‘It’s all teeth!’: The biggest, baddest Jurassic Park sequel

With the seventh instalment in the dino franchise arriving in cinemas today, Tom Fordy looks back on ‘Jurassic Park III’, the best and bitiest hatchling from the Spielberg original

- Tom Fordy

As Jurassic World Rebirth stomps into cinemas, it’s worth remembering a rule so rock solid that it should be cast in amber: as with Steven Spielberg’s original Jurassic Park (1993), the best films in the franchise stay on an island.

That’s one of the reasons Spielberg’s own sequel, The Lost World (1997), was a monster disappointment - taking the T rex from the “site B” island, Isla Sorna, and into the streets of San Diego proved a deeply silly business. It’s also why the Joe Johnston-directed Jurassic Park III (2001) is still the best, bitiest sequel — a 90-minute romp that has the feel of an old-timey cliffhanger serial. Drop onto the island, have a dinosaur adventure, and escape again.

Indeed, in contrast to The Lost World and the Jurassic World reboot films, JP III is relatively low-key. In the story, a wealthy thrill-seeking couple, the Kirbys (William H Macy and Tea Leoni) persuade OG Jurassic Park hero Dr Alan Grant (Sam Neill) - the reluctant Indiana Jones of palaeontology - to act as guide on a dino-spotting flight over Isla Sorna. But, despite Grant’s warning, the plane lands on the island, where it's revealed that the Kirbys aren’t wealthy thrill-seekers after all. Rather, they’re bickering divorcees searching for their 12-year-old son, Eric (Trevor Morgan), lost on the island following a parasailing accident. Grant has been unwittingly roped into a rescue mission for the youngster. “Either way, you probably won't get off this island alive,” Grant tells them, with that devilish Sam Neill grin.