988. Jurassic Park III (2001)

Starring: Sam Neill, William H. Macy, Téa Leoni

Director: Joe Johnston

Running Time: 92 mins

Jurassic Park III is an American film and the third in the Jurassic Park franchise. Following the breakdown on Isla Nublar eight years ago and the San Diego incident four years ago, Dr. Grant is convinced by an adventure-seeking couple to return to the island he swore he’d never go back to.

If you thought that The Lost World was a disappointment, get ready for exactly the same film, but with more stupidity, more preposterous plots and less character intrigue than you ever thought possible.

After Jeff Goldblum obviously jumped the boat after the dull second film, Sam Neill returns to play a character who was massively likeable and interesting in the first movie. However, as this franchise descends further into a generic monster movie that’s more about running away than character development, even he can’t make you at all interested.

What’s more is that, whilst Dr. Grant becomes a boring, pessimistic, ‘I’m getting too old for this’ kind of character, Sam Neill’s performance isn’t particularly impressive either, as he seems to put in a show that rips off Indiana Jones more than anything, and yet doesn’t fit in at all with this boring paleontologist, so that’s something to annoy you for the duration.

Whilst the visual effects remain as brilliant as ever, even the action sequences begin to get worse, now either blatantly copying the original movie, and failing to do so at all well, or just having slow-moving, hulking fight scenes that don’t speed up the thrill of the ride in any way, making this an even more boring film to watch.

The story is just as bad as the second film, because there is none. It doesn’t go to the ridiculously preposterous extent that that film did, however the stupidity of the characters to constantly go back to Isla Nublar is more annoying than anything, leaving you not to care about their welfare because of their idiocy, making you just want to see them get eaten rather than fear for them as they constantly run away from the dinosaurs.

Overall, this gets a 5.5, because, like The Lost World, this is a monster movie that has no interesting character development or an exciting story, whilst the action here is much worse than anything before in the franchise, turning it into a dull, dragging adventure movie.