JP III Musings

["Steve Brusatte" <dinoland@lycos.com>]

Hey,
Like many listmembers, I did get a chance to see JP III yesterday.  Actually, I 
tried to see it once, but the sound went out about halfway through, so my money 
was reimburced and I came back later.  So, I got to see 1.5 times the action 
for the price of one ticket!  Good deal.

Anyway, in contrast to HP Mickey Mortimer, I don't think the movie was all that 
terrible.  I certainly don't watch JP movies for character development, 
although I do agree that it would have been nice to have a little better 
development of the plot.  I watch JP movies for dinosaurs and action, like I 
watch Chris Farley movies to see a big fat guy embarrass himself.

I thought the dinosaurs were very good, although there were several anatomical 
problems that have already been discussed by several listmembers. Obviously, as 
most would probably agree, the first movie was the best.  The awe of seeing the 
dinosaurs was amazing.  But, I think that it is admirable that the producers of 
this series can still eek out a decently good "triquel" (the same cannot be 
said for the Planet of the Apes, Home Alone, or the Godfather).

Anyway, here are my complaints (although I'm not very cynical with this movie):

Heavily-funded low-budget dig: If that is low budget then I'm going into 
paleontology for sure!  Although they can't get funding, somehow Grant and 
Brennan can purchase that intriguing scanning machine and can employ all of 
those diggers.  Plus, they found a pretty nice skeleton on such a low budget!

Unethical Billy Brennan-I sure hope that no graduate student would (if given 
the chance) steal "raptor" eggs and try to sell them to fund a dig.  What was 
he thinking?  If he was a member of SVP, then I hope they kicked him out!

Gratuitous Jack Horner references-Oh, so Alan Grant works for the Museum of the 
Rockies now?  Why don't they just rename him Jack Horner?  I'm very surprised 
the entire movie isn't an hour and a half of Grant and Brennan observing 
hadrosaurs!

Making the "raptors" into demi-gods-So, they're as smart as primates now?  They 
can "talk" to each other and can track down a few humans carrying two of their 
numerous eggs.

Appearance of the "raptors"-At least they had a feather crest, but they are 
still way too big and way too naked-skinned.

The strangeness of the Kirbys-Talk about a strange couple.  I'm glad I'm not 
their son...but their erratic and enigmatic behavior did add a nice twist to 
the movie.

That amazing kid-How could he survive on that island for eight weeks without 
being eaten by the plethora of predators?  After all, Isla Sorna supports such 
a frickin' huge diversity of predators, and judging by the three movies, all of 
them are both hungry and willing to exhaustingly chase down humans despite the 
existance of larger and less-intelligent prey.

At least four more years until the next movie-It is looking like there may be a 
JP IV, but if so this movie will probably be about four years away.  I want to 
see it now!

I can just see it: Jurassic Park IV-The Return to Chaos.  After a pack of 
intelligent Velociraptors takes over the Costa Rican government they board a 
plain for the United States.  However, on the way to New York the plane crashes 
in East St. Louis, sending the pack of raptors deep into the worst section of 
town.  Will the "primate-like" intelligence of the "raptors" be a match for 
Pablo and Bubba's semiautomatic machine gun?  What happens when Pablo's homey 
makes an omelette out of one of the raptor's eggs?  Will Billy Brennan, still 
recovering from his injuries suffered four years earlier on Site B, be able to 
brave both the wrath of the raptors and the harsh reality of life in East St. 
Louis?  We'll just have to wait and see...

Steve

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Steve Brusatte-DINO LAND PALEONTOLOGY
SITE: http://www.geocities.com/stegob
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