Aug 13, 2001 08:18 PM
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The first Jurassic Park film, way back in 1993, was awesome with the immenseness of the spectacle enough on its own - the follow up 'The Lost World' just about managed to stay this side of being pretty dire - the omens were not particularly good as the newest moment in this extraordinary cycle arrived on our screens - both the Financial Times and the Sunday Times gave it the most grudging and critical of write ups - the word 'drubbing' hovered around the lips of the spiteful reviewers. ''Toothless and way too familiar'' was the strapline in the ST, so it was with quite a feeling of foreboding that I drove the dave27 clan over to St Annes, skilfully avoiding the crowds at the last day of the Open, to watch the Biggest Show In Town...
Actually, I was worrying over nothing, because this latest episode had every bit as many brown trouser moments and shocks as was needed, and the adolescent audience in the little theatre were soon laughing their socks off at the jumps and starts of me and Mrs D - absolute adrenaline, I'm glad to say.
At the same time, you don't get anything particularly new here, the formula is too well founded for that. As with the first two, you get our intrepid and flawed band of adventurers stranded on some shallow pretext in the midst of a green and humid Hell amidst all manner of creatures that should have long since breathed their last. This time the premise is that the 14 year old son (Eric, played by Trevor Morgan) of a divorced couple is stranded after a parasailing trip near Isla Sornor, a near neighbour to the other supposedly deserted lost lands of the two previous films.
Isla Sornor is also inexplicably overloaded with InGen cast offs. The boy's parents, played by William H Macy (of the implausibly thick hair and moustache) and Tea Leoni (blonde sex object and mad eyed screamer, best known for her appearance as investigative reporter in Deep Impact), manage to buy the assistance of palaeontologist Alan Grant, from the original film (and again played by the very, very good Sam Neill, starting to look a bit grey around the gills, Samuel old chap), and his young side kick Billy Brennan (Alessandro Nivola), to mount a rescue mission. All this despite Grant previously pledging ''No force on earth or heaven could get me on that island.'' The newbies in the cast include pteranodon and spinosaurus. Laura Dern and T Rex only get very minor cameos this time and Stephen Spielberg has altogether vanished, with Joe Johnston from Jumanji taking over this time.
You get the obligatory plane crash and loss of resources, twisted bodies of swarthy guards and the ultimately happy ending and in between the battle between man and beast, with the super intelligent and surprisingly mumsy velociraptor family coming over quite heroically at times - how the mighty have fallen!
The new monster baddie here is the aforementioned spinosaurus with its huge back flap, beaky nose, enormous feet, voracious appetite and a 'cowbell' from its first acquaintance with the modern world. It makes short work (eventually) of a T Rex early on as the scene is set and dwarfs the previous master of the piece. It's also far more closely focused on human flesh than its predecessor it would seem and takes every opportunity to up the thrills quotient.
The flying lizards who dominate the second half of this film also have their moments and the happy band's excursion into their lair is extremely gripping. Their mastery of the air brings a whole new perspective on the meaning of terror and its evil little brood is particularly loathsome.
With this combination of Beasts That Time Forgot, Grant and his 'employers' are beset on all sides and up against it. They are far more vulnerable and exposed than their like was in either of the two previous films (check out the entrance of the velociraptor when we thought we'd found a refuge) and the fear factor is all the more genuine because of it.
JP3 is far superior to The Lost World and when seen (and heard) as it should be, on a massive scale with high volume sensurround sound from a two inch wall, borders on matching the first film, although the critics ain't going to let that happen. Neill is a far better rock at the centre of the action than Goldblum ever could be, with his awfully manic stare, and is a very convincing sane scientist, warning against landing there until he gets forcibly brought to heel.
You know that JP3 is going to be one of the highlights of the summer - rest assured, it's worth the trip.
