Triple Threat (Jurassic Park III, 2001)

Alan Grant and his assistant Billy are hired by a rich couple to give them a tour of the island from the second film. Grant discovers that instead of just flying low over the island, his hosts plan to land on the island.

It turns out that the couple are actually there to find their son who disappeared on a trip with his mother and her boyfriend. When they are attacked by a new large dinosaur, they find themselves on the run and trying to figure out their way off the island.

This film does not really try anything new. It set the story on an island again. They take refuge in run down empty buildings. They narrowly escape dinosaurs. Somebody’s greed gets them in trouble.

Steven Spielberg did not return to direct the third Jurassic Park film, instead it was directed by Joe Johnston (the Rocketeer and Captain America). Johnston is a good director, but the film really lacks the Spielberg touch. In addition, the dinosaurs, while mostly looking find, can at times look a bit stiff. Again, the film makes heavy use of raptors. The new dinosaurs are pretty interesting visually.

The film has a good cast, but some of the rather cliched storylines simply feel tired. This is especially true of the divorced couple rekindling their love. The adventure brings them closer together, suggesting they will recommit to each other. But this ignores the fact that Leoni’s character discovers her boyfriend was eaten by dinosaurs hours earlier.

While Jurassic Park III is passable entertainment, it is easily the weakest entry in the entire franchise (in my opinion, anyways).

June 25, 2018 0

Rules of Survival (The Lost World: Jurassic Park, 1997)

The Success of Jurassic Park made a sequel pretty inevitable, but Spielberg took time to craft a new adventure, rather than rush out something that just met the obligatory requirements of a sequel.

This film focuses on a second island…the real labs of InGen. When the park went out of business, so did site B. And the dinosaurs thrived. Hammond fought to leave the island alone and let the dinosaurs live in piece. To help his agenda, he has sent a team to simply observe and report about life on the island.

He requests the help of Ian Malcolm, who refuses, until he finds out his girlfriend Sarah is already on the island. His hope is to bring her right back. In the meantime, his daughter Kelly is upset by Ian dumping her off with a family friend. She stows away to follow her dad to the island.

Team Ian soon discover they are not the only ones on the island. The company wants to push Hammond out and capitalize on the dinosaurs. They bring a crew to capture dinosaurs to be returned to the States for a small scale version of the Park in San Diego.

The general idea of there being no park is a somewhat interesting change. Goldblum is highly entertaining here. Pete Postlethwaite plays a variation on the first film’s Muldoon. He is a big Game hunter who is there for very mercenary reasons, but is providing professional guidance. The effects are excellent, with some exciting new dinosaurs not seen in the prior film. The primary villain is more in the vein of the original book. A Corporate raider looking to exploit, Peter Ludlow is the example of corporate hubris believing it can control what others could not.

The film’s big finish is a T-Rex chase through San Diego. It is a bit of a shame that they squander such a great notion as “dinosaurs loose in a city” in a brief twenty minute sequence. I also really found the whole “daughter” subplot more annoying. The inclusion of kids in the first film actually made sense, here it seems forced and unneeded.

But when you get down to it, Spielberg can make most anything work, and the Lost World is a lot of fun.

June 24, 2018 0

Parks and Wreck (Jurassic Park, 1993)

John Hammond has built an amazing and elaborate theme park. One like no other, and he has spared no expense. But as they prepare to go a live, there is a deadly accident. His investors demand professionals endorse the safety of the park.

Hammond enlists Paleontologist Alan Grant and Paleobotanist Ellie Sattler, while the corporate lawyer brings in the “Chaotician” Ian Malcolm. At first, they are not fully sure what their presence is required for…until they discover that Jurassic Park is no ordinary vacation place. Hammond’s company has perfected cloning to the point that they are able to use DNA to create new dinosaurs.

While at first awed by what they see, the three scientists start to question the decision to bring dinosaurs back into our world. The lawyer, meanwhile, is seduced by visions of money (“And we can charge anything we want, $2,000 a day, $10,000 a day…and people will pay it”).

Along with his grandchildren (Hammond’s target audience), Hammond sends everyone on the tour. The crew has left for the weekend, leaving a very small staff. Pretty much just Hammond, Ray Arnold (who runs the control room), Dennis Nedry (His IT guy) and Muldoon. Muldoon is a groundskeeper of sorts. An experienced big game hunter, he is also security in regards to things dinosaur related.

However, as one would expect…most anything that can go wrong does and our characters find themselves trying to regroup and get off the island without getting eaten.

As you would expect from a Spielberg adventure film, Jurassic Park is an exciting film full of great performances. Jeff Goldblum’s Malcolm is especially entertaining in his over the top personality.

The film walks the line of challenging capitalism and corporate greed, without going all out for it. The lawyer represents the villainous corporate world, not Hammond. Hammond is the kindly grandfather with grand dreams of sharing his creation with the world. This is a change from the book, where Hammond is a much darker character who has a rather gruesome fate.

The film’s effects were groundbreaking for the time…and while it is a bit clearer now to see where the dinosaurs switch from digital to practical effects, the visuals in the film are still good enough to not be all that distracting today. It is easy to get lost in the excitement and danger of Jurassic Park.

June 23, 2018 0

Clearing House (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, 2018)

Well, after the debacle at the end of the last film, the Jurassic World Park was closed down. Now, the island is about to explode, because it is actually a dormant volcano.

There is controversy about people who want to save the dinosaurs on the island and those who think we should let them die. But of course, there are those with darker plans.

Claire, the icy business woman from the previous film who learned the importance of getting a guy and having kids over a career from her nephews is now campaigning to save the dinosaurs. She is no longer involved with Owen, the cool sexist seventies throwback from the first film. She is hired by an estranged associate of the late John Hammond to go and save as many dinosaurs as possible to set them loose on a private island reserve. They bring Owen so they can save Blue (the good velociraptor from the last film). Things go awry, because this is a film in the Jurassic Park series.

The dinosaurs look great and I find both Owen and Claire far more likable in this adventure. The mystery behind the one kid in the film is kind of an interesting twist on the film’s themes, though it seems like it was played up as being a much…bigger deal than it really is.

The film continues the ideas began in the last film of militarized dinosaurs. And this film pretty much takes the perspective that the dinosaurs are the heroes now. But I am actually very intrigued by the way the chose to end the film. Other films in the franchise hinted at this…but the next film could be quite interesting.

While the film is violent, it tends to be about as gory as any of the entries. Most of the kills are either offscreen or obscured. For the most part, I enjoyed Fallen Kingdom and felt that, for the most part, the story works and the film is pretty entertaining. And honestly? That is really all I want from a movie about genetically created dinosaurs.

June 22, 2018 0

No Way This Will Go Wrong (Jurassic World, 2015)

It has been 14 years since we saw a Jurassic Park movie. And they opted to bring us one thing we had not seen. A fully operational space station. Wait, that is not it. I meant a fully functional theme park. Considering the last two film trod similar ground (small group of people stuck on the island running from dinosaurs) it makes sense that they went bigger this time around.

It is years later and the Dinosaur Theme Park has been running for at least a few years, successfully. Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) is preparing the most daring exhibit yet. A genetically modified dinosaur, a creature that has never walked the earth before. Nothing could go wrong, except that her nephews are visiting the park this weekend. So Mayhem will ensue.

The plot is not really the point here (there are some big plot points that just disappear from the film entirely), it is cool dinosaur scares. And the film delivers there. There is a lot of fan service to the previous films (One I really liked was the return of BD Wong as Dr. Henry Wu, given a much bigger presence than the original film).

The characters seem all over the place, early on Chris Pratt’s Owen comes off as the stereotype of the charming misogynist. I find this trope absurd. Never have known a charming misogynist in the real world. But this personality trait drops pretty early, and does not resurface the rest of the film. Claire is introduced as the “Woman Who Is Sacrificing a Family To Have a Career”, but it is pretty clear when she realizes her nephews are in danger she considers them important, risking her life to save them.

From the minute characters are introduced, I started trying to figure out who was going to get eaten, and it is not to hard to tell. Faceless guys with guns, random park attendees and a couple big names because they are over confident or greedy. You can play this game in most Jurassic Park films, but the first film still invested in all the dinosaur food. We knew a lot about those people who got chomped. Little to no depth is provided here.

It probably sounds like I hated this film. But I didn’t. I actually enjoyed it. It has a very likeable cast, solid effects, cool dinosaurs and plenty of adventure. It kept me into the story, even when Claire ran super fast in high heels. It is a fun adventure, but not a deep one.

July 12, 2015 0