Jurassic Park III (Spoilers)

Note: There will be spoilers for all three Jurassic Park films.


So, after discussing movies I watch over and over, I decided to get into a movie that I don't watch over and over. I actually hadn't seen this movie in full since I saw it in theatres back in 2001. I've owned it for about two years now, and this is the first I've watched it. I got it in the "Adventure Pack" with the other two, which I've seen numerous times since I bought them, but I was never really interested in watching number 3 again.

But after a very long week, I decided I was in the mood to enter a world where people have to run from man-eating dinosaurs. And since I've seen the first two so many times, why not put in number three? You know what? I really enjoyed it. It's definitely not better than the first one, but it's comparable to the second. I've always really loved the velociraptors as villains, since they're portrayed as intelligent (and really scary) creatures. I also enjoyed the inclusion of the pteranodons, which brought the biggest scare of the film.

Funnily enough, as a kid obsessed with dinosaurs, my two favourite dinosaurs were velociraptors and pteranodons. I thought they'd have made cool pets. Which I guess is the reason my parents never showed me Jurassic Park when I was a wee tyke, because it would've traumatized me.

I think part of the reason I enjoy the first two so much is because of Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum). He was the best part of the first one. He's upgraded from supporting character to main character for the second one, but I thought he was a completely different character in that one. One could argue that the experience made him a "changed man", but he's significantly less interesting the second time around. I read the second book a few years ago, and from what I remember, it is quite a bit different from the second movie. There are two children in the novel, and neither are related to Malcolm. The filmmakers "merged" the characteristics of the two children together and made the female character Malcolm's daughter. I didn't mind this so much, but if I recall correctly, I preferred the book to the movie. There's no silly dinosaur rampage at the end of the novel.

I've realized that all three movies have some sort of "save the kids/protect the kids" plot line. I hope that if they ever do a 4th film, they'll get away from that idea. Though, I think I would prefer if they let the series rest, due to the fact that Michael Crichton died in 2008. There has been so much talk of a 4th film since the third was released, but nothing has ever come of it, and I don't think anything ever should.