Starring: Sam Neill, Trevor Morgan, Michael Jeter, Tea Leoni, William H. Macy
Directed by: Joe Johnston

If you're as surprised as I am that a THIRD Jurassic Park movie has been released (especially after the abominably wretched Lost World), you'll be glad to know that Jurassic Park III delivers what it promises - thrilling action.

In Jurassic Park III, Sam Neill reprises the role Dr. Alan Grant, a paleontologist who desperately needs funds for his dinosaur research. Paul and Amanda Kirby, played by William H. Macy and Tea Leoni respectively, agree to pay Dr. Grant uber amounts of money if he'll take them as a guide for their vacation to Isla Sorna. This is of course the famed and now-abandoned island where the dinosaurs roam. However, the plane that takes them there crash lands (gasp!) and Dr. Grant finds out that the Kirbys are really looking for their missing son Eric (played by Trevor Morgan). They have to find him and get off the island.

Let's not kid ourselves here. No one expects a deep plot with mind-vexing twists. However, Jurassic Park III offers some thrilling action scenes that are confected from the following formula: people see dinos, people run from dinos, people catch their breath. For the most part, this seems to work. Some of the action scenes really present a sense of danger, and as I'm sure DroopyMcC would agree with me, dinosaurs killing and destroying stuff is pretty damn cool.

The computer-rendered dinosaurs obviously look great. The dinosaurs' movements are convincing, as well as their size and ferocity. I was a bit disappointed with the choice of dinosaurs though. A spinosaurus and pterodactyl? Meh... personally, I could have appreciated an allosaurus or two.

Unfortunately, Jurassic Park III got a bit greedy with some of the ideas they put into it. One theory states that raptors learned to communicate and vocalize with each other, forming a very dominate species in the age of the dinosaurs. Even though this is silly in my opinion, the idea is used passively, and has almost no bearing on the development of the movie. In other words, they could have, and maybe should have, left it out completely.

And what can be said of the ending? I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, the movie ends too abruptly, with very little climax. Try not to blink or you'll miss it. On the other hand, part of the feeling comes from having watched several great scenes of high-tempo action; the tension just isn't there at the end.

If you're looking for a thought-provoking movie about dinosaurs, you're not going to find it here. However, if you're looking for a mindless, action-packed adventure from beginning to end, Jurassic Park III is what you've been searching for.