Jurassic Park III
I had my doubts... After all, it had several strikes against it. It is the third sequel, the original author has nothing to do with this one, and the story line sounded a bit more farfetched than usual... But my fears were misplaced. This turned out to be a pretty good movie!
One element I liked right away was that they brought back the archeologist from the first movie. He was not in the second sequel, so it was cool to see him back in trouble with the Dinos again. I also liked the kid in the film. He was portrayed as resourceful and smart, not just another victim. There were the usual characters that you could tell were doomed to be Dino food, but that was taken care of pretty soon into the movie.
However, it felt like they toned down the gory bits in this film, which was somewhat disappointing, and those Dinos munched on were not people you got attached to. In the second film, there is a really wrenching scene where one of the good guys that you care about gets to play tug-of-war with two T-Rexs. They end up splitting him equally in a rather gory display of sharing. But this film seems to be trying to keep a younger, "family" audience happy.
The ending is a bit iffy also. It ends rather suddenly, almost like they ran out of budget. And our hero seems oddly unconcerned that a bunch of flying dinosaurs, capable of flying off with small people, are flying off into the sunset. Huh? Shoot the damn things!!!
A kindred spirit named Gothtec (from the Vampire Freaks mailing list) suggested his own reworking of the ending, and I think it is much better. If you have already seen the movie and want to compare, click the Spoiler button below to see his suggested alternate ending.
I give this flick only 1 Chill because it had a few gotchas, but generally it was toned down. I give it 2 Skulls because it does mess with your head a little and get you thinking. And I give it 4 Eyeballs because it is still a lot of fun and worth seeing on the big screen.
Chills...
Scuttles
