Jurassic Park III - did it have the JP feel?

There's been a lot of talk on the forum as of late about whether Fallen Kingdom "feels like" a JP movie. Opinions differ. But way before JW ever came out, I asked myself that very question about JP3. Did it have what it took to call itself a JP movie, did it feel like one? It certainly felt different from the other two, and had a very different tone, it was like a straight-up action flick with dinosaurs and Alan Grant on Sorna, but it did bring some other things too such as showing us some nice Isla Sorna scenery, some interesting dinosaurs, some scenes from the book (aviary, the boat), an abandoned inGen lab... When you add it all up, there's a lot of JP ingredients, and even if you think the movie sucks (which is understandable) you can't say that it didn't look like a JP movie. It certainly did, and mostly felt like one too. What does it take for a movie to have that JP feel, in your opinion?

It does have the JP feel IMO. Even though it's my least favorite in the franchise it does feel more JP than JW.

It's such a complex question and so easy at once.

It has elements of the novels that weren't in the first two films. It has a decent theme in that people are again exploiting the dinosaurs, the illegal boat tour, and it has consequences. It makes sense that the parents would do anything for their son. It touches on some science and directly refers to the past films. There are some foreboding scenes and the spinosaurus is ominous. We also get to see plenty of the main characters development or at least an establishment of who they are.

However, it doesn't feel as dark or tense as the previous film installments. The dinosaurs seem to be growing closer to characters, lacking the natural and anamilaistic presence they had before. It was a little redundant but introduced some new things, but not necessarily well.

In the end, yes, it feels like a Jurassic Park film, but it also feels like the beginning of a transition from it. I can see why people rate it the lowest of the films but Fallen Kingdom has taken that spot for me.

Now dont get wrong, the Kirby family was annoying but I know more about them than I do Owen or Claire. I also know more about the Sorna Raptors than I do all the newly introduced dinosaurs. I didn't feel overwhelmed by action and underwhelmed by the characters or story.

I guess to me, JP/// was a bit of a step away from the first two films but not 3 or more steps away like Fallen Kingdom was. It still had the feel of a JP movie but tried to shake it up. It didnt do that very successfully but Fallen Kingdom took all the good things and threw them on their heads. Too much action and not enough science was a big thing for me. Also, in JP films you care about the characters but the only attachment I have is to Rexy because of who she is. If Owen or Claire dies in the first 3 seconds of JW3 I won't bat an eye.

It definitely does, and in a way that's superior to JW.

JP3 for me was missing so much of what worked about the first two films - namely the science, the technology, the moral questions - that it doesn't feel very JP. There are things about JP3 that are Jurassic-ish (obviously Grant and Ellie, the abandoned InGen labs/aviary), but overall if feels like more of a cheap imitation.

What particularly feels off to me are most of the new characters - everyone is JP and TLW had a profession that had something to do with Jurassic Park or dinosaurs (scientists, hunters, tech guys, corporate types, and so on). The misadventures of a guy who owned a hardware store, his ex-wife, and a mercenary "booking agent" just felt really...like a disappointing choice IMO. It didn't help that Macy was pretty much playing the same character he did in "Fargo". The only new characters who really felt like they belonged in a Jurassic film were Billy...and I guess Eric, who I didn't like much.

That said, I think JP3 feels more Spielbergian/Amblin than JW...but JW feels more Crichton-esque than JP3, if that makes sense.

Honestly, for all of its flaws, Jurassic Park III feels much more like a Jurassic Park/Spielberg movie than any of the other sequels, including Lost World.

It has the main character from the first movie, the iconic music, great set pieces, it has a energetic feeling (unlike TLW and FK), which is all I can ask for a Jurassic Park movie.

... well, that and a compelling plot and toned down humor and a proper climax, but you can't win all I guess.

Mr. Robustus wrote:

Honestly, for all of its flaws, Jurassic Park III feels much more like a Jurassic Park/Spielberg movie than any of the other sequels, including Lost World.

It has the main character from the first movie, the iconic music, great set pieces, it has a energetic feeling (unlike TLW and FK), which is all I can ask for a Jurassic Park movie.

... well, that and a compelling plot and toned down humor and a proper climax, but you can't win all I guess.

You know, even though I like JP3 a lot and TLW, it’s actually kinda neat that no two Jurassic movies feel the same. I think you really hit the nail on the head as to why the franchise is so great and yet so divisive at the same time. Great post.


And yes OP I feel JP3 was the last movie to feel classic Jurassic. Some of it is my childhood nostalgia. But I think Joe Johnston still knew enough about how to make the movie visually compelling and work on a basic level to make it intriguing. It’s the last main JP movie to still have tons of practical effects, capture the basic beauty and mystery of being on a island with dinosaurs and it keeps a fan favorite character front and center.

Say what you will about JP3 not really having a plot, I mean you’d be correct. But I think the fact that it’s that entertaining(to me) while having a shit plot is why it’s a really good JP/adventure film. It’s so barebones in plot but does almost everything else so well that I don’t really care.

JP3 is also very much a product of its time and it definitely feels similar to other later 90’s and other early 2000’s films that were really the last of their kind before cinematic universes arrived on scene about 7 years later. It just has a different feel to it than most stuff put out today, because times change.

Robotpo wrote:

JP3 for me was missing so much of what worked about the first two films - namely the science, the technology, the moral questions - that it doesn't feel very JP.  There are things about JP3 that are Jurassic-ish (obviously Grant and Ellie, the abandoned InGen labs/aviary), but overall if feels like more of a cheap imitation.

What particularly feels off to me are most of the new characters - everyone is JP and TLW had a profession that had something to do with Jurassic Park or dinosaurs (scientists, hunters, tech guys, corporate types, and so on). The misadventures of a guy who owned a hardware store, his ex-wife, and a mercenary "booking agent" just felt really...like a disappointing choice IMO. It didn't help that Macy was pretty much playing the same character he did in "Fargo". The only new characters who really felt like they belonged in a Jurassic film were Billy...and I guess Eric, who I didn't like much.

That said, I think JP3 feels more Spielbergian/Amblin than JW...but JW feels more Crichton-esque than JP3, if that makes sense.

Double post for a reason. I love JP3 but I will admit that is a awesome point. The movies characters certainly don’t annoy me but aside from Grant it does feel like one scientist(basically) looking after a bunch of dumb kids on a island. Dr Grant day care lol

It feels more like a JP film than JW or FK, and does certainly feel more connected to the first two films tonally.

That being said, it still feels less like a JP film than TLW, and while tonally feels more "JP-ish" than either of the two JW films, it's complete lack of substance still makes it an easily inferior film to either of the JW films, which, while further removed from the feel of the original film, actually did try to make an effort to expand upon the lore and bring the franchise further into the future. You could remove JP3 from the canon entirely and it would barely affect the overall lore of the JP universe.

TL;DR version: JP3 is all window dressing and no substance. It has the superficial aspects of a JP film, while having none of the depth.

imo

I agree with a lot of things said in this thread. When JP3 came out, it felt different, but not that much. In retrospect you can see that it resembles the first two movies more, and that it was a product of its time, where movies were still allowed to take their time a little bit. I know JP3 has a lot of action, but it still took its time for quiet scenes, and when you take time to explore the islands, then it feels Jurassic to me. Like I said in a different thread, around 1997 I constantly played the computer game Trespasser, which allowed you to explore Sorna in great detail, and I think this really made me fall in love with the islands (aside from the first two movies and the books), and even though I support the new movies, I feel like they don't offer me one of the main things I love about Jurassic Park, namely exploring the wonder of seeing dinosaurs brought back to life on these beautiful islands outside the coast of Costa Rica. I know the franchise has to move on, but it just doesn't feel the same anymore.

JP3 feels more like JP than both JW and JWFK.

But JP3's Isla Sorna looks waaay too different to the one in TLW, so in that sense, no.

TLW is by far the movie that feels the most like it has the same feel of the original. Wich is ironic considering some hate it for being different.

I enjoy JP3 quite a bit despite it's flaws. And yes, I do think it feels very Jurassic. Having Alan Grant as the main character really helped with this. In fact, removing Alan Grant would destroy the film for me. It also feels very Jurassic on a technical level e.g. the music, the aesthetic, the effective mixing of cgi and animatronics. It feels a lot more Jurassic than JW imo.

I find it interesting how a lot of people online these days seem to come to JP3's defences, in the old days (I'm talking more than 10 years ago), I felt virtually alone in doing so. Now that JW and FK are out, I think a lot of people are thinking that "Hey, maybe JP3 wasn't so bad afterall. It had some major flaws but at least it felt like JP".

EDIT: Things I liked about JP3:

-Grant was back
-New non-hybrid dino villain (I'm counting on you JW3)
-Two really good scenes taken from the first novel
-Took its time showing us Isla Sorna (though it looked different than the Isla Sorna we saw in TLW)
-No boring parts, time flies when you watch it (for the record I enjoy the slow parts in JP but not FK)
-A lot of good scenes involving dinosaurs
-Extremely rewatchable due to its more upbeat tone, more rewatchable to me than TLW, though TLW was a better movie
-Raptors were aggressive carnivores, not heroes
-We were given time to breathe, to take in the wonders of watching a Jurassic Park movie

I'd say it feels more like JP than JW (although I found JW to be the better movie)it still does so less than TLW and FK. It's just that the plot, besides Alan and all of the references (which I liked actually) felt more like a generic "escape from dinosaur island" type movie. Not to mention, it just feels disconnected because of how generic it is- you can take it out of the series and it will change nothing.

Besides Alan, the CGI and Stan Winstons wonderful animatronics (the spino, in my opinion, is his best JP work since rexy/JP rex. The raptors were good too) and to some extent the score (I say to some extent because besides the reused themes, the score was pretty darn forgettable in my opinion) were the only things in the movie that screamed JP to me.
The novel like scenes were awesome tho
Still, I don't think the actual JP feel is strong enough to save this movie lol.

Lost wrote:

I find it interesting how a lot of people online these days seem to come to JP3's defences, in the old days (I'm talking more than 10 years ago), I felt virtually alone in doing so. Now that JW and FK are out, I think a lot of people are thinking that "Hey, maybe JP3 wasn't so bad afterall. It had some major flaws but at least it felt like JP".

EDIT: Things I liked about JP3:

-Grant was back
-New non-hybrid dino villain (I'm counting on you JW3)
-Two really good scenes taken from the first novel
-Took its time showing us Isla Sorna (though it looked different than the Isla Sorna we saw in TLW)
-No boring parts, time flies when you watch it (for the record I enjoy the slow parts in JP but not FK)
-A lot of good scenes involving dinosaurs
-Extremely rewatchable due to its more upbeat tone, more rewatchable to me than TLW, though TLW was a better movie
-Raptors were aggressive carnivores, not heroes
-We were given time to breathe, to take in the wonders of watching a Jurassic Park movie

Just for the record I was always shocked when I learned JP3 was HATED. And even more shocked when critics didn’t really like TLW. I have personally always loved the franchise to death. I’m pretty much going with it wherever lol. Too many great memories.

Rewatched all the films recently & JP3 stands out like a sore thumb, it is by far the worst film in the franchise by a long shot, I enjoy parts of it only because Dinosaurs are involved but is so weak in terms of a storyline. The new films crap all over it in terms of storytelling & effort.

& No I don't think it has the JP feel, maybe only for Grant & thats it but even his character feels different compared to his JP counterpart.

It has the JP feel to me.

But it's the weakest plot of the franchise.

^I completely agree. It has the basic aesthetic, but the heart and insides(lol) are, imo, missing.

dance2nite wrote:

No I don't think it has the JP feel

No? What about seeing Sorna with its abandoned InGen buildings and other facilities such as the bridge, aviary etc.? Those things feel more JP to me than most things, but that's maybe because I love the novels and the old computer games so much, I just love absorbing up details like that, and unfortunately these new movies barely give me any time for that at all.

those things were cool, but here's the thing: "Sorna". Did the island suddenly change vegetation between TLW and JP3 or what lol? Just a question, i'm geniunly interested if there's an explanation for such a bizzare and gigantic shift.

Dv-218 wrote:

those things were cool, but here's the thing: "Sorna". Did the island suddenly change vegetation between TLW and JP3 or what lol? Just a question, i'm geniunly interested if there's an explanation for such a bizzare and gigantic shift.

Lol, I see your point. Even when I watched it in the cinema for the first time, I was like "What happened to the jungles we saw in TLW?". There's really no explanation that I know of, no excuse either, it just seems lazy, like a lot of the movie does. Some of it really feels like a movie set rather than a jungle.

Lol I agree. IMO the thing that I liked the most about Isla Nublar and the TLW Sorna is that they felt unique and recognizable in their environments and setting. JP3 Sorna, without the ingen artifacts, just feels like a generic jungle. And I agree that the movie, in general, felt generic and lazy (even the JP THEME lost it's impact..).

I will say one positive thing- the entire river cruise sequence (complete with the boat attack by long spiny boi) was the most JP thing in the movie, and it was really well shot. And only part where the movie didn't feel cheap lol.

Dv-218 wrote:

Lol I agree. IMO the thing that I liked the most about  Isla Nublar and the TLW Sorna is that they felt unique and recognizable in their environments and setting. JP3 Sorna, without the ingen artifacts, just feels like a generic jungle imo.

I will say one positive thing- the entire river cruise sequence (complete with the boat attack by long spiny boi) was the most JP thing in the movie, and it was really well shot.

Yeah absolutely, the spino attack on the boat is actually one of my favorite scenes in the whole franchise, and probably the only scene from JP3 which I thought was really great. It had everything: Suspense and tension, darkness, rain, they were trapped on a boat, a new and ferocious predator was attacking and they had almost no way of defending themselves. It also showed the spinosaurus from its best and most exciting side. It was basically the JP3 equivalent to the t-rex breakout from JP.

Dv-218 wrote:

those things were cool, but here's the thing: "Sorna". Did the island suddenly change vegetation between TLW and JP3 or what lol? Just a question, i'm geniunly interested if there's an explanation for such a bizzare and gigantic shift.

It didn't really change vegetation. In TLW, it's about 50/50 classic jungle and coniferous jungle.

Huh, is that so? Because I rewatched TLW a few weeks ago (before FK) and I only noticed the large, redwood-tempertate jungle. Are there any particular scenes where the classic jungle appears?

Either way, I still thought that the sets looked cheap and generic (aside from a few scenes).

Dv-218 wrote:

Huh, is that so? Because I rewatched TLW a few weeks ago (before FK) and I only noticed the large, redwood-tempertate jungle. Are there any particular scenes where the classic jungle appears?

Either way, I still thought that the sets looked cheap and generic (aside from a few scenes).

Plenty!

Cathy's Beach:


The drive through the valley:


Roland's trap:


The InGen Encampment:


The trek:


The Ridge camp:


The forest outside the Long Grass:


The Worker Village:


In fact, once the survivors move towards the interior of the island, it's almost exclusively classic jungle.

^That's a great post! But then I wonder why it felt so different at times in JP3. Maybe because I, like others, mostly got the impression that the jungle in TLW is not tropical (which is a bit strange anyway, since Nublar and Sorna are neighbouring islands)

You do have to consider that they took place on two separate parts of a large island as well. Think about how your local area changes of the course of 5 miles.

Spiegel wrote:

You do have to consider that they took place on two separate parts of a large island as well. Think about how your local area changes of the course of 5 miles.

Yeah, that's what I've been telling myself over the years when watching it, but is there any real evidence for this? Do we know where on Sorna TLW and JP3 respectively took place? Are there any official maps of the island (from Universal, not fan-made)?

The thing is, TLW made Isla Sorna seem fairly small - they walked from the island rim to the worker's village in the center (? or the interior at least) in a day. The fly-over and rest of the third make Sorna seem huge!