Review of Jurassic Park III: Collector`s Edition (Widescreen)

Introduction

When Steven Spielberg unleashed the first Jurassic Park on the unsuspecting public back in 1993, the CGI dinosaurs had jaws dropping all over the world as the movie ignited dino-mania. The film became the third biggest grossing movie of all time at the box-office and made even more money with merchandise and video/DVD sales. A sequel was inevitable and in 1997, Spielberg gave us The Lost World, a film not equal to its predecessor, but one that is currently the eleventh most successful movie of all time, having just been ousted from the top 10 by Harry Potter. Another four years have passed and a third instalment arrives, this time from director Joe Johnston, and again a box office success, although not on the scale of the first two movies. In total, the three films have taken nearly $2billion - a staggering achievement.

After the slow build up of the first movie, the second turned to all-out action and the third sticks firmly to fast paced chase sequences and effects. The plot involves a couple trying desperately to rescue their young son who is stranded on "the second island" and who hope that he has managed to beat the odds and survive by himself for eight weeks. They enlist the help of Dr. Alan Grant (Neill) under false pretences and surprisingly enough it is not too long before they all become something`s idea of a tasty lunch.

Video

The video is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and is of pretty good quality throughout, although not the reference quality that I had expected - this is probably the result of cramming too much onto one disc rather than spreading things out over two. The image is relative grain free (apart from the opening scene) and quite detailed, but edge correction is evident, particularly on the long shots of the plane flying to the island at the start of the film. Colour and image stability are both good, and there is not dirt anywhere to be seen.

The visuals are fabulous, with a mixture of good set-piece sequences such as the plane crash, to the various chase scenes. We`ve seen Raptors and T-Rex before, but they`re much better this time, and the new "super-predator" - the Spinosaurus is very nasty indeed. We`ve also got the first appearance of the flying Pteranodon, which is very spectacular.

The extra materials highlight what was done with models and what was done with CGI - the results are pretty seamless and overall the visuals are very impressive (except from some dodgy rear-projection during the opening paragliding sequence).

Audio

Unlike the previous two movies, which were released in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 versions, this disc contains both soundtracks. I would have preferred a separate DTS 5.1 edition with higher bitrate sound. Having said that, the sound on the disc is pretty good, with the required amount of roars, grows, crashes, bangs and screams coming from all directions. This is a movie to watch with the lights off and the volume up. Aside form effects we`ve the ever-present Jurassic Park theme music, and the dialogue is always clear and understandable.

Features

At the first glance, the disc appears to have a very generous helping of extra materials, but closer inspection reveals that the offerings aren`t quite as exciting as they appear.

The main making-of featurette runs for about 20 minutes and contains various interview snippets and a lot of film footage - and at times takes back-slapping to a whole new level. Fine, so I moved onto the next feature "The New Dinosaurs of Jurassic Park III" only to find that it was comprised of the same interviews and footage, re-edited with only slightly more extra content. The same applies to ALL of the other featurettes, some of which are a minute long and have to be played individually, which becomes very irritating after a while. Why couldn`t one decent documentary have been included instead, covering all elements? There`s also a commentary track from the special effects team, storyboard comparisons, trailers for all three movies, a gallery, a visit to a dinosaur dig, a look at the computer models of the dinosaurs and some DVD-ROM extras.

The disc is packaged in a black Amaray case, which contains a long fold-out comparison of the dinosaur sizes which is quite interesting, plus some background information on the movie. Folding it back up is not very easy though!

Conclusion

Jurassic Park III is non-stop action from start to finish with some excellent special effects. The 93-minute running time is about right - the film doesn`t drag or outstay its welcome at any point, although the ending is very weak and abrupt. The stars of this movie are the dinosaurs and Sam Neill - the rest of the cast is weak and does little of merit, particularly Tea Leoni who was wooden and didn`t seem to be really involved in her character at all. The story is even more ludicrous than ever, but for the most part the action moves at a fast enough pace to allow the viewer to put various plot-anomalies to one side.

This DVD has good sound and video, but they should have been reference quality given the stature of this title. The extras look good but on closer investigation are a bit lacking in variety. Overall an entertaining dino-romp to be enjoyed with the lights off, volume up and a couple of beers.