Jurassic Park III
Apr. 12th, 2008 10:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stephbgA couple of weeks ago I watched Jurassic Park on TV for old times' sake and was pleasantly surprised at how well it stood up. After that I read the sequel novel The Lost World. As expected it was different to the film sequel JSII, but at this point I get a little blurry about what went on in each sequel and novel. I may yet dig up the film Jurassic Park II: The Lost World to watch again, for I do recall one thing: it was much better than Jurassic Park III.
For I have just watched Jurassic Park III on TV and lo, it was bad. More than its fair share of running and screaming, an under-representation of joy and wonderment, the occasional deeply flawed attempt at humour and no script to speak of. And the FX were much worse (read cheaper) than the first film. Some of the practical FX were just plain embarassing. Jaws fibreglass chewing shark embarassing.
There was a lot less CGI and the beasties lacked weight, presence, shadows, or filters (even in the dark and the rain), but made up for it in meaningfully evil faces and gratuitous intelligence. I'm pretty sure I saw one of them put a claw next to his nose and wink. Figuring out doors is a perfectly reasonable demonstration of intelligence. Pack hunting behaviour I'll accept. Chatting about Proust whilst debating what kind of red goes best with human sushi seemed a little excessive in the brainy chicken department.
The odd shock moments from the film were almost direct takes from the first film. Car runs down a tree? Plane runs down a tree. Raptor leaps up as seen from the prey POV in the ceiling? Raptor leaps up as seen from the prey POV in a tree. Trapped in a sinking car in the mud? Trapped in a sinking cage in the water.
Much cheaper sets all around actually - no gleaming lab equipment or facilities. Their blinking LED budget must have been tiny.
And where was the damage? No-one limped or seemed to otherwise suffer any ill effects from experiences that should have broken or sprained a thing or three. Just one temporary comedy limp when the wimpy character tried to kick open a vending machine, and a few artistic grazes.
Actually Jurassic Park II has one of my favourite lines from Jeff Goldblum's character Dr Malcolm, which I may misquote here: "First the oohing and the ahhing and then the running and the screaming." Yep, must watch that one again, even for the blatant King Kong ripoff not even hinted at in the book.
JPII (the film, not the pope) also featured one of the most transparent character-displays-an-apparently-unrelated-skill-at-the-beginning-of-the-film-you-just-know-is-going-to-save-lives-later. But somehow, I'm looking forward to it.
Grrrraaaaarrrrrrr!
Feel free to disagree. I'm no![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
angriest* :-)
(*) By which I mean I lack the film cred of angriest. I'm not suggesting that angriest can't take criticim.
For I have just watched Jurassic Park III on TV and lo, it was bad. More than its fair share of running and screaming, an under-representation of joy and wonderment, the occasional deeply flawed attempt at humour and no script to speak of. And the FX were much worse (read cheaper) than the first film. Some of the practical FX were just plain embarassing. Jaws fibreglass chewing shark embarassing.
There was a lot less CGI and the beasties lacked weight, presence, shadows, or filters (even in the dark and the rain), but made up for it in meaningfully evil faces and gratuitous intelligence. I'm pretty sure I saw one of them put a claw next to his nose and wink. Figuring out doors is a perfectly reasonable demonstration of intelligence. Pack hunting behaviour I'll accept. Chatting about Proust whilst debating what kind of red goes best with human sushi seemed a little excessive in the brainy chicken department.
The odd shock moments from the film were almost direct takes from the first film. Car runs down a tree? Plane runs down a tree. Raptor leaps up as seen from the prey POV in the ceiling? Raptor leaps up as seen from the prey POV in a tree. Trapped in a sinking car in the mud? Trapped in a sinking cage in the water.
Much cheaper sets all around actually - no gleaming lab equipment or facilities. Their blinking LED budget must have been tiny.
And where was the damage? No-one limped or seemed to otherwise suffer any ill effects from experiences that should have broken or sprained a thing or three. Just one temporary comedy limp when the wimpy character tried to kick open a vending machine, and a few artistic grazes.
Actually Jurassic Park II has one of my favourite lines from Jeff Goldblum's character Dr Malcolm, which I may misquote here: "First the oohing and the ahhing and then the running and the screaming." Yep, must watch that one again, even for the blatant King Kong ripoff not even hinted at in the book.
JPII (the film, not the pope) also featured one of the most transparent character-displays-an-apparently-unrelated-skill-at-the-beginning-of-the-film-you-just-know-is-going-to-save-lives-later. But somehow, I'm looking forward to it.
Grrrraaaaarrrrrrr!
Feel free to disagree. I'm no
angriest* :-)(*) By which I mean I lack the film cred of angriest. I'm not suggesting that angriest can't take criticim.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-04-12 05:03 pm (UTC)Then again, Independence Day would likewise benefit.
Pity the series has ended ... Or Has It??
(Checks Rifftrax catalogue)
http://www.rifftrax.com/rifftrax/jurassic-park - They do over the original with the aid of Al.
http://www.rifftrax.com/rifftrax/independence-day - and they do over ID4.
No JP2 or 3 - yet!
:-)
(Mike Nelson, Joel H & Friends - making the worst of cinema bearable for 15 years and more!)
no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 12:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 01:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 02:01 am (UTC)SPOILER ALERT!!
That said, I remember almost nothing about JPIII except for the dinosaur eating the satellite phone, whereas there are a few moments I love in JPII: Jeff Goldblum's "NOW you're John Hammond"; the glass-ended house trailer hanging over the cliff (that was #2, wasn't it?); "most people squeeze harder than that"; and screenwriter David Koepp running into a video library which has a poster showing Schwarzenegger as King Lear.