Jurassic Park III (Exclusive Series Special) (HBO Max)

Initial release date: July 18, 2001

Studios: Universal Pictures/Amblin Entertainment

Tagline: Something Unexpected Has Evolved

This Time It’s Not Just A Walk in the Park!

Plot: After being persuaded by a wealthy businessman to conduct an aerial tour of Isla Sorna, InGen’s second site for a failed Jurassic Park experiment, Dr. Alan Grant discovers the true reason for his invitation. A tragic accident maroons the part of seven, and they must attempt to escape with their lives.

Cast

Sam Neill - Dr. Alan Grant

William H. Macy Paul Kirby

Tea Leoni - Amanda Kirby

Alessandro Nivola - Billy Brennan

Trevor Morgan - Eric Kirby

Michael Jeter - Udesky

John Diehi - Cooper

Bruce A. Young - Nash

Laura Dern - Ellie

Taylor Nichols - Mark

Mark Harelik - Ben Hildebrand

Julio Oscar Mechoso - Enrique Cardoso

Writer(s): Peter Buchman (Eragon)

Alexander Payne (Downsizing; The Descendants)

Jim Taylor (Downsizing)

Director: Joe Johnston (The Nutcracker and the Four Realms)

Rated PG-13 for intense sci-fi terror and violence (92 minutes)

Now, let’s get this out of the way. When I first watched the 2001 third installment of the ‘Jurassic Park’ original trilogy when it initially came out, I wasn’t a huge fan of it.

After recently re-watching it not too long ago, I’ll admit it the movie wasn’t that bad. There is some decent action scattered throughout and can be a little tense at times.

The designs of the dinosaurs look really cool, but with heavy use of CGI that was used in this sequel, the CGI could have been toned down just a tad. Granted, they used CGI animation for the other two movies for the dinosaurs obviously. But, the animation in the first two movies did a lot better job than this one.

If you are a fan of the series, you may enjoy this 2001 sequel. It can be predictable and the CGI definitely needed work (between the dinosaurs and the gliding scene in the beginning). But, it can still be a bit of fun.

‘Jurassic Park III’ and the other two installments of the original trilogy are now available on HBO Max.

Here are some interesting tidbits for ‘Jurassic Park III’:

• A few of the action sequences are borrowed from leftover ideas from the first two movies, some of which were in the original scripts and/or made it to being story-boarded before they were scrapped due to time and budget constraints. These scenes include the pteranodon and river boat sequence.

• Michael Crichton worked with the screenwriters several days to brainstorm about a story, but left after several days when he couldn’t come up with a satisfactory idea.

• Spielberg initially devised a story idea which involved Grant living on one of InGen’s islands to study dinosaurs. Because he wasn’t allowed in for research, he was living in a tree like Robinson Crusoe. However, Johnston rejected the idea because he couldn’t imagine Grant returning in this way after the events of the first movie.

• Shooting began before the final script was completed.

• Following this sequel, Alan Grant wouldn’t return to the franchise until two decades later in ‘Dominion.’

• First time in the franchise that a T-Rex is killed and a Raptor isn’t.

• Universal announced the second sequel in June 1998, with Spielberg as a producer.

• Potential titles included ‘Jurassic Park: Breakout’ and ‘The Extinction: Jurassic Park III.’

• A teaser trailer was released online in September 2000, and the first image of the movie was released four months later. Universal avoided excessive early marketing to prevent a possible backlash; the studio believed awareness of the movie was already sufficient.

• ‘Jurassic Park III’ had a successful opening weekend, earning $50.3 million. When it opened, it had the fourth largest July opening weekend, behind ‘Independence Day,’ ‘Men in Black’ and ‘X-Men.’ It ultimately earned $181.2 million in the US and $368.8 million worldwide, making it the 8th highest-grossing film of the year worldwide. It’s also the lowest-grossing film of the franchise.

https://youtu.be/gjIaV6CU0wA