--- title: "Jurassic Park III" year: 2001 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/jurassic-park-iii" fi1m_score: 58 critics_score: 59 critics_reviews: 14 published: "2026-09-19T16:34:56.506074+00:00" updated: "2026-09-19T16:35:31.624743+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Jurassic Park III (2001) Directed by Joe Johnston · 1h 32m · MPA PG-13 · Adventure, Thriller, Science Fiction, Action **Fi1m score: 58** · Critics 59 from 14 reviews *In a sentence:* Everyone lies to Sam Neill to get him back on the island, and by the end we understand why he needed persuading > Joe Johnston’s third *Jurassic Park* film is fast, short and frightening in short bursts, and it has been made from a script with two good ideas and no third act. Worth a wet afternoon with children who can take a fright; not worth much more. ## Synopsis Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) has spent the years since Jurassic Park refusing to talk about it and struggling to fund a Montana dig, where his assistant Billy Brennan (Alessandro Nivola) is building models of raptor skulls. Paul Kirby (William H. Macy) and Amanda Kirby (Téa Leoni) arrive with a chequebook and a request: fly over Isla Sorna, the second dinosaur island, as their guide and the dig is paid for. What they do not tell him is that their son Eric Kirby (Trevor Morgan) went parasailing off the island with a family friend, Ben Hildebrand (Mark Harelik), and has not been seen since. Grant agrees. The plane lands, the Kirbys’ hired men shout into a loudhailer, and something larger than a Tyrannosaurus rex walks out of the trees. ## Review Eight years after Steven Spielberg’s [*Jurassic Park*](https://film.one/film/jurassic-park) (1993) and four after [*The Lost World: Jurassic Park*](https://film.one/film/the-lost-world-jurassic-park) (1997), Joe Johnston takes the director’s chair and the series changes shape. Gone is the awe and the long approach to the first brachiosaur. What is left is a 92-minute rescue picture in which a small party is dropped onto an island and chased off it. That is a respectable thing for a monster film to be, and for an hour *Jurassic Park III* is a good one. Then the script runs out, and the film stops rather than ends. The setup is brisk and the writers, Peter Buchman, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, have one clever notion: Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) does not want to go. He is tired of being asked about the park, and he lets the Kirbys (William H. Macy and Téa Leoni) buy him for a flyover. Neill plays this with a weariness that feels earned and slightly personal, as though the actor and the palaeontologist had both been dragged back against their better judgement. It is the best performance in the film and the only one with any weight. The creatures are the reason to watch. Shelly Johnson shoots the island in a grey-green murk, so that the animals come out of the picture rather than posing in it. The first attack, in a clearing at dusk, with a spinosaurus walking up to the stranded aircraft as if it were a tin it meant to open, had us properly frightened; it is staged with the camera inside the fuselage and the animal outside. A later scene in an abandoned InGen laboratory, Ed Verreaux’s set of dust sheets, broken glass and rows of hatching tanks, puts one raptor in a room full of hiding places and lets us wait. Robert Dalva cuts both sequences tight and lets us follow. The second good idea is that the raptors talk. Grant has spent the years since the park working out that the animals communicated, and the film pays this off by letting them hunt with intent rather than appetite: they call, they wait, they send one round the back. It is the one place where the film adds to the series, and it produces the film’s most unsettling image, a raptor’s head tilting to listen. Everything human is thinner. Macy and Leoni are two capable actors and they have been given a squabbling couple whose every line is either a shout or an apology for shouting. Leoni is written as a woman who screams at the wrong moments and is then told off for it. Alessandro Nivola’s Billy makes one decision that drives the plot and is otherwise a haircut. Michael Jeter’s Udesky, John Diehl’s Cooper and Bruce A. Young’s Nash are the mercenaries, and you can put money on the order they will leave in. Laura Dern turns up as Ellie for two short scenes and a telephone call and is missed the moment she goes. Don Davis’s score leans on John Williams’s original theme, and the borrowing is a confession: the new material is competent and the old material is what we remember. Betsy Cox dresses everyone sensibly and mud does the rest. None of the craft is bad. It is the shape that fails. Around the seventy-minute mark the film has spent its monsters, its laboratory and its one idea, and the last quarter of an hour is people running towards the sea while the film looks around for a climax it has not built. We will not describe how it resolves, but we were startled when the credits came up, and not in a good way. This has the opposite fault to its predecessor. *The Lost World* was long and had too much in it; this is short and has too little. Johnston made *The Rocketeer* (1991) and *Jumanji* (1995), and he knows how to keep a family film moving, but moving is all this one does. It carries a PG, runs 92 minutes, and is a fair bet for a rainy afternoon with children who enjoy being scared and have not yet started asking why. *Fi1m score 58, published 19 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics lean mildly positive, though few claim much for it. The praise clusters on brevity and pace: a lean 90-minute runtime, a headlong rush to the dinosaurs, and a B-picture modesty that several reviews prefer to the bloat of The Lost World. The effects and creatures, the Spinosaurus and the raptor sequences in particular, are admired even by critics who dislike the film, and Johnston’s no-frills direction is credited with keeping it moving. The reservations cluster on script and scale. Several reviews find the story thin and rushed into production, a generic rescue plot with none of the original’s wonder, and note that it skews young and plays closer to horror than adventure. The spread is wide: the Evening Standard rates it far above both forerunners, while The Guardian and Variety consider the series exhausted. Later reappraisals from Collider and Polygon are kinder, treating it as a guilty pleasure or an accidental parody. ### Reviews we read (14) - **Evening Standard** (90/100, inferred): The critic calls it hugely imaginative and far better than its two forerunners, praising its concentrated shocks and intent to frighten, while noting it is very frightening for children under 15. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/jurassics-fauna-of-nightmares-7433200.html) - **The AV Club**, Keith Phipps (70/100, inferred): The film is a more acceptable unnecessary sequel than most, with strong effects and monsters that steal the show despite a pared-down plot aimed at kids. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/jurassic-park-iii-1798192699) - **The New Yorker**, Anthony Lane (70/100, inferred): The review highlights the film's lean 90-minute length and headlong momentum as a welcome improvement over the bloated earlier entries. It singles out the director's ruthlessness and the screenplay's focus on pure action and danger for praise. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/07/23/claws) - **The New York Times**, Elvis Mitchell (70/100, inferred): The critic finds the film more fun and streamlined than its predecessors, with a speedy, no-frills approach that focuses on raptor encounters and survival thrills. It is praised for its brisk pacing and effective use of the dinosaur premise in a shorter runtime. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/18/movies/film-review-it-s-risky-crashing-a-raptor-convention.html) - **Total Film** (70/100, inferred): The critic praises it as the sequel Spielberg should have made, a fun, lean B-pic that gets to the dinosaurs quickly with solid characters and humour, though it lacks a showstopping climax. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/jurassic-park-iii-review/) - **Time Out**, WH (65/100, inferred): The film offers little new but remains stirring family entertainment, trading Spielberg's wonder for violent action and sound effects. It has the fun feel of a 1950s B-movie with strong animatronics and well-handled child characters. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/jurassic-park-iii) - **Empire**, Angie Errigo (50/100, inferred): The critic finds it short, scrappy and intermittently scary, skewing young as a thrill ride that is more fun than The Lost World but lacks the scale, chills and wonder of the original. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/jurassic-park-3-review/) - **Screen Daily** (40/100, inferred): The weakest entry in the trilogy, with a weak story rushed into production, though special effects and creatures are strong and more sophisticated. It feels more like a horror movie than a sci-fi adventure and will not have the legs of its predecessors. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/jurassic-park-iii/406325.article) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (**): The critic argues it is time to end the Jurassic Park series, as the film shambles towards extinction despite some capable actors. The FX creatures remain impressive, but over-familiarity breeds indifference. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2001/jul/20/artsfeatures5) - **Variety** (30/100, inferred): The critic views the film as a stripped-down, effects-driven chase that lacks strong scripting and character development compared to prior installments. Effects work and action sequences receive positive mention amid overall disappointment with the franchise's creative decline. [Read](https://variety.com/2001/film/reviews/jurassic-park-iii-2-1200469085/) - **Collider**, Sean Naughton (70/100, inferred): The film succeeds as a campy B-movie guilty pleasure by embracing its modest scope and dinosaur action thrills rather than trying to match the original's awe. Johnston's no-frills direction and the short runtime keep it focused and entertaining. [Read](https://collider.com/jurassic-park-3-underrated-why-its-good/) - **Digital Spy**, Justin Harp (70/100, inferred): The critic finds Jurassic Park III much better than The Lost World and a fresh, exciting, enjoyable blockbuster that largely succeeds on its own terms as a self-contained dinosaur adventure in the wild. They single out the impressive new dinosaurs (especially the Spinosaurus and clever raptor sequences), Sam Neill's world-weary performance as Alan Grant, and the film's balance of terror, laughs, and awe at the creatures for praise, while noting weaknesses in the female lead character and some supporting performances. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a651760/in-defence-of-jurassic-park-iii-fresh-exciting-and-a-whole-lot-of-fun/) - **Polygon**, Susana Polo (60/100, inferred): The film plays like an unintentional parody of Jurassic Park's formula, with a rudderless production and absurd set pieces that make it strangely entertaining. Its prophetic take on modern franchises adds retrospective interest despite the silliness. [Read](https://www.polygon.com/what-to-watch/555307/jurassic-park-iii-ridiculous-movie-watch-streaming/) - **Paste**, Jim Vorel (40/100, inferred): A chaotic, rushed production resulted in a derivative black sheep entry that rehashes highlights without inspiration or a completed script. Its brief runtime and generic rescue plot highlight the franchise's post-Spielberg decline. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/jurassic-park/jurassic-park-3-problems-review-script-jurassic-world-dominion) ## Details - **Director:** Joe Johnston - **Director:** Joe Johnston - **Writer:** Peter Buchman, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor - **Cinematography:** Shelly Johnson - **Editor:** Robert Dalva - **Music:** Don Davis - **Production design:** Ed Verreaux - **Costume design:** Betsy Cox - **Producer:** Larry J. Franco, Kathleen Kennedy - **Cast:** Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant; William H. Macy as Paul Kirby; Téa Leoni as Amanda Kirby; Alessandro Nivola as Billy Brennan; Trevor Morgan as Eric Kirby; Michael Jeter as Udesky; John Diehl as Cooper; Bruce A. Young as Nash - **Runtime:** 1h 32m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG-13 - **Release (the US):** 18 July 2001 - **Genres:** Adventure, Thriller, Science Fiction, Action - **Budget:** $93 million - **Box office:** $369 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBRWNdXpG1g ## Where to watch in the US - Hulu: streaming, uhd, leaving 2026-10-01 - Disney+: streaming, hd - AMC+: streaming - Apple TV: add-on, hd - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd, leaving 2026-09-22 - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $14.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-19.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, AZ, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, SK, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Jurassic Park* (1993), Fi1m 91: The original, patient and frightening, with the wonder this one leaves out. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/jurassic-park.md) - *Tremors* (1990), Fi1m 82: A small-town monster film that knows exactly how long a joke and a scare should last. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/tremors.md) - *Godzilla* (1954), Fi1m 88: The great creature film, grave and grieving, from a country with reasons to be. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/godzilla.md) - *The Land That Time Forgot* (1974): British dinosaurs on a budget, and rather charming for it. - *Rogue* (2007): An Australian crocodile film that keeps its tourists stranded and its nerve. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/jurassic-park-iii