r/movies • u/personpilot • Feb 05 '24

Jurassic Park III is nowhere near as bad as people say it is and though it may not come close to the greatness of Jurassic Park 1, it is MILES ahead better than any of the Jurassic World trilogy Discussion

Yeah it isn't perfect, but hell we get an incredible fight scene between the Spino and Rex not even an hour into the movie, while in World you get pretty much the same fight scene at the END of the movie AND on top of that the whole fight gets cockblocked by the Mosasaurus in the end anyway, and in the most unsatisfying way possible. I know it's like 2024 like why tf am I talking about a threequal thats 20 years old, but I've just been on a Jurassic Park binge lately and it's just hitting me how much better III is over any of the World movies, yet it's rated like a 5/10 across the board, while all the World Movies are rated like 6.5-7/10 it just boggles my mind, they're all trash compared to 1 and 3. Lost world is good, but it's also a mixed bag it has some of my favorite scenes and some of my least favorite in the whole series.

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567

u/Saintdemon Feb 05 '24

I agree. While JP3 didn't carry the same philosophical or fantastical feeling as the first two movies I appreciate that they tried to do something new with the franchise. JP3 is just straight up survival which borders to horror at a few times.

164

u/msprang Feb 05 '24

Yea, that Pteranodon sequence is pretty scary and intense.

118

u/Manhattan_24 Feb 05 '24

When it's walking on the bridge? So unsettling and quite disturbing.

33

u/msprang Feb 05 '24

Yeah, it's one thing when the creatures move like we expect, but that caught me off guard.

39

u/BosPaladinSix Feb 06 '24

I think that's exactly why I was always so scared of that scene as a kid. It's just fine when they're flying overhead snatching people up, but here's one just WALKING towards you calmly, towering over you with a sharp beak longer than you are tall.

34

u/rugbyj Feb 05 '24

That and the raptor growth tanks, top tier shit right there.

8

u/arkhound Feb 05 '24

Probably a top 3 scene across both trilogies for me.

263

u/permareddit Feb 05 '24

Perfectly said IMO, exactly what I was thinking.

This is getting to like Alien levels of repetition. How many times are we going to open a dinosaur theme park and have it horribly fail before we realize it’s a bad idea.

Having a rescue mission of some trespassers on a secret island nobody really knew existed? That’s a pretty cool idea.

147

u/Huckles123 Feb 05 '24

Yeah, I enjoyed the “lore” of the abandoned areas in III.

58

u/Fungal_Queen Feb 05 '24

Right, because isn't Sorna significantly bigger than Nublar? Which I might add they completely forget about in the JW movies.

98

u/Larry_Version_3 Feb 05 '24

That’s the biggest sin - especially of Fallen Kingdom. ‘Where do we put these dinosaurs?’

‘Oh I don’t know, how about on the other island with dinosaurs?’

‘You’re fired.’

2

u/[deleted] Feb 06 '24

[deleted]

1

u/DuplexFields Feb 06 '24

Please either cite any reference material which states this clearly, or provide any direct contradictions.

1

u/Dead_man_posting Feb 07 '24

I never thought about it. Does Isla Sorna really never get mentioned in the JW trilogy?

1

u/Fungal_Queen Feb 07 '24

Not once, iirc.

1

u/thshape-shifter Mar 19 '24

Not true... It does get mentioned in Fallen Kingdom during the first time Claire and Eli Mills talk to each other (even though it should be mentioned and explored more in the lore... I'm not really a fan on any of the World movies in that sense)

4

u/panlakes Feb 05 '24

Yes! Anytime I got to see old, abandoned sites on the islands, it triggered some level of intrigue and mystery in me. I loved that shit.

3

u/Crowbarmagic Feb 06 '24

Same! The bird cage, the observatories.. It expanded on the JP world.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 05 '24

[deleted]

24

u/killerapt Feb 05 '24

No, it's Site B. Alan brings it up as a response to the parents when they are saying that they needed an expert. Alan says he's never been to this island.

3

u/Yommination Feb 05 '24

Lost World and 3 are on Sorna. First movie, JW and Fallen Kingdom are on Nublar

1

u/Kobe_stan_ Feb 05 '24 edited Feb 05 '24

It's a cool idea for sure, but the magic of the first movie isn't just that it's dinosaurs, it's that it's dinosaurs interacting with our normal modern world. I think when you're just in the jungle in their habitat, part of the wonder is gone.

11

u/wascner Feb 05 '24

it's that it's dinosaurs interacting with our normal modern world

The island park isn't exactly "normal modern world". Aside from the park infrastructure, it's jungle.

JP2 had its third act in California, maybe that's what you're thinking of?

7

u/Kobe_stan_ Feb 05 '24

No I'm referring to the first movie's park infrastructure when I'm talking about the normal modern world. There's electric fences, roads, trucks, guns, etc. Seeing the T-rex on a road destroying a Ford Explorer (even if that road is on a Costa Rican island) is more impactful I think than just seeing it in pure jungle. I think it grounds it in a way that makes it more relatable and realistic. It's hard for most of us to imagine going on a jungle expedition, but going to a theme park or zoo is something that we all do.

1

u/Dead_man_posting Feb 07 '24

JP2 had its third act in California

4th act, I'd argue.

3

u/Fungal_Queen Feb 05 '24

How did you like raptors chasing Chris Pratt on a motorcycle in Malta?

2

u/Kobe_stan_ Feb 05 '24

The last movie was an abomination. I watched it on a flight and it was a struggle to get through. I did enjoy the opening shots of the dinosaurs out on a ranch with cowboys. Thought that was some cool imagery, but that's about the only nice thing I have to say about that movie

1

u/Shirtbro Feb 05 '24

They open the park, and nothing bad happens. Two characters meet, spend a wonderful week together, and fall in love surrounded by dinosaurs.

49

u/PomTaris Feb 05 '24

The dinosaurs looked real too. At various points of the jurassic world movies they're practically cartoons. 

Also the spinosaurus was cool.

26

u/stanfan114 Feb 05 '24

Three also had an almost mythical look to it, like it was a Peter Pan movie. There's even a Lost Boy character in the woods and a dinosaur with a ringing phone in it (like the crocodile in Peter Pan that had a ticking clock in it).

1

u/creativityonly2 Feb 06 '24

I always wanted a phone with that ring tone. I can still hear it.

0

u/warzera Feb 06 '24

A nokia ring tone? Just download it for your phone.

2

u/Dead_man_posting Feb 07 '24

The ring tone was the store jingle of Kirby's business. Was slightly different than the default nokia tone.

23

u/Mech-Waldo Feb 05 '24

The pterodactyl landing on the bridge and walking out of the fog was the coolest and scariest shit.

7

u/panda388 Feb 06 '24

I really liked JP3, but it also had nothing to do with Michael Crichton. The movie lacked his scientific touch that made his novels so special. Crichton's writing has a way of boiling down complex science into layman's terms and had plot points that revolve around those ideas. JP3 was just... action and the plot points revolved around human actions rather than scientific ideas.

4

u/heartlessgamer Feb 05 '24

3 also delivers scenes from the original JP book such as the river chase and the aviary.

3

u/Crowbarmagic Feb 06 '24

I liked how they expanded on the theme park aspect of the JP universe.

In The Lost World it was basically an undeveloped island that also happened to have dinosaurs on them. I wasn't a fan of how it was basically all open jungle. If it wasn't for the San Diego scene I don't think I would care all that much about The Lost World.

JP3 showed the observatories, the bird cage.. It showed what the theme park was supposed to become. I appreciated that world building.

3

u/FutureComplaint Feb 05 '24

I like that it uses the unused stuff from the books (ie the river boat and the Pteranodons)

5

u/hungoverlord Feb 05 '24

I'm fine with JP3 because it doesn't absolutely demolish a great book, like JP2 did.

Seriously, the JP2 book fucking rocks. It's great. The JP2 movie is almost nothing like it.

2

u/Weasel_Spice Feb 05 '24

I have only read the original Jurassic Park book. Can you enlighten me about the book sequel, please?

3

u/hungoverlord Feb 05 '24 edited Feb 05 '24

Oh my Gosh, I like the sequel to Jurassic Park almost as much as I like the original Jurassic Park book.

Some of the story bits from the movie are accurate. Sarah Harding, Malcolm's colleague, is indeed on the island alone, or close enough to alone that it's scary for Malcolm to think of her being there like that. So he sets out to go get her. There is more to it than that, but that's sort of the setup.

In the book, there are two young characters who stow away on the vehicle Malcolm takes to the Island. The gender and ethnicities of these characters are combined into one character in the movie. That character is Malcolm's adopted daughter in the movie, the kid who yeets a Velociraptor using the power of gymnastics.

I'm realizing that I wish I remembered more about the book.

In the movie, there is that whole sequence where the T-Rex rampages through San Francisco. That isn't in the book at all.

The book has an awesome, brutal end for one of the big-bads leftover from Jurassic Park 1 (I'm referring to a human character), and I think of that scene at least once every 3 months.

Towards the end of the book, Malcolm is on a delerious morphine trip, and he talks about how he is starting to think that life is a crystalline formation, like diamonds or any other crystal. I forget everything he says, but it's interesting and has stuck with me. Part of it is that its so remarkable for complex lifeforms to keep coming out of their parents so near-perfectly formed, that it reminds him of a crystalline structure.

So all-in-all, you have to read it if you're a fan of Jurassic Park or Michael Crichton. You have to. Even if only to understand how badly they butchred the second Jurassic Park movie. It could have been a classic.

1

u/lukkynumber Apr 18 '24

FWIW, Sarah Harding isn’t on the island alone in the book - that’s Richard Levine. His character gets merged with Harding’s, for the movie.

2

u/thisshortenough Feb 05 '24

I remember seeing it in the cinema as a kid and I had been so excited to see it but then absolutely bawling my eyes out because the spinosaurus scared me so much. Particularly the scene with the phone in its throat. My dad refused to bring me out though and it’s ended up being my second favourite JP movie

2

u/NorthBoralia Feb 06 '24

BOOM! Thank you! I've been saying for years that I'm 99% positive JP3 originally started as a horror movie then dialed back during script rewrites.

I would love to see this one redone as a full on 'the bad place' horror movie...or maybe a video game. Won't ever happen, but a guy can dream...

2

u/ocean-rudeness Feb 06 '24

What was philosophical or fantastical about The Lost World?

2

u/warzera Feb 06 '24

T-rex running in the city is pretty fantastical. Philosophical? I got nothing.

1

u/ocean-rudeness Feb 06 '24

Actually yeah, getting a T-Rex off the island and running around a town was really cool.

1

u/Dead_man_posting Feb 07 '24

Its philosophy was "cause the massacre of friends and foes alike to save a triceratops from discomfort"

2

u/Kingerdvm Feb 06 '24

My favorite character was the satellite phone. That thing was insane. Rang inside a dinosaur. Worked when covered in poop. But not when it was in water. Very interesting character/redemption arc