Jurassic Park III2001

63/100 If you ask me personally, I'd say both of the Jurassic park sequels are about the same in terms of how much I liked them. However, if I had to choose my favourite from the two, I'd say, to my own surprise as much as anyone else's, that I actually liked the third movie a bit more. I don't have much to say about this one, so I'll start with my critiques, or rather, one big critique: I don't like the characters, primarily the new set of side characters in the Kirby family. The whole family is utterly intolerable. The dad is inoffensive enough, though mostly unlikeable for the fact he offers nothing new. However, the mom here is like the mom from The Sugarland Express turned up to ten, an insane woman willing to risk the lives of several people for her thrillseeking kid. She comes off as unsympathetic and the majority of the film's events, including several deaths, are mostly her fault. The kid here is less offensive than his screaming mother, but he did get on my nerves with how he was presented. He's stranded on an island full of dinosaurs alone, he should be dead within a week. However, because the film doesn't have the guts to show how pointless the whole thing is, we get him turning into Bear Grylls out of nowhere. However, the film is smart enough to not focus on the characters too much, relegating the character drama to the background as for most of the film, we get some of the best action since the original movie. The movie's action setpieces are handled so brilliantly that I can even tolerate the annoying characters as vehicles to get to these awesome sequences. Helped along by perhaps the best handling of effects yet, these action scenes are almost non-stop and each one is amazing. One I want to mention is the birdcage scene with the Pteranodons. This scene is a masterclass, first building tension before escalating into a dramatic thrillride which I loved. The whole film is full of scenes like this, including multiple scenes with some of the best Velociraptors we've seen yet. However, the best thing about the movie by far is the Spinosaurus. This is already my favourite dinosaur, and the way this movie handles it almost like a slasher villain at times, with the sheer aura to its presentation, makes it my favourite villain not only of this movie, but of this franchise. Everything about the Spinosaurus is handled to perfection, from the incredibly accurate design for the time to the reptilian, dangerous-sounding roar, to how it seems almost human in its hate and pursuit of the characters. That phone ringing in its belly is also one of the best ways to build dread since the glass of water from the original. There's been a lot of buzz, and there still is, over the scene where the Spinosaurus kills off the T-Rex to show off its strength, and this is my opinion: is it innacurate? Yes. Is it a blatant Worf Effect? Yes. Is it to cool for me to care? Very much so, yes. This movie's what most people expect from monster movies: a dumb human plotline no one cares about used as an excuse to drag the movie to a longer runtime through tedious scenes, until finally we reach amazing action. However, I think it's handled well enough for me to declare it not bad, but merely average.