Review of Jurassic Park III

Introduction

You`ve all heard of Jurassic Park I assume? Spielberg, dinosaurs, CGI? Made an absolute fortune at the box office? Described by some as a milestone in cinema history? The film released as a PG when it probably shouldn`t have been? The one stuffed with shots of its own merchandise? The one that spawned a not quite as good sequel?

And you`ll know of that sequel, The Lost World which wasn`t quite as good, spawned more merchandise, and also spawned another sequel.

Here we are then, at Jurassic Park III. And we`re back at "site B" from The Lost World, as 2 tourists manage to find themselves rather close to Isla Sorna whilst parasailing. Will they survive if they land on the island? Common sense tells you one thing, film-makers tell you another. This time round our hero is Dr Alan Grant again, who is tricked into leading an expedition to site B by a millionaire and his on-off wife.

For the third instalment, Spielberg hands the director`s chair over to Joe Johnston.

Video

A 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, which falls a little way short of the reference quality that you might hope for. Colours look good, detail is very sharp, and it all looks very clean and tidy. But it just lacks that certain something to take it to the highest level.

As for the on screen action, we`re treated to some new dinosaurs, and therefore some new special effects. But whilst this stuff was amazing and groundbreaking at the time of the first film (1993), it`s not quite so impressive nowadays. The effects are still good (apart from some dodgy back projection), and are improved from the earlier films, but I did expect a little more. Maybe I`ve been spoilt by so many good effects crews whose work is showcased on so many DVDs nowadays.

Audio

This time round we didn`t get ripped off. Instead of having to choose between a disc with DD5.1 + extra features or a disc with dts + less extra features, we get both soundtracks on the same disc. Hurrah! But of course they`ve had to compromise to get all the stuff on the disc, so maybe a 2 disc set would have been in order? No pleasing some people is there!

But as you would expect, the sound lives up to the expectations generated by the earlier films. Both the DD5.1 and dts tracks are excellent, there`s so much for all of your speakers to do, loads of action for your rear speakers, and plenty of bass for the sub-woofer. You also get the familiar John Williams themes, and some new soundtrack work from Don Davis, which sounded just a little tired.

Features

Another case of quantity over quality.

First we get a commentary track (unlike the previous 2 films), but it doesn`t feature the elusive Mr Spielberg, or director Joe Johnston. Instead you get the special effects team commentating, and whilst I`m a fan of commentary tracks, this one is a little dull.

Now we have a series of featurettes ranging from 20 minutes down to about 1 minute. And these are all a bit of a let down. Gone is the quality of the James Earl Jones narrated feature on the first film, instead we get the usual "extended trailer syndrome", with hardly anything more in-depth than some soundbites from interviews. From the "making of" to the "new dinosuars" featurettes and beyond, they really aren`t worth the effort of navigating around the DVD for.

There`s also a brief feature on a real dinosaur dig, plus trailers, posters and bios.

Conclusion

Many people subscribe to the theory "if you can`t say something nice, don`t say anything at all". If you subscribe to that theory, stop reading at the end of the next sentence. At least the film is blissfully short.

Still here? Well, I`m afraid that I really didn`t enjoy Jurassic Park III. After just a short while I was cheering on the dinosaurs, hoping that they would rip Paul Kirby (William H. Macy), to bits. Maybe all the humans would get munched this time? They certainly go about it the right way, attracting plenty of attention to themselves, and ignoring the first rule of the country code - always close the gate behind you, particularly if the gate is being used to contain man-eating dinosaurs.

And just when you hope it might finish, it does, screeching to a shuddering halt by crashing into a brick wall disguised as an ending. One of those endings which doesn`t need "look out for Jurassic Park 4, coming soon to a cinema near you" adding to the credits, since it`s blatantly obvious it will be coming. The rumour mill is still undecided, but it seems to be on for summer 2004 or 2005.

The disc itself is pretty good with fine picture and sound. It might have been nice to see a 2 disc set instead of cramming everything onto one disc (they might have added some better extras then too). But it`s a good package as it stands, even though the extras are a little on the weak side. They just reflect the quality of the film.

Only just worth a rental.