fans of the Jurassic Park movies call Jurassic Park 3 the weakest movie in the whole franchise. But we are here to prove them wrong. Jurassic Park 3 was more than just an ‘enjoyable’ flick. It was light years ahead of its time and tried to experiment and radicalize the a franchise that was then on its last legs. It does get a lot of hatred now but Jurassic park 3 deserves the recognition it is duly owed, now more than ever.
Jurassic Park 3 Subtly Ridiculed The Franchise Model of Hollywood
You may not notice it at first but the movie did try to troll how Hollywood churns up sequel after sequel. Jurassic World: Dominion may have made the franchise its own worst enemy. But Jurassic Park 3 had already predicted that beating this dead horse would only hurt them in the end. In one of the movie’s opening scenes. Dr. Alan Grant (played by Sam Neill), is giving a lecture on raptors to a class that is just not interested to listen. Once his lecture is over and he asks if anyone has nay questions, many hands rise up. When he asks if there are any any questions that aren’t on Jurassic Park, the hands slowly go down.
This is meta-humour at its finest. Sam Neill had repeatedly claimed that Jurassic Park made him big money but he became the 21st century version of Alec Guinness. Like Guinness hated the fame Star Wars got him, Sam Neill didn;t exactly fall in love with rabid fans asking relentless questions on Jurassic park.
Jurassic Park 3 Handles Raptors Better Than Jurassic World
The talking Raptor dream scene aside, Jurassic park 3 handled the raptors much better than the entire Jurassic World trilogy. Dr. Alan Grant has been trying to find a way to communicate with the franchise’s most ferocious beasts. The raptors aren’t humanized as much till The Lost World: Jurassic Park, shown as nothing but monsters. Jurassic Park 3 ends up revealing that raptors have a surprisingly complicated social hierarchy and modes of communication.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom humanizes them way too much. But Jurassic Park 3 keeps a balance between showing them as complex creatures as well as apex predators.
Best Dinosaur Action In The Entire OG Trilogy
There’s a reason why sam Neill always comes to the defense of Jurassic park 3. He likes the threequel the best out of all the movies in the original trilogy. And that is because Jurassic Park 3 does one thing better than Jurassic Park and The Lost World – good action set-pieces. There are brutal deaths and the action is swift and moves from one scene to another with blistering pace. But the Dinosaur sequences are even better. How can we forget the scenes with the raptors in the lab or the Spinosaurus sequences.
Tried Passing The Torch To The Next Alan Grant
Despite being a roaring box office giant, Jurassic Park 3 spelt the doom for the iconic franchise. But it did try to make way for the possibility of future sequels, one that did not need an ageing Sam neill of Jeff Goldblum as the lead. There were some possibilities. Billy was seen as an Alan Grant protege until he betrayed him for his own greed.
Erik Kirby, the kid that Grant is tasked to save in Jurassic Park 3, also makes for a good case. he had an ample knowledge of the dinosaurs since he lived amongst them and survived. He also has a unique inside man experience of Isla Sorna. Ultimately Jurassic park 4 never came but the studio left the doors open just in case.
Does Dinosaur Horror Better
Back in those days, you did not have the luxury of rampart use of CGi since they were so damn expensive and difficult to render. So many of the iconic scenes were reinforced with practical effects. But 2001 did give Jurassic Park 3 an edge in the sense that CGI tech had improved significantly since 1993’s Jurassic Park. Use of CGI where practical effects would only make things worse and vice-versa made Jurassic Park 3 a unique blend amongst the franchise. And that’s why fans still claim Jurassic park 3 does the ‘jurassic horror’ element better than any of the other movies.
Jurassic World: Dominion marks the end of the Jurassic Park sequel trilogy. The generations to come may even forget that Jurassic Park 3 even exists and Fallen Kingdom or Dominion would become their Hollywood gateway into this iconic franchise. But we will never forget.
Jurassic Park 3 was, is, and always will be one of the greatest sci-fi action adventure movies in the history of cinema. Period.
