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JURASSIC PARK III

Well, the answer is pretty simple: if you focus on the dinosaurs, make a 85-minute movie and not worry about any plot whatsoever in between, you can get by, and get by JURASSIC PARK III does. In fact, this movie is so much better than it deserves to be, you almost wish all movie cash cows like this would just get to the good stuff and forget even trying to make something artistic.

Abbreviated running times usually mean a lot of character development was chucked out the window in exchange for focusing on the action. By virtue of not a single "deleted scenes" section on this disc, it's pretty obvious the film's director Joe Johnston built the whole movie around four amazing dinosaur action set pieces. They make you sit up, take notice and forget any of the bad dialogue in between.

Sadly though, the lack of character development also makes you groan and moan every time one of the film's dino-meal characters pop up. There's the adventurer (William H. Macy) and his wife (Tea Leoni) who charter a plane with Dr. Grant (Sam Neill), who thwarted the dinosaurs in the first movie. They do it under false pretenses only to crash-land them on the island for the purpose of finding their lost son (he disappeared after a hang-gliding mishap over the island). Throw in some expendable secondary characters and the film plods along with some horrible marital bickering and a kid so whiny and resourceful he should be thrown to the dinos.

Still, Joe Johnston, who is a fine director with a pristine special effects background, turns in a pretty exciting and tolerable film. Sure, it feels like it's over before it starts, but at least this sequel knows exactly what it should be.

As for the DVD itself now that's where the fun comes in. Packed as expected with a ton of supplementary material, it's the reason why you should pick the film up for home viewing. There's a lengthy making-of documentary, but the audio commentary featuring the visual and dinosaur creators (including Stan Winston) is a blast. They crack jokes about a CGI-created Laura Dern (she's not) and then make jokes about what was done live on set and what was done with computers. It's obvious they have a great working relationship with each other and it's even more fun to see them dissect all the great dinosaur set pieces.

The DVD itself seems to be a dinosaur lover's wet dream as it packs in some interesting tidbits that make this quite educational as well. I was particularly fond of the "dinosaur turntable" which shows a three-dimensional look at all 12 dinosaurs created for the film. You see the rough computer animatic, then you see them all fleshed out (there's also measurement specs tossed in as well).

Another fascinating extra is a featurette on paleontologist Jack Horner (who served as the dinosaur consultant on the film); the documentary shows him and his team go through the motions at a dinosaur dig.

There's also a feature that ruins the illusion of the dinosaurs by showing what it took to put together Stan Winston's animatronic dinosaurs and ILM's computer generated ones. In a film like JPIII which feels so seamless, you definitely lose some of that magic since in the movie the practical and animated version work so well together. But remember, it's only an education.

Overall, JURASSIC PARK III would be a passable effort something you would watch on cable if you flipped to it but not worth buying. However, with the great package Universal Home Video has put together, you can't help but pick it up to finish off your JURASSIC PARK collection. Kids will find it informative and adults will marvel at all the behind-the-scenes secrets. It wouldn't have hurt to toss in a Joe Johnston commentary and deleted scenes (if indeed there were some), but you can't have everything which means we'll likely be sitting through a JURASSIC PARK IV some time in the next three years whether we want another one or not.