Jurassic Park III

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Jurassic Park III
Movie poster with a logo at center of a skeleton of a Spinosaurus, with its mouth agape and hands lifted up. The background of the logo is red, and right below it is the film's title. A shadow covers a large portion of the movie poster in the shape of a flying Pteranodon. At the bottom of the image are the credits and release date.
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Joe Johnston
Produced by Kathleen Kennedy
Larry J. Franco
Steven Spielberg (executive)
Written by Peter Buchman
Alexander Payne
Jim Taylor
Based on Characters by
Michael Crichton
Starring Sam Neill
William H. Macy
Téa Leoni
Alessandro Nivola
Trevor Morgan
Music by Don Davis
John Williams (themes)
Cinematography Shelly Johnson
Editing by Robert Dalva
Studio Amblin Entertainment
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date(s)
  • February 18, 2001 (2001-02-18)
Running time 92 minutes[1]
Country United States
Language English
Budget $93 million[2]
Box office $368,780,809[2]

Jurassic Park III is a 2001 American science fiction adventure film and the third of the Jurassic Park franchise. It is the only film in the series that was neither directed by Steven Spielberg (though produced by his production company, Amblin Entertainment) nor based on a book by Michael Crichton, though numerous scenes in the film were ultimately taken from Crichton's original novels, Jurassic Park and The Lost World. The film takes place on Isla Sorna, the island from the second film, after a divorced couple tricks Dr. Alan Grant into helping them find their son.

After the success of Jurassic Park, Joe Johnston asked Spielberg if he could direct the film adaptation of The Lost World. While Spielberg wanted to do the project, he promised to give the helm of the next sequel to Johnston, if there were to be one. Spielberg stayed involved with the film by becoming the executive producer. Three years after the release of The Lost World, the third film's production began in August 2000.

Contents

Plot [edit]

Incidents surrounding Isla Sorna don't deter tourists Ben Hildebrand and Eric Kirby from para sailing around the island despite warnings, but when their boat crashes, Ben cuts them from their line and they go sailing into the wilderness.

Meanwhile, Dr. Alan Grant has become famous from his survival and reporting of his discoveries on Isla Nublar, and Ellie Sattler, never marrying Alan, is married to lawyer Mark Delger and has a son Charlie, who calls Alan "The Dinosaur Man." One afternoon, Alan's assistant Billy is able to replicate the larynx of a Velociraptor which he says indicates raptors are far more intelligent than Alan and Billy had previously been led to believe. Being approached by a couple Paul and Amanda Kirby, who offer full funding for their dig, Alan hesitantly agrees to give them a tour of Isla Sorna and Billy attends. With the Kirbys' associates, Udesky, Cooper and their pilot Nash, Alan learns that they plan to land on the island. When Alan objects, he is knocked out by Cooper, only to awaken to the sound of Amanda calling out to someone on the island using a bullhorn. This attracts a Spinosaurus and Cooper manages to lead it into the path of the plane before he is devoured. The Spinosaurus then attacks the plane and manages to eat Nash while destroying the tail and sending it crashing into a tree. As they continue to escape, a Tyrannosaurus appears and the humans escape in the fray before the Spinosaurus manages to snap the T. rex's neck. After finding Ben's remains in a para sail trapped in a tree and seeing a video of his and Eric's final descent onto the island, the Kirbys explain they're actually a divorced couple looking for their son, Eric. Their fortune is fake, and Alan's grim perspective of Eric's fate paints a sad portrait; Udesky and Grant become separated from the others when they're attacked by Velociraptors and Udesky is killed by them after being used as live bait, proving their intelligence. Alan is rescued by Eric, who has managed to survive for several weeks in an overturned supply truck, clearly impressing Alan. Eric recognizes the sound of his father's satellite phone which was lost when Nash was eaten; they're reunited with the Kirbys and Billy before the Spinosaurus attacks again. Narrowly escaping, they make their way to the site compound in the hopes of finding communications equipment, but find nothing but broken test tubes and shut down equipment.

Billy becomes possessive of his satchel, and when Alan looks he realizes Billy had taken two eggs from the raptors' nest to fund for their dig, explaining the reason they were being attacked. Alan berates Billy for his careless behavior, comparing him to nothing more than InGen. They make their way to a large outdoor complex which turns out to be a bird cage for a Pteranodon which attack the group and separates Eric, taking him to be eaten by their young. Billy uses the remnants of Ben's para sail and rescues Eric, shortly before he falls into the river below, then is attacked and apparently killed by a group of Pteranodons. The group find their way out of the cage and make their way up river using a small boat, soon retrieving the satellite phone from the deposit left by the Spinosaurus. It attacks and capsizes the boat as Alan is trying to contact Ellie, but he manages to tell her "The River, Site B" before he's disconnected. Alan and Paul manage to drive off the Spinosaurus and they start making their way toward the shoreline. Close to their goal, they're surrounded by raptors who see Amanda as a female and a threat to their clutch. Using Billy's resonant chamber replica, they manage to communicate with the raptors and Amanda returns the stolen eggs before they're startled off by the sounds of helicopters. Returning to the beach, they find that Ellie had called in the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Navy to rescue them. And they discover that Billy, while critically injured, is still alive. As they depart the island, they see the Pteranodon group that had escaped from their cage after the humans are now flying free, and Alan recounts that it's time for them to find their place in the world again.

Cast [edit]

Main article: List of Jurassic Park characters
  • Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant, the world-famous paleontologist who survived the incident on Isla Nublar and has since developed an extensive and groundbreaking theory concerning 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 into helping search for his son.
  • Téa Leoni as Amanda Kirby, Paul's ex-wife who accompanies the group to Isla Sorna to search for her son.
  • Alessandro Nivola as Billy Brennan, a young and over-enthusiastic graduate student from Grant's dig site; he knows how to fly a parasail and he is very physically fit.
  • Trevor Morgan as Eric Kirby, Paul and Amanda's 12-year-old son who's stranded on Isla Sorna.
  • Michael Jeter as Udesky, a meek but sardonic mercenary pilot who flies the airplane to Isla Sorna. Also a booking agent.
  • Bruce A. Young as M.B. Nash, also a mercenary pilot: according to his dog tags he is a former Sergeant Major.
  • John Diehl as Cooper, a tough mercenary and weapons specialist.
  • Laura Dern as Dr. Ellie Degler, née Sattler, a paleobotanist who also survived Isla Nublar.
  • Taylor Nichols as Mark Degler, Ellie's husband and an expert in treaty law at the U.S. State Department.
  • Mark Harelik as Ben Hildebrand, Amanda's reckless boyfriend.
  • Julio Oscar Mechoso as Enrique Cardoso, the owner and operator of the illegal "Dino-Soar" parasailing service.
  • Blake Michael Bryan as Charlie Degler, Ellie and Mark's 3-year-old son.
  • Sarah Danielle Madison as Cheryl Logan, one of Grant's graduate students at the Fort Peck Lake dig site.
  • Linda Park as Hannah, Ellie's secretary.

Production [edit]

Joe Johnston had been interested in directing the sequel to Jurassic Park and approached Spielberg, a friend of his, about the project. While Spielberg wanted to direct the first sequel, he agreed that if there was ever a third film, Johnston could direct.[3] Johnston never had any concrete concept for the third film, other than stating the film would be "more stand-alone" and feature a lot of flying reptiles.[4] The third film was greenlit in August 1999 and Craig Rosenberg wrote a script involving teenagers who get marooned on Isla Sorna.[5] An earlier storyline by Spielberg featured Alan Grant living in a tree on one of the islands and studying the dinosaur population.[5]

New writers were brought in to scribe a story involving Pteranodons escaping from Site B and causing a spate of mysterious killings on the mainland, which was to be investigated by Alan Grant and a number of other characters including Billy Brennan, a naturalist named Simone, a tough military attaché, wealthy Paul Roby, and Roby's teenage son Miles. Grant's group crash-lands on the island, while a parallel investigation is being carried out on the mainland. The aviary sequence and laboratory set piece were initially much longer and more complex, including Velociraptors stealthily entering the hatchery as the team spends the night there. Sets, costumes, and props were built for this version, before Johnston rejected the entire script five weeks before filming in order to pursue the "rescue mission" plot, which had been suggested by David Koepp.[3] Johnston said that the script was never finished during production: "We shot pages that eventually went into the final script but we didn't have a document".[5] During the pre-production phase, concept artists created advertising for the film using a number of working titles including Jurassic Park: Extinction and Jurassic Park: Breakout.[6]

After a teaser trailer debuted with Pokemon: The Movie 2000 on July 21, 2000, Production began on August 30, 2000[7] without a finished script, with filming in California, Oahu, and Molokai.[8] The storyline contains 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 boat. In a deviation from the previous films, the Spinosaurus is considered the primary antagonist:[9] Johnston stated, "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."[10] The silhouette of the Spinosaurus is also on the poster behind the Pteranodon, taking the place of the Tyrannosaurus which had been used in the previous films' posters. Baryonyx was originally considered to be the "big bad" before Spinosaurus was chosen. Within film dialogue, Billy interprets the animal encountered as a Baryonyx or Suchomimus, but Dr. Grant corrects his analysis based on its sail.[3]

The special effects used for the dinosaurs were a mixture of animatronics and CGI. Due to new discoveries and theories in the field of paleontology, the portrayal of several dinosaurs differed from that of the previous films. Discoveries suggesting that Velociraptors were feathered prompted the addition of quill-like structures on the head and neck of the males in the film. "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, the film's technical adviser.[10]

The score's composer, Don Davis, was recommended by John Williams, who had composed the previous films' scores.[11] Williams' original themes were integrated into the score as well as several new ones written by Davis. In addition, "Big Hat, No Cattle", a song by Randy Newman, was used in a restaurant scene.[12]

Release [edit]

The film earned $181,171,875 in the United States and $368,780,809 worldwide, making it the eighth-highest-grossing film of the year worldwide[2] but still earning less than either of its predecessors. As with the other films in the franchise, there was a large marketing push, including seven video games[13] and a novelization aimed at young children.[14] The film was released on VHS and DVD in December 2001.[15] It was re-released with both sequels in December 2001[16] as the Jurassic Park Trilogy, and as the Jurassic Park Adventure Pack in November 2005.[17] The film has also been released as a two-disc DVD set alongside Hulk.[18] In 2011, the film was released on Blu-ray as part of the Jurassic Park Ultimate Trilogy. The soundtrack was released in July 2001.[19]

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;[20] the second had Eric and Alan returning to Isla Sorna to rescue a group of teenage filmmakers;[21] and the last involved Eric and Alan leading the Pteranodons home after they nest in a Universal Studios theme park.[22]

Reception [edit]

Jurassic Park III has received mixed reviews from critics. It currently holds a 50% "Rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 157 reviews. The general consensus stated that "The dinos are as cool as ever, but there's too much of a 'been there, done that' feel."[23] It also has a 42% on Metacritic.[24] On both sites, it is the lowest rated film out of the Jurassic Park trilogy.

Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman, who praised both the previous Jurassic Park films, awarded the third film with only a C grade, writing "Jurassic Park III has no pretentions to be anything more than a goose-bumpy fantasy theme-park ride for kids, but it's such a routine ride. Spielberg's wizardry is gone, and his balletic light touch as well, and that gives too much of this 90-minute movie over to the duller-than-dull characters."[25] Derek Elley of Variety Reviews felt likewise, calling the film "an all-action, helter-skelter, don't-forget-to-buy-the-computer-game ride that makes the two previous installments look like models of classic filmmaking"[26] Ben Varkontine, however, called it "not as good a ride as the first", but "better than the second."[27] Much of the criticism was leveled at the plot as simply a chase movie with no character development; Apollo Movie Guide panned the film as being "almost the same as the first movie" with "no need for new ideas or even a script".[28] Empire magazine gave the film 3 stars out of 5, commenting that it was "Short, scrappy and intermittently scary" and that the film ultimately "skews young".[29] There were also complaints about its short length and small cast.

On Ebert and Roeper, Richard Roeper gave it Thumbs Down while Roger Ebert awarded a Thumbs Up.[30] In a subsequent review, Ebert called it "the best blockbuster of the Summer".[31]

Merchandise [edit]

Hasbro released a line of 3.75" action figures in the spring of 2001 to coincide with the release, including electronic dinosaurs, humans, and vehicles The figures were scaled down from the original Kenner action figures from the pre-JP3 toy lines. A smaller die-cast line of toys was also produced, along with clothes, books, and an interactive game. An arcade game, produced by Konami, and a video game, were also part of the Jurassic Park 3 merchandise.

Awards and nominations [edit]

Award Subject Nominee Result
Saturn Awards Best Science Fiction Film Nominated
Best Special Effects Jim Mitchell, Stan Winston (uncredited), Danny Gordon Taylor, Donald Elliott, John Rosengrant Nominated
Satellite Awards Best Visual Effects Nominated
Best Sound Mixing Howell Gibbens Nominated
Golden Trailer Awards Best Horror/Thriller Film Nominated
Golden Reel Awards Best Sound Editing - Effects & Foley Howell Gibbens, Christopher Boyes, James Likowski, Frank E. Eulner and Ken Fischer Nominated
Sierra Awards Best DVD Won
BMI Film Awards Best Music Don Davis and John Williams Won
Golden Raspberry Awards Worst Remake or Sequel Nominated
Stinkers Bad Movie Awards[32] Worst Actress Tea Leoni Nominated
Worst Screenplay for a Film Grossing More Than $100 Million Worldwide Using Hollywood Math Peter Buchman, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor, based on the book by Michael Crichton Nominated
Worst Sequel Nominated

See also [edit]

Portal icon Film in the United States portal
Portal icon 2000s portal
Portal icon Speculative fiction portal
Portal icon Dinosaurs portal
Portal icon Science fiction portal


References [edit]

  1. ^ "JURASSIC PARK III (PG)". British Board of Film Classification. 2001-07-09. Retrieved 2013-04-04. 
  2. ^ a b c "Jurassic Park III (2001)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2009-03-05. 
  3. ^ a b c The Making of Jurassic Park III (DVD). Universal Pictures. 2005. 
  4. ^ "Spielberg dodges directing 'Jurassic 3'". CNN. Archived from the original on December 6, 2006. Retrieved 2008-07-16. 
  5. ^ a b c "Jumanji's Joe Johnston Joins Jurassic". About.com. Archived from the original on March 5, 2006. Retrieved 2011-07-27. 
  6. ^ Jurassic Park III (DVD). 2001. 
  7. ^ "Jurassic Park III". British Film Institute. Retrieved 2007-07-09. 
  8. ^ "Jurassic Park III". Hollywood.com. Retrieved 2007-07-09. 
  9. ^ Elley, Derek (2001-07-17). "Jurassic Park III". Variety. Retrieved 2007-07-09. 
  10. ^ a b "Production Notes". Cinema Review. Retrieved 2008-07-16. 
  11. ^ "Composer Don Davis Welcome to Jurassic Park". Tracksounds. June 29, 2001. Retrieved 2011-07-27. 
  12. ^ Plume, Kenneth (July 25, 2001). "Composer Don Davis Talks Jurassic Park III and the Matrix Sequels". IGN. Retrieved 2011-07-27. 
  13. ^ "Jurassic Park Licensees". Moby Games. Retrieved 2007-07-06. 
  14. ^ Scott Ciencin (2001). Jurassic Park III. Random House Books for Young Readers. p. 116. ISBN 978-0-375-81318-4. 
  15. ^ "Jurassic Park III". IGN. 2001-12-12. Retrieved 2007-07-09. 
  16. ^ "Jurassic Park Trilogy". IGN. Retrieved 2007-03-06. 
  17. ^ "Jurassic Park Adventure Pack". IGN. 2005-11-17. Retrieved 2007-03-06. 
  18. ^ "Jurassic Park III released with Hulk". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2007-03-06. 
  19. ^ "Jurassic Park III soundtrack valued at $12.99". Soundtrack.net. Retrieved 2007-05-17. 
  20. ^ Scott Ciencin (June 2001). Survivor. Boxtree. p. 116. ISBN 0-7522-1978-2. 
  21. ^ Scott Ciencin (October 2001). Prey. Boxtree. p. 123. ISBN 0-375-81290-3. 
  22. ^ Scott Ciencin (March 2002). Flyers. Boxtree. p. 128. ISBN 0-375-81291-1. 
  23. ^ "Jurassic Park III". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2007-07-08. 
  24. ^ "Jurassic Park III: Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2007-05-15. 
  25. ^ http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20609141_168187,00.html
  26. ^ Elley, Derek (2001-07-17). "Jurassic Park III". Variety. 
  27. ^ Ben Varkontine. "Jurassic Park III". PopMatters. Retrieved 2007-07-08. 
  28. ^ Brian Webster. "Jurassic Park III". Apollo Movie Guide. Retrieved 2007-07-08. 
  29. ^ Review of Jurassic Park 3 -EmpireOnline
  30. ^ "Ebert and Roeper Jurassic Park III". Buena Vista Entertainment. Retrieved 2010-09-11. [dead link]
  31. ^ "Ebert and Roeper Planet of the Apes". Buena Vista Entertainment. Retrieved 2010-09-11. [dead link]
  32. ^ "2001 24th Hastings Bad Cinema Society Stinkers Awards". Stinkers Bad Movie Awards. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 30, 2013. 

External links [edit]
Spin-off novels
Theme park attractions
Miscellaneous
Films directed by Joe Johnston
1980s
1990s
2000s
  • Jurassic Park III (2001)
  • Hidalgo (2004)
2010s
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