Director: Joe Johnston
Starring: Sam Neill, William H Macy, Tea Leoni, Laura Dern and Alessandro Nivola
Story rating: 2 1/2 discs (out of 4)
Story review: Paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) vowed never to return to the now-quarantined Jurassic Park–until, that is, he’s hired by a wealthy, thrill-seeking couple, Paul and Amanda Kirby (William H. Macy and Tea Leoni), as a tour guide for their flyover above Isla Sorna. But the Kirbys aren’t really wealthy, aren’t married anymore and don’t intend to just visit–what they didn’t tell Grant is that they plan to actually land on the island to search for their son, Eric, who disappeared there two months earlier on a parasailing trip with Amanda’s reckless boyfriend. Grant, his hunky protégé Billy (Alessandro Nivola), the Kirbys and their pilots soon find themselves running for cover from the highly intelligent raptors, sharp-toothed T. Rexes, and the biggest and most vicious dino of them all, the Spinosaurus (new with this sequel)–while managing to find Eric (Trevor Morgan) along the way. Predictability notwithstanding, JPIII is rousing, popcorn-munching fun that makes perfect summertime fare. —Stacie Hougland, Hollywood.com
Features rating: 2 1/2 discs (out of 4)
Features review: The feature-long commentary track does not include JPIII director Joe Johnston. There are no deleted scenes. And there are no interviews with Executive Producer Steven Spielberg or any of the screenwriters who worked on the film. What a shame.
However, the disc contains an in-depth look into the special effects of the film: how Stan Winston Studios went about creating the spino and raptors; a nice look how ILM does their magic; and interesting discussions on how the JP trilogy keeps raising the bar for special effects–with JP3 the technology was at a point where the FX people could concentrate on the “performance” of the dinosaurs, instead of simply getting them to work.
The other major talked-about part of the DVD is the audio commentary, a first for a Jurassic Park film. Here we get a running chat with the infamous Stan Winston, John Rosengrant, the FX supervisor for Stan Winston Studios, Dan Taylor, the JP3 animation director for ILM, and Michael Lanteri, the veteran who has done the physical effects on all three JP movies. The commentary, while certainly interesting, does concentrate almost exclusively on the effects of the film.
Digging New Dinosaurs is a worthwhile look at Jack Horner’s successful summer dig that uncovered 5 T-Rex skeletons. But the standout supplement is a very cool storyboard segment that puts the pre-production drawings and final footage alongside each other on the screen, illustrating the meticulous and rarely altered storyboards that were the building blocks of each effects scene.
Bottom line: The bonus material on this disc is first rate, and is well worth the price of the DVD alone. Another fun summer popcorn movie, once you get past the fact that you’ve seen most of this before.
Special features list:
• Languages: English, French
• Audio commentary
• The Making of “Jurassic Park III”
• Tour of Stan Winston Studio featurette
• Visit to ILM featurette
• Dinosaur Turntables featurette
• Montana: Finding New Dinosaurs featurette
• Trailers
• Film-to-Storyboard Comparison
• Production Photos
• Storyboards
• DVD-ROM Game Demos: Jurassic Park III Dino Defender and Danger Zone!
