Jurassic Park:
I hadn't seen it in years, possibly even a decade, and I'd forgotten just how well paced, structured, interesting and involving the flick is. It's Spielberg at on his best showman's roll, and the effects still stand up to this day ... well the CGI is a smidge dated and flat by today's standards, but the overall wonder that coats the film smooths over such things easily.
Most impressive are the animatronic dinosaurs (especially the giant T-Rex head), which add to the overall feel of believability (except for Attenborough's roaming 'generally British' apparently Scottish accent), tension and action-packed excitement. A true classic.
The Lost World: Jurassic Park:
Like with the first film, I went to see this at the cinema as an eager, excited kid, and loved every minute of it. Now twice the age I was at the time it feels baggy, lacking of a properly involving plot, and it plays out as one action sequence after another. Sure, the effects (both CGI and practical) had gotten even better and greater, but there's too many side characters with nothing to do.
Even the main characters have little to do but run around and scream from time to time, and there are some biblically stupid things that happen. Malcom's kid stows away and turns up on the island to be almost nothing but a hindrance, and Sarah - supposedly a very intelligent woman - doesn't realise that it's probably not a good idea to continue wearing a jacket soaked in the un-drying blood of a baby T-Rex (she even discusses it directly with a professional hunter!!!).
It's big, bloated and at times needlessly silly, but the convincing dinosaur work and rough-and-tumble action sequences at least make it interesting enough.
Jurassic Park III:
I'd not seen it until now, and I'm hardly surprised. It is interesting to get Grant back - and even a bit more Satler - but the inciting incident is too weak and daft, and Grant simply going along with it literally for a pay cheque doesn't ring true. It made enough sense in the first movie - before he knew what he was getting into - but now, after two movies, you'd think that Grant would just say "NO!" and be done with it entirely.
Even more so than the second movie, it's just one action sequence after another, and while - again - it's all technically very proficient, you just don't give much of a stuff about it all in the end. The film itself is a good half hour shorter than the first two, and that about says it all - there's not enough meat to bother with, and - again - stupid characters make stupid decisions. If it wasn't for seeing the first two movies, and holding the first in such high regard, I wouldn't have otherwise bothered with it.
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