The Trick That Reunited a Family: A Movie Review of "Jurassic Park III"

A boy is lost on an island, separated from his parents. If that isn't bad enough, the island is literally infested with dinosaurs! The boy's divorced parents sneakily enlist the help of paleontologist Alan Grant, a survivor of Jurassic Park. The Kirbys (the parents), Alan Grant, and his friend must survive long enough to find a way to escape the island.
There you have the plot of Jurassic Park III in a nutshell. The third installment of the Jurassic Park Trilogy received mixed reviews, many of them criticizing the "been there, done that" plot.
The film stars Sam Neill as Alan Grant, William H. Macy as Paul Kirby, and Téa Leoni as Amanda Kirby.

SUMMARY

   Young Eric Kirby is parasailing with his mom's friend over an exotic island. It seems fun at first, but things take a turn for the worse when their boat is attacked...by what? 

   Some time later, Alan Grant gives a speech on recent dinosaur findings. He runs into questions concerning Jurassic Park and is annoyed. Afterwards, he tells intern Billy Brennan that he might want to find a new career. The two are soon approached by a man named Paul Kirby.

   The three men and Paul's wife Amanda go to dinner. The couple explains that they are wealthy and enjoy taking adventure tours (Mount Everest, to name one). They convince Dr. Grant to take them on an airplane tour of the dinosaur island. Grant declines, but Paul eventually coaxes him with a checkbook.

   On the airplane, Dr. Grant begins talking about the dinosaurs, but the Kirbys (along with their other "friends") seem to be occupied on something else...

   The airplane is then landed (to Grant and Billy's utter horror), and Amanda begins calling for "Eric." Unfortunately, this attracts the attention of a massive dinosaur: Spinosaurus. What ensues is an intense dinosaur attack, complete with a broken airplane and dino lunch.

   The Kirbys eventually come clean and tell Grant and Billy that they are looking for their lost son. The rest of the film shows running from dinosaurs and looking for Eric.

CONTENT

   Jurassic Park III definitely earns its PG-13 rating through violence (and, yes, language). There are multiple scenes of dinosaur attacks, each of them featuring at least some amount of blood. In one scene, we see a man being eaten by a dinosaur and some of his blood drops on Amanda. In another scene, a man's neck is snapped by velociraptor dinosaurs. This is just as violent as the previous two Jurassic Park movies, if not even more gory.

   The movie is rather clean in the area of sensuality. There is one brief scene when Amanda's back is turned to the screen, but you can tell she is in her underclothes (we see from her back up). This is for a split second and we don't see anything specifically, but it is not really necessary for the film. Also, Paul and Amanda Kirby are divorced.

   Language is moderately heavy in the third Jurassic Park movie. There are several uses of d***, G**, among some others. 

   The matter of evolution is present, but it is thankfully not pressed as hard as in Jurassic Park, the first movie. I did like one scene, in an abandoned breeding room; Amanda asks what it is and Grant responds, "This is what happens when you try to play God." That, I think, is a very important lesson for today's scientific age when cloning is a growing issue.

   In conclusion, viewers will want to watch Jurassic Park III with caution. Today violence, gore, and blood in films can sometimes (and sadly) be a source of enjoyment. We need to be careful not to get joy out of death and violence.

   The third Jurassic Park sadly does not quite have the great moments that the others did (although, it was nice to see a divorced couple reunited). There is a lot of action and chasing, action and chasing, action and...well, you get the idea. It is a decent adventure film, but it has several flaws to keep an eye on.  

GENERAL INFORMATION

Length: 92 minutes

Rating: PG-13 (for intense sci-fi terror and violence)

Director: Joe Johnston

Producers: Kathleen Kennedy, Larry J. Franco

Music: Don Davis (Original scores by John Williams)

Year of release: 2001

Primary audience: Teens, adults