission" plot, which was suggested by David Koepp.^[3] Johnston said that the script was never finished during production - "We shot pages that eventually went into the final script but we didn't have a document".^[5] Also during the pre-production phase, concept artists created advertising for the film using a number of working titles including Jurassic Park: Extinction and Jurassic Park: Breakout.^[6]

Production began on August 30, 2000^[7] without a finished script, with filming in California, Oahu, and Molokai.^[8] Although it is an original story, not based on a Michael Crichton novel, it does contain minor scenes from Crichton's Jurassic Park and The Lost World novels that were not featured in the film versions, such as the Pteranodon aviary and the use of the boat. In a change from the first two films, Spinosaurus is considered the primary antagonist^[9] As to why Spinosaurus was chosen for such a role, Johnston stated, "A lot of dinosaurs have a very similar silhouette to the T-Rex... and we wanted the audience to instantly recognize this as something else."^[10] The silhouette of "Spinosaurus" is also on the poster behind the "Pteranodon", taking the place of the "T. Rex" that was used in previous installment's posters. Baryonyx was originally considered to be the "big bad" before Spinosaurus was chosen. Within film dialog, Billy interprets the animal encountered as a Baryonyx or Suchomimus, but Dr. Grant corrects his analysis based on its sail.^[3] The origin of the Spinosaurus is also a mystery as Ingen did not clone the Spinosaurus. The Spinosaurus in the film however is slightly inaccurate, particularly in the structure of its head and dentition, which more closely match that of Suchomimus than Spinosaurus. Additionally, the film perpetuates the error of its two predecessors with regards to the size of its Velociraptors; they are roughly two to three times their actual size and much closer to the Deinonychus.

The special effects used for the dinosaurs are a mixture of animatronics and CGI. Due to new discoveries and theories in the field of paleontology, the portrayal of several dinosaurs differs from that of the previous two films. Discoveries that suggest that Velociraptors were feathered prompted the addition of quill-like structures on the head and neck of male Velociraptors in the film. "We've found evidence that Velociraptors had feathers, or feather-like structures, and we've incorporated that into the new look of the raptor", said paleontologist Jack Horner, technical adviser on the film.^[10]

The score, Don Davis, was recommended by the composer for the first two movies John Williams.^[11] Williams' original themes were integrated into the score as well as several new ones written by Davis. A song by Randy Newman, "Big Hat, No Cattle", is also featured, appearing in the restaurant scene between Grant and the Kirby's.^[12]

Release[link]

The film earned $181,171,875 in the United States and $368,780,809 worldwide, was the eighth highest grossing film of the year worldwide,^[2] but still earned less than either of its predecessors. As with the other films in the franchise, there was a large marketing push, including seven video games^[13] and a novelization aimed at young children.^[14] The film made its VHS and DVD debut on December 11, 2001.^[15] The DVD has also been re-released with both sequels on December 11, 2001^[16] as the Jurassic Park Trilogy, and as the Jurassic Park Adventure Pack on November 29, 2005.^[17] The film has also been released alongside Hulk.^[18] The soundtrack was released on July 10, 2001.^[19] A Blu-ray release of the film is only available via the Jurassic Park Ultimate Trilogy (Blu-ray and DVD) which was released on October 25, 2011 by Universal Studios in North America.

Scott Ciencin wrote three children's books to tie-in with the film; the first detailed the eight weeks Eric spent alone on Isla Sorna;^[20] the second had Eric and Alan returning to Isla Sorna to rescue a group of teenage filmmakers;^[21] and the last involved Eric and Alan leading the Pteranodons home after they nest in a Universal theme park.^[22]

Reception[link]

Jurassic Park III received mixed reviews from critics. It is currently ranked with a 50% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 157 reviews counted, the lowest rated film in the Jurassic Park trilogy. The general consensus states that "The dinos are as cool as ever, but there's too much of a 'been there, done that' feel."^[23] Worse yet it has a 29% rating among their Top Critics.^[24] It also has a 42% on Metacritic.^[25] Empire magazine gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, commenting that it was "Short, scrappy and intermittently scary, this sequel skews young. It lacks the scale, the chills and the wonder of the original, but is more fun as a thrill ride than its sequel predecessor..."^[26] Other critics were split over whether the third installment of the series was better or worse than the second. Jeffrey Westhoff of the Northwest Herald felt that it was worse, remarking that "Johnston inherits the series one film too late."^[27] However, Ben Varkontine called it "not as good a ride as the first", but "better than the second."^[28] Much of the criticism was leveled at the plot as simply a chase movie with no character development, with some going so far as to say it was "almost the same as the first movie" with "no need for new ideas or even a script".^[29] There were also complaints about its short length and small cast. On Ebert and Roeper, Richard Roeper gave it Thumbs Down while Roger Ebert awarded a Thumbs Up.^[30] In a subsequent review, Ebert called it "the best blockbuster of the Summer".^[31]

The movie was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film and Best Special Effects.^[32] For its shortcomings, it was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for "Worst Remake or Sequel".^[33] Although it was nominated for fewer Razzies than the previous film, it also became the first and only film in the series not to receive any Academy Award nominations.

See also[link]

Film portal

• List of characters in Jurassic Park
• List of extinct genera in Jurassic Park

References[link]

External links[link]

• Jurassic Park III at the Internet Movie Database
• Jurassic Park III at AllRovi
• Jurassic Park III at Rotten Tomatoes
• Jurassic Park III at Box Office Mojo