Since escaping Jurassic Park, miserable palaeontologist Alan Grant (Neill) has returned to dusting bones on archaeological digs and resents any attention made to his near-death exploits with the cloned dinosaurs. But then he and his assistant Billy (Nivola) are approached by the entrepreneur Paul Kirby (Macy) with a proposition - if Grant acts as a guide for Kirby’s planned low-altitude flight over Isla Sorna (Site B in The Lost World), then the millionaire will save Grant’s cash-strapped archaeological dinosaur dig. Grant eventually concedes but, as you’d expect, it’s not long before things go dangerously dino-shaped...

This enjoyable third stab at the massive dino franchise - kick-started into existence by Steven Spielberg’s original box office colossus - proves a welcome return to form after the disappointing The Lost World.

Refreshingly, we’re thrown straight into the thick of the gnashing action right from the start, with Raptors aplenty, and a new addition to the dino menagerie, the Spinosaurus, a giant, teeth-filled crocodile thing which is bigger, nastier and faster than anything you’ve seen before. After being thrilled by a few CGI-filled scenes of this beast at work, you just know that Jurassic Park 3 is going to do the business. And then there are the pteranodons, which fall from the sky in one of the film’s most exciting set pieces, set inside a giant fog-bound cage.

With so many dinosaurs craving for a tasty human morsel, the odds are stacked against Neill and his cohorts as they struggle to survive amidst all the carnage, desperate to find a way off the island in one piece. Neill keeps his performance suitably dry and not a little sardonic, while Macy proves yet again that he can play your average guy in a perilous situation better than anyone else.

Add it all up this remains a hugely enjoyable addition to the series, boasting stacks of action, superb looking beasties and plenty of humour from the likeable cast. It’s never going to have the same impact as the first film, because computer technology is finally catching up, but there are still some fantastic effects and dinosaurs to drool over.
Great stuff.

Jurassic Park 3 is available to rent on 14th January 2002 - 
Universal