Jurassic Park III

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For other uses, see Jurassic Park III (disambiguation).
Jurassic Park III
Directed by Joe Johnston
Produced by Larry J. Franco
Kathleen Kennedy
Written by Michael Crichton
Peter Buchman
Alexander Payne
Jim Taylor
Starring Sam Neill
William H. Macy
Tea Leoni
Alessandro Nivola
Laura Dern
Music by Don Davis
Theme:
John Williams
Cinematography Shelly Johnson
Editing by Robert Dalva
Distributed by Universal Pictures
United International Pictures
Release date(s) July 18, 2001
Running time 93 minutes
Country Flag of the United States United States
Language English
Preceded by The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Followed by Jurassic Park IV
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Jurassic Park III is a 2001 film that is the third film of the Jurassic Park film series. Jurassic Park III is the sequel to The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and is the first in the series that is neither based on a book by Michael Crichton nor directed by Steven Spielberg. It takes place on Isla Sorna, the island from the second film, after a couple hires Dr Alan Grant to help them find their son.

After the success of the first 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 second sequel to Johnston. Three years after the release of The Lost World, production of a third film began in late August of 2000.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Four years after the second film, The Lost World, Drs. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) have continued their paleontological careers but are working independently now; Ellie is married with two children, and Grant is still digging with his protégé Billy Brennan (Alessandro Nivola). He is approached by Paul (William H. Macy) and Amanda Kirby (Téa Leoni), saying they are wealthy thrill-seekers who want Grant to be their guide on an aerial tour of Isla Sorna. Grant is reluctant at first, but the Kirbys' promise of funding his dig gets the better of him.

Grant suspects that something is not quite right when the plane carrying him, Billy, the Kirbys, and some mercenaries lands. After Amanda uses a megaphone to try to call out to someone in the jungle, they are attacked by a Spinosaurus. As they attempt to escape in the plane, they accidentally run into the Spinosaurus and crash, resulting in the deaths of two of the mercenaries, and stranding them on the island. The group then run into a Tyrannosaurus Rex, which follows them into the forest and they run into the Spinosaurus, and the two predators engage in battle, with the Spinosaurus killing the Tyrannosaurus by snapping its neck. Grant finds out that the Kirbys are actually searching for their son, Eric (Trevor Morgan), who was stranded on the island along with family friend Ben Hilderbrand in a paragliding accident. He decides to lead them to the coast, increasing their chances of getting rescued. Along the way, they discover the paraglider as well as Ben's skeletal remains. Billy salvages the paraglider, and the Kirbys discover several nearby nests of Velociraptor eggs.

The group then explores the abandoned InGen compound, where they are attacked by a Velociraptor. When they flee, they are ambushed by its raptor inhabitants, resulting in the death of the final mercenary. When Grant becomes separated, he is rescued from several raptors by young Eric Kirby, who has been living on the island for 8 weeks in the back of an abandoned supply truck. Eric has taken supplies and food from inside the truck. When the group reunites, they are attacked again by the Spinosaurus. After they find shelter in another building, Grant finds out that Billy has stolen two Velociraptor eggs, which provoked the earlier attack. Appalled, Grant tells Billy he is "no better than the people that built this place."

To reach a boat docked in a nearby river, the group must pass through a massive aviary where they are attacked by numerous Pteranodons. Using the paraglider he salvaged, Billy tries to rescue Eric from a nest of Pteranodon infants, but is attacked by several adults, seemingly killing him. Amanda and Eric fail to lock the Pteranodons inside. Grant and the Kirbys board the boat, and while floating down river, they hear a phone ringing, finding several mounds of dung containing a satellite phone the Spinosaurus had eaten from the plane. Grant attempts to contact Ellie, but only gets out "The river... Site B! The river!" as they are, yet again, attacked by the Spinosaurus. Paul is briefly thought to have been killed in the attack but manages to survive, and the Spinosaurus finally flees.

The group is close to the shore when the raptors reappear, wanting their eggs back. Grant manages to alleviate the situation by imitating a Velociraptor call for help, which almost causes some of the raptors to attack in order to silence him. Suddenly, a helicopter can be heard overhead. The eggs are given back to the raptors, and they retreat. The group arrive at the beach to see a United States Marine Corps detachment, no doubt sent by Ellie's diplomat husband. As they board a helicopter, Grant finds Billy, badly injured during the Pteranodon attack but still alive. He tells Grant that he has "rescued" his hat, to which Grant jokingly replies "that's the important thing." As the helicopter flies off, three Pteranodons fly into the distance.

[edit] Cast

Main article: List of characters in Jurassic Park
  • Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant, a world-famous paleontologist who survived the incident on Isla Nublar and has since developed an extensive theory about Velociraptor intelligence.
  • William H. Macy as Paul Kirby, the owner of a hardware store who poses as a wealthy businessman in order to lure Grant onto Isla Sorna to help the Kirbys search for their son.
  • Téa Leoni as Amanda Kirby, Paul's ex-wife who accompanies the group to Site B, feeling guilty for having lost Eric.
  • Alessandro Nivola as Billy Brennan, a young and overly-enthusiastic graduate student at Grant's dig site whose impulsive actions land the entire rescue party in danger.
  • Trevor Morgan as Eric Kirby, the 12-year-old son of Paul and Amanda who ends up stranded on Site B for eight weeks, and must fend for himself.
  • Michael Jeter as Udesky, a meek but sardonic mercenary "booking agent" who travels with his two associates to the island.
  • Laura Dern as Dr. Ellie Sattler, a paleobotanist who also survived Isla Nublar and is Grant's former flame, and makes good on her promise to help him when he needs it most.

[edit] Production

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.[1]

Spinosaurus as it appears in Jurassic Park III, Universal Studios.
Spinosaurus as it appears in Jurassic Park III, Universal Studios.

The third film was greenlit in August of 1999, based on a story by Steven Spielberg, (apparently featuring Alan Grant after having lived in a tree on one of the islands and studied the dinosaur population for eight years). Craig Rosenberg was hired to write the initial script, which Johnston rejected because it was "Friends visits Jurassic Park", further elaborating that nobody wanted to see six college students visiting Isla Sorna. Johnston never had any concrete concept for the third installment, other than stating the film would be "more stand-alone" and feature lots of flying reptiles.

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 wealthy Paul Roby and his 12-year-old son Miles, Paul's love interest, Billy Brennan, a naturalist named Simone, and a tough Military Attache. 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.

During the tumultuous pre-production, concept artists created advertising for the film using a number of working titles, including Jurassic Park: Extinction and Jurassic Park: Breakout.[2].

Production began on August 30, 2000[3] without a finished script, with filming in California, Oahu, and Molokai.[4] 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 InGen boat. In a change from the first two films, Spinosaurus replaced T. rex as the main antagonist,[5]. As to why Spinosaurus was chosen for such a role, Johnston states that, "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".[6] The Baryonyx was originally considered to be the "big-bad" before the Spinosaur was chosen.

The special effects used for the dinosaurs are a mixture of animatronics and CGI. The portrayal of several dinosaurs differs from that of the previous two films. Due to new discoveries and theories in the field of paleontology suggesting that Velociraptors were feathered, the Velociraptors in the film have quill-like structures on the head and neck. "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.[7]

[edit] Dinosaurs featured

[edit] Release

The Jurassic Park Trilogy
The Jurassic Park Trilogy

The film earned $181 million domestic and $369 million worldwide, the 8th highest grossing film of the year worldwide,[8] but still less than either of its predecessors. As with the other films in the franchise, there was a large marketing push, including seven video games[9] and a novelization aimed at young children.[10]

The film made its VHS and DVD debut on December 11, 2001.[11] The DVD has also been re-released with both sequels on December 11, 2001[12] as the Jurassic Park Trilogy and as the Jurassic Park Adventure Pack on November 29, 2005.[13] The film has also been released alongside Hulk.[14] The soundtrack was released on July 10, 2001.[15]

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;[16] the second had Eric and Alan returning to Isla Sorna to rescue a group of teenage filmmakers;[17] and the last involved Eric and Alan leading the Pteranodons home after they nest in a Universal theme park.[18]

[edit] Reception

Jurassic Park III is ranked as rotten on Rotten Tomatoes with a 48% positive rating, with 72 out of 149 critics giving it positive reviews.[19] It also has a 42% on Metacritic.[20] 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."[21] However, Ben Varkontine called it "not as good a ride as the first", but "better than the second."[22] Much of the criticism was leveled at the plot as simply a chase movie with no character development, some even 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."[23]

The movie was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film and Best Special Effects.[24] For its short comings, it was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Re-Make or Sequel.[25]

[edit] References

  1. ^ (2005). The Making of Jurassic Park III (DVD). Universal Pictures.
  2. ^ 2001 DVD release, poster section under special features
  3. ^ Jurassic Park III. British Film Institute. Retrieved on 2007-07-09.
  4. ^ Jurassic Park III. Hollywood.com. Retrieved on 2007-07-09.
  5. ^ Jurassic Park III. Variety. Retrieved on 2007-07-09.
  6. ^ Production Notes at Cinemareview.com, [1],
  7. ^ Production Notes at Cinemareview.com, [2],
  8. ^ Jurassic Park III (2001). Box Office Mojo. Retrieved on 2007-07-08.
  9. ^ Jurassic Park Licensees. Moby Games. Retrieved on 2007-07-06.
  10. ^ Scott Ciencin (2001). Jurassic Park III. Random House Books for Young Readers, 116. ISBN 978-0375813184. 
  11. ^ IGN staff. "Jurassic Park III", IGN, 2001-12-12. Retrieved on 2007-07-09. 
  12. ^ Jurassic Park Trilogy. IGN. Retrieved on 2007-03-06.
  13. ^ IGN DVD. "Jurassic Park Adventure Pack", IGN, 2005-11-17. Retrieved on 2007-03-06. 
  14. ^ Jurassic Park III released with Hulk. Amazon.com. Retrieved on 2007-03-06.
  15. ^ Jurassic Park III soundtrack valued at $12.99. Soundtrack.net. Retrieved on 2007-05-17.
  16. ^ Scott Ciencin (June 2001). Survivor. Boxtree, 116. ISBN 0-7522-1978-2. 
  17. ^ Scott Ciencin (October 2001). Prey. Boxtree, 123. ISBN 0-375-81290-3. 
  18. ^ Scott Ciencin (March 2002). Flyers. Boxtree, 128. ISBN 0-375-81291-1. 
  19. ^ Jurassic Park III. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved on 2007-07-08.
  20. ^ Lost World: Jurassic Park Jurassic Park III: Reviews. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2007-05-15.
  21. ^ Jeffrey Westhoff. "Jurassic Park III", Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL). Retrieved on 2007-07-08. 
  22. ^ Ben Varkontine. "Jurassic Park III", PopMatters. Retrieved on 2007-07-08. 
  23. ^ Brian Webster. "Jurassic Park III", Apollo Movie Guide. Retrieved on 2007-07-08. 
  24. ^ Past Winners Database. Los Angeles Times (2002-06-10). Retrieved on 2007-07-08.
  25. ^ 2001 RAZZIE Nominees & "Winners". Razzie Awards (2005-12-05). Retrieved on 2007-07-08.

[edit] External links

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