"Jurassic Park III."

MOVIE INFORMATION

With 10 as a must-see, Jack gives this film a: Stars: Sam Neill and Tea Leoni Director: Joe Johnston Rated: PG-13, with dino chomping and stomping Length: 92 minutes

ROCHESTERCRITIQUE

Having seen this film, how would you rate it? 10 5 9 4 8 3 7 2 6 1

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(July 18, 2001) -- The difference between Jurassic Park III and its two predecessors is the difference between capable journeyman director Joe Johnston, who directed the new film, and highly imaginative pop-culture genius Steven Spielberg, who originated the series.

Jurassic Park III has most of the popcorn thrills and spills that summer filmgoers want. But the new film lacks the moments of majesty Spielberg brought to the world, and has less of the irreverence that Spielberg and writer Michael Crichton used to wink at us.

Even at their best, Jurassic Park and The Lost World were cinematic amusement-park rides.

But even within that narrow confine, Jurassic Park was a technological breakthrough. We experienced dinosaurs real enough to blow the hat off your head.

Spielberg is "only" executive producer on Jurassic Park III, and Crichton is absent.

All that said, Jurassic Park III is still moderately entertaining: Pretend it's a very expensive pilot for a TV version of the DNA dinosaur adventures. With that expectation, you'll have some fun.

Sam Neill, the star of the first who passed on the second, returns as paleontologist Alan Grant. He's discovered that funding for traditional dinosaur digs has dried up, mostly because young scientists would rather go to Isla Sorna, an island off Costa Rica, to research the real thing.

But Isla Sorna is off limits to all humans. It's the second of two remote islands where dinosaurs have emerged from John Hammond's foolhardy DNA experiments of eight years ago.

Though Grant swore he'd never return to Hammond's islands, he changes his mind when a wealthy couple (William H. Macy and Tea Leoni) promise a blank check for his research if he'll guide them in an island fly-over.

Imagine Grant's dismay when the plane lands. It turns out the couple planned it all along, because their 14-year-old son had been stranded on the island in a parasailing accident a few weeks earlier.

The film then follows their rough-and-tumble adventures while trying to find the boy and escape with their lives. Their adversaries include the Velociraptors we remember from the earlier films, along with two new creatures -- a giant Spinosaurus that's bigger and more ferocious than a T-Rex, and a deadly flock of flying Pteranodons.

The film's best scenes all involve the creatures -- the Spinosaurus trying to get at the humans in the plane fuselage as if it's a can of sardines, a Pteranodon grabbing the boy and delivering him to a nest of hungry, snapping "babies," and a heavyweight bout between the Spinosaurus and a T-Rex that would make special-effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen proud.

The script, though, is less compelling. It stretches credibility by making the raptors seem intelligent enough to join Mensa and has a finale even the dumber dinosaurs wouldn't swallow.

Still, the prehistoric creatures are compelling, and the technology wizards combine animatronics and computer graphics to bring them convincingly to life. And it's fun to watch the dependable Macy, a king of art-house cinema, bring his amusing neuroses to a studio blockbuster.