The Look of Jurassic Park III

I know why Jurassic Park III is so different than the other films. Besides the fact that it's shorter and faster paced, it's the sense of compactness and semi-stage-like settings. In the three other films, you really get the feeling that you're out in the open with fields of land and mountains. In the third film, even though much of it takes place outside, it just seems far more compact and obvious when it's on a stage or greenscreen. For example, when Eric looks down at the drop from the nest of the baby pteranodons, not for one second do I believe he's that high up. In addition, I don't really buy the shot of the river.

To be fair, I understand some can argue that the green screen used during the trailer scene in TLW was bad, but it didn't take away from the sense of realism that they were outside. Here...it just seemed like a cheaper production.

I'd never thought about this but I do agree entirely. It also looses it's dark vibe in my mind. There isn't as much foreboding atmosphere as the first two films. Even Jurassic World doesn't have it really.

For all the stuff I tear JP/// up about, including the look of the jungle, I have to admit that the footage shot on location in Kauai is actually really good. Not as good as JP or TLW, but still not bad stuff. It's just that the stuff shot in studio (except the Aviary, the Aviary was amazing) which there was plenty of, really really sucks. You can tell it's cheap, plasticy jungle. Unlike TLW, which utilized some of the best jungle sets I've ever seen. The JP/// stuff was clearly subpar.

InGenUity wrote:

To be fair, I understand some can argue that the green screen used during the trailer scene in TLW was bad, but it didn't take away from the sense of realism that they were outside. Here...it just seemed like a cheaper production.

Actually, TLW didn't use any green screen. The entire trailer sequence was done on a giant raised set and a dressed up parking garage. The only time CGI was used in that scene was the wide shot we got of the trailer going off the cliff, of the trailer sliding down the cliff (plys explosion), and of the T. rex a few times. There was no physical green screen usage in TLW period. The CGI was all manually placed into the movie the old fashioned way: creating a 3D model and inserting it into the movie. The rest of the Trailer attack scene was practical effects, utilizing a mix of sound stage, matte painting, and good old fashioned movie magic and optical illusions:

I think stage 12 (I think the jungle set was in 12) was good for a fake jungle.

I always thought JP3's look is one of the things Johnston really nailed. Never felt the green-screen, with the exception of the very first scene.

The jungle sets were nice themselves (look at some of the production screens of them) it's the weird lighting used in the movie that emphasizes their fakeness.

As much as I hate JP3, it felt and looked MUCH more like a JP film than JW and JWFK.

I personally think that JP3 looks fine on its own, but when compared to The Lost World... I have an issue with how it feels like a completely different island than the Site B we were already introduced to, which throws the continuity of these films a bit off for me. With JW and FK, it at least feels more like we are on the same island as the first film and I wish JP3 had put more effort into looking like a sequel to The Lost World. Though I think the effects of JP3 are fine, I have certainly seen worse from dinosaur movies.

I guess Jurassic Park 3 was the start of the "Hey, as long as we have any dinosaur chasing around people we are good to go" line of thinking that has been present in the franchise since Spielberg left the director chair.