Deja vu, anyone? Sam Neill once again goes mano-a-raptor.

Jurassic Park III
Universal, 2001
Directed by Joe Johnston

$$3/4

Sixty-five million years ago, evolution wasn't too kind to the dinosaurs. Nature made them extinct. Today, their computer generated counterparts may soon suffer the same fate if Hollywood can't come up with a sequel more exciting than Jurassic Park III.

Don't get me wrong -- the movie is entertaining and has some funny moments. But when compared with the fierce, heart pounding awe we felt when the original Jurassic Park roared into theaters eight years ago, the latest incarnation is pretty flat.

The director of the first two installments, Steven Spielberg, relinquishes the reins this time (he stays on as Executive Producer). His seemingly logical fill-in is Joe Johnston, a man who's studied under Spielberg and who's spent his career making Spielberg-esque family adventure films like Jumanji and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. But as hard as he tries, Johnston is no Spielberg. The action sequences are fine, but they lack the tension and sly choreography that only the master can supply. Spielberg can create more dread with two rattling cups of water (remember those ominous ripples from the first film?) than Johnston can with a whole species of ILM-created dinos. The new guy also has trouble giving the dinosaurs quite as much personality as the ones in the previous films. He's not helped by the effects department, which seems to be slipping. The new Big Man on Campus, Spinosaurus -- think T-Rex, only with a big fin on his back -- is a little too rubbery to be believed.

That said, Johnston is to be applauded considering the thankless task he had presented to him -- make yet another fun summer blockbuster about dinosaurs run amok on a tropical island. We haven't just seen this before -- we've seen it twice before. The results are all the more impressive considering the script was reportedly thrown completely out the window just prior to shooting (the final screenplay is partially credited to Jim Taylor and Alexander Payne, the duo who wrote the ingenious comedy, Election). The lack of a complete script may explain why this installment is the shortest (barely more than 90 minutes) and has the simplest plot.

Sam Neill returns as paleontologist Alan Grant, the lead character from the first film. He's fallen on hard times since we last saw him -- no one much cares about a guy digging up dinosaur fossils when everyone knows real flesh and blood dinosaurs are walking around off the coast of Costa Rica. After a slow start, the action picks up as Grant finds himself ignoring his own good sense and agreeing to be the sightseeing guide of a wealthy couple (William H. Macy and Tea Leoni) who want to fly low over the restricted "Lost World" of Isla Sorna where the cloned dinosaurs still roam. The hook: the couple will pay him enough money to fund his research for years.

But it turns out this is no sightseeing tour -- the couple is actually on a rescue mission to find their son, who's become lost on the island. Before, you can say brachiosaur they've landed and are in search of the boy (what would a Jurassic Park movie be without a child in peril?) But, of course, the fools have no idea what they've gotten themselves into. So, once again, suckered in by the promise of funding, Dr. Grant finds himself doing some unexpected field research -- and running for his life in the process. (If they'd really wanted to set a campy monster-movie tone, this movie would've been called Escape From The Lost World.)

Two of the movie's key action sequences (a river encounter with a big dino and a terrifying journey through a giant "bird cage" housing pterodactyls) are wisely lifted from passages of Michael Crichton's original novel that never made it into the first film. Not surprisingly, this is when the movie is at its best. The sequel also advances the evolution of the raptors, as Dr. Grant is able to prove his theory that the fierce dinos had complex vocal capabilities -- in this film, the raptors have gained the ability to "talk" to each other. They're also getting smarter -- they're now able to set traps for their human prey.

It's a nice new twist, but if this film series wants to avoid extinction, it needs to get off the island once and for all. The last 20 minutes of "The Lost World" teased us with the intriguing premise of a T-Rex romping through suburbia. Why not a whole movie of that? (Suggested title: It Came From Jurassic Park!) There's room for this franchise to grow if the writers have enough imagination. In this film, the dinosaurs seem to be evolving at an accelerated pace. What if they continue to get smarter and smarter as they reach land? By the time Jurassic Park VII rolls around, they should be smarter than humans. They would start to take over the world and by the end of the series, people would be the ones becoming extinct. I can't think of a more fitting ending for a sci-fi saga that is essentially a cautionary tale about the foolishness of mankind messing with nature.
(c) Copyright 2001