Jurassic Park III

Skippable, and the most honest film in the franchise about what it is. Ninety-two minutes, no theme, no ethical argument, and no pretence of being about anything other than people being chased across an island. Joe Johnston directs it as a B-picture and it is considerably more watchable than its reputation.

The production was a mess. Shooting began without a finished script after an earlier version was abandoned, and pages were being written during the shoot, which is why the plot is a straight line with a rescue at the end of it. What that cost in substance it partly bought back in pace: this is the only entry here that never stops to explain itself.

Sam Neill returning is the main pleasure. Alan Grant is now a man who has been to an island once and would rather not discuss it, which is funnier than anything in the second film, and the sequence where he dreams a velociraptor says his name is so strange that it has outlived the rest of the picture.

The Spinosaurus was introduced to top the T. rex, kills one in the opening act, and is still resented for it twenty-five years later. The aviary is the one properly good set piece. Nothing in the Jurassic World trilogy requires this film, though Rebirth returns to the same island.