What JP3 needed to be great...

[Bombillazo]

I've got my own ideas, but Im interested in what other JP fans think the third entry needed to be at the level of JP and (for some myself included) TLW.

[Irishmile]

for one it needed to be longer... other than that... I dunno ... a novel by Crichton and be directed by Spielberg?

But I actually really like JP3.. its my least favorite.. but I liked it.

[FPug]

It was just OOOOOOkay. I wish Crichton would have written a book to base the movie off of.

[Irishmile]

I think many people were not willing to give it a chance because of the lack of Crichton and or Speilberg... and like many things once people have made up their mind they are not willing to change it... and its become "cool" to rip on it.

[waroftheworlds01]

Let me start by saying I enjoyed JP3. I don't consider it a bad film. It was very enjoyable and a lot of fun to watch and I still watch it today.

However,

It should have been much longer. The movie was very short but at the same time it wasn't exactly plot heavy. You have two novels full of materal they could have pulled from but instead they go with a "Kid lost on island after parasailing" idea? I still don't understand it.

Here's what they could have done. They could have followed The Lost World novel more closely. Have it so that Levin goes to the island to study the dinosaurs (because, like Billy, He's a man who likes to see and touch and not deal with bones). Of course, things go wrong and he gets stranded. He uses his satalite phone to call for help but the U.S. Embassy won't do a damn thing. So instead he calls Dr. Grant (trying to stick close to what they did in JP3). Grant wants to get a team together to rescue Levin but he lacks funds to do so. But... he is approached by a very shady character by the name of Dodgson who agrees to fund the rescue team. With Grant's team and Dodgson's team ready, they head off to Isla Sorna.

From here, You can go in many directions. Perhaps Dodgson does to Grant's people like he does to Sarah in the novel and throws them over board but they are able to swim to the island anyway. Or maybe they try to keep the sharade going untill finally they realize that Dodgson is there for dinosaurs eggs. The possiblities are endless... and far better than what happend in the third film.

But again, I did like the thrid movie. But you can't deny that, Just like the second one, potential was missed.

[FPug]

The only reason there was a Lost World was because of Spielberg, Crichton didn't like writing sequels.

[Trenchfoot]

I think the movie is OK, but it could be a lot better if you changed a couple of things...

- First of all, move the Rex vs. Spino fight to later in the movie (I would suggest the end of it but depends on each one), make it longer as it lasts for hardly 30 seconds and leave the result open-ended, as the humans escape.
I would have had the Rex be the main antagonist for the first act of the film and then let the Spino dominate the picture.

- Second, make the mercenaries last for longer or at least let them die in a more badass way. Remember the gun they used to explode that plane... Why they never used that? Sure, it was more useful for steady targets, but still... I would have tried instead of running away from a best that with one step can catch up with me extremly easy.
Cooper dies crying, Nash dies screaming and whining and Udesky just stops and screams. They should have kept the deleted scene where he fights the raptors with a stick. It would have added a lot more to probably the best new character of the film.

- Third, keep Billy dead. He redeemed himself by sacrificing his life to save the others. If he shows up at the end it kinda ruins all that.

- Fourth, tone down the family story. The fishing story comes to mind, for example. It tries to be a character development moment, but it just doesn't work as we don't really care for the Kirbys. Maybe except for Paul, they're not likeable, at least in my opinion.

- And fifth, I would have tried to fully use those dinosaurs that are just there. For example, instead of having the Spino appear in every freakin' scene and make it look like a stalker, why not take advantage of the Ceratosaurus? Sadly it only has one scene and its a pretty pointless one. Worst of all, the line "I can't help but feel offended" was actually funny and got cut. Why? No clue.
And what about the herbivores? They can be dangerous too. Imagine a scene where the Raptors fight the Ankylosaurus. Would have been great...

Sorry if I sound kinda nasty, but that's how I feel. Johnston is a director with a lot of potential, but they should have tried for a more interesting story instead of the rushed stuff they thought of.

Also, I think that TLW should have had the original planned ending with the Pterodactyls and save the "Dinos in the city" stuff for the third movie...

[waroftheworlds01]

Originally Posted by Trenchfoot

- First of all, move the Rex vs. Spino fight to later in the movie (I would suggest the end of it but depends on each one), make it longer as it lasts for hardly 30 seconds and leave the result open-ended, as the humans escape.
I would have had the Rex be the main antagonist for the first act of the film and then let the Spino dominate the picture.

I like this. It may seem silly to bring this movie up as an example. But... Have you seen Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs? They had the T-Rex in there but they also had a bigger dinosaur in there as well. I can't remeber what they called it (I only saw it once) but they kept it hidden and didn't reveal it untill the very end. They would only give hints at what it was.

They could have did this with the spinosaurus. Have the T-Rex the main baddy but keep showing bits of the Spino and then at the end it show up all like "REEEAAAHHHHHH!" and all that. lol Kind of like in Dino Crisis 2 when that huge T-Rex looking thing (I think it was called Gigantosaurus) shows up at the last minunte and totally destroys the T-Rex. That was awesome.

[Bombillazo]

Originally Posted by Trenchfoot

I think the movie is OK, but it could be a lot better if you changed a couple of things...

- First of all, move the Rex vs. Spino fight to later in the movie (I would suggest the end of it but depends on each one), make it longer as it lasts for hardly 30 seconds and leave the result open-ended, as the humans escape.
I would have had the Rex be the main antagonist for the first act of the film and then let the Spino dominate the picture.

- Second, make the mercenaries last for longer or at least let them die in a more badass way. Remember the gun they used to explode that plane... Why they never used that? Sure, it was more useful for steady targets, but still... I would have tried instead of running away from a best that with one step can catch up with me extremly easy.
Cooper dies crying, Nash dies screaming and whining and Udesky just stops and screams. They should have kept the deleted scene where he fights the raptors with a stick. It would have added a lot more to probably the best new character of the film.

- Third, keep Billy dead. He redeemed himself by sacrificing his life to save the others. If he shows up at the end it kinda ruins all that.

- Fourth, tone down the family story. The fishing story comes to mind, for example. It tries to be a character development moment, but it just doesn't work as we don't really care for the Kirbys. Maybe except for Paul, they're not likeable, at least in my opinion.

- And fifth, I would have tried to fully use those dinosaurs that are just there. For example, instead of having the Spino appear in every freakin' scene and make it look like a stalker, why not take advantage of the Ceratosaurus? Sadly it only has one scene and its a pretty pointless one. Worst of all, the line "I can't help but feel offended" was actually funny and got cut. Why? No clue.
And what about the herbivores? They can be dangerous too. Imagine a scene where the Raptors fight the Ankylosaurus. Would have been great...

Sorry if I sound kinda nasty, but that's how I feel. Johnston is a director with a lot of potential, but they should have tried for a more interesting story instead of the rushed stuff they thought of.

Also, I think that TLW should have had the original planned ending with the Pterodactyls and save the "Dinos in the city" stuff for the third movie...

I agree with most of these point, specially 1 and 2. Really... I mean, I do like JP3, its still JP, but it fell way below my expectations. And I didnt even have them that high cause im open to new ideas, that actually drive the overall plot of the series.

To me, the whole rescue mission was already done in part on TLW, so why another one? I liked the idea someone mentioned, though, if it were to rescue a person who Grant really cared about and was worth really going again to a dino filled island. And have Biosyn get involved at some point. When I saw the trailer, I was really excited for this movie, they were going a new direction and innovating, which is good, but they ended up destroying much of JP along the way (IMO) for the sake of being different...

[Alpharaptor]

I agree with a lot of what Trenchfoot said. I thought the third movie was alright but didn't really have that Jurassic Park feel to it. I felt that it was kind of rushed and the story was pretty cheesy to me. I feel like they were pressured in making another Jurassic Park movie at the four year interval (JP-1993, TLW-1997, JP3-2001). I thought if they did make a fourth movie, it would have for sure debuted in 2005. I like what waroftheworlds01 said about the Spino being elusive and showing up last minute. That would have been pretty cool. I also agree with what Irishsmile said about Crichton and Spielberg. Crichton makes amazing stories and Spielberg depicts them really well.

[Irishmile]

I think another major turn off was as mentioned replacing the T-rex as the big badass with the Spinosaurus. Its like if they made a jaws movie and had the shark owned by a squid.. It takes away some of the fear away from the rex... seems counter productive when they spent two movies building the Rex up to be the top dog.

I really liked the Spinosaurus I would just have liked the T-rex to have been more of the focus instead.

[robotpo]

Originally Posted by Bombillazo

I've got my own ideas, but Im interested in what other JP fans think the third entry needed to be at the level of JP and (for some myself included) TLW.

How about a story? The third movie should have had dinosaurs running around the jungles of Costa Rica and infringing on rural settlements, such as small villages and farms, which Crichton established in the original novel.

The thing should have featured Grant, Malcolm, Levine, Thorne, Arby Benton, Dodgson, Basleton, King, Marty Guittierez, and a cameo by Hammond, plus involvement with BioSyn Corporation and the Costa Rican government.

New characters could include a female lead who is closer to the fiery, capable and heroic Sarah Harding from TLW novel, (played by Catherine Zeta-Jones perhaps?), a US Military Officer who is on the BioSyn payroll and attempting to cover-up the dinosaur infringement in Costa Rica, (Sean Bean?), and an older scientist who is Arby's father, (Keith David)?

Keep the Spino and the Pteranodons and throw in the color-changing Carnotaurs, the Raptor attack on a high location and the subsequent jeep chase through the Raptor nest/motorcycle chase through the Apatosaur heard, a bit of T-Rex action for good measure, DX Disease transferring from Dinosaurs to people to introduce a "medical thriller" aspect, and some more science and cool hardware as in the first two films, (such as Malcolm and Levine's debates on adaptation and biology as animals invade a new environment, more Chaos stuff with Gambler's Ruin, a version of Malcolm and Hammond's conversation from the original novel about dinosaurs taking over the world or the absurdity of that very notion, and some vehicles and equipment used to track/capture/defend against the infringing dinosaurs.

There's your movie. Unfortunately, I don't think that Joe Johnston or any of the "writers" who worked on JP3 ever read either of the books...probably because they can't read!

[starpooled]

The third movie was definetely the worst out of the three. First off, they made it into more of a family themed movie which killed it. The kid was a terrible actor. Second, the dinosaurs seemed too intelligent especially the raptors. They seemed to be trying to be more scientifically accurate instead of making the movie more shocking. That's why the first movie was so great. The dinos didn't have feathers. The were cold fast intelligent and reptilian. Also, spielberg left alsot to the imagination which johnson didn't do with cheesy death scenes. U hear muldoon, u hear nedry, but ir imagination does the rest. Also, spielberg is heavy on playing with letting your imagination do the work. U hear about the jungle river ride, but never see it. U hear about the raptors testing the fences and able to run at cheetah speed, but never see it. Sorry for the rant, but my point is that spielberg showed just enough, not too much and it was awesome. Sorry, writing this from a phone, so if it doesn't make sense ill correct it later.

[evolution_rex]

To me, the whole point of Jurassic Park 3 was to use the parts from the novels that were never used in the movies, especially The Lost World. But, they failed. They should used more parts of the novels, and got rid of Spinosaurus. They should of had Carnotaurus becuase it wasn't in TLW. it would have been very disappointing for a hard-core JP fan to have rid the books first and then watch TLW, and then hoping that JP3 would make up for it. It had a lot of potential and could have gone well, but they chose the wrong plot idea.

There are things I like about the movie. the Pterosaurs were a great addition. I personally love the raptors in JP3, despite the fact that they look nothing like the ones from the other films. I also liked that they introduced Grant again. But that's all I really liked.

All in all, the film was okay. It wasn't bad at all, but it had high expectations and a lot of potential. That's what made it so bad for me.

[leon101]

Originally Posted by Irishmile

for one it needed to be longer... other than that... I dunno ... a novel by Crichton and be directed by Spielberg?

But I actually really like JP3.. its my least favorite.. but I liked it.

Yeah, the first movie was 127 mins the second movie was 129 mins and the third was only 92. So it is shorter, but not by that much.

[Irishmile]

Oh another thing that kind of bugged me about JP3 is that they split up Alan and Ellie.... Why did they have to go and do that? They could have easily have written it so she just wanted to stay home... Its not like she wasn't in the film because she was.

[Icedhope]

This is what I would have done to make JP3 Better.

* Leave the Rex fight opened ended, have the surviors of the crash run off and Just hear both animals roar.

*Have the mercs last longer, and kept a few of them around.

* Focus more on what Ingen cut off the Cloning list.

* Have the raptors, play a minimal role...the egg stealing is kind of a cliche point...in the JP universe.

*Curb, the spino's hunger..and stalkerish quality.

[FPug]

I think they went a little too far with the whole "Raptors are intelligent" thing, to a point where it seemed UNbelievable. They kind of threw the whole idea out the window when Grant was able to trick the whole pack....RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM!

I agree that they should have used parts from the book that weren't used. I also wish they wouldn't have just killed off all the characters in the beginning so THEY could develop too. The movie wasn't bad...it just wasn't good.

[anashastar]

So Over the years I've seen that a lot of people don't like JP3 and I feel like I don't understand why really.

I'm one of those people who gets super angry about movie adaptations when they make drastic changes. But with JP I've come to see both the book and the movie as two amazing works in their own right even though in retrospect they are drastically different, which would typically anger me. And I know a lot of people tend to knit pick the movie due to book canon.

So that's why if anything shouldn't more people like JP3? The plot elements were actually pretty novel canon. I'd like to hear opinions :] How do you fans feel about JP3?

And also if telltale were to make seasons of all 3 movies, would you want to see JP3 done also?

[jpsandhu]

I loved Jurassic Park 3!!!!

And I would LOVE to see Telltale do a season for that movie!!!!