Who doesn’t love dinosaurs? Anyone? Remember back in 1993 when Steven Spielberg unleashed his magnum opus to the entire movie going world – Jurassic Park. I remember the excitement of watching this movie when I was 16 almost 17 years old, watching it in a theater that they had renovated for Surround sound and new seats in anticipation for this movie alone! And ofcourse the theatre owners would get much more than their money’s worth as Jurassic Park ran for a few months with many people coming in for repeated viewings. It was also one of the few English language movies that we saw whole families – dads, moms, kids, grandmother and perhaps a few pets – piling up in the car or family van and going to watch it. My cousin Manoj & I went to see this movie on the day of it’s release in Cochin, for the 9pm show, and we almost didn’t get tickets. We ended by paying a scalper almost twice the amount for the seats but it was worth it.
So nothing much needed in terms of the story – eccentric billionaire John Hammond has created a dinosaur park on an previously uninhabited island, with dinosaurs that his scientists cloned from the DNA extracted from insects preserved in prehistoric amber. He invites Dr. Ian Malcolm, a mathematician, a paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant and paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler to visit the park before it’s official opening. At the park during a tour things go wrong when a greedy head computer programmer tries to sell some embryos to one of Hammond’s rivals and deactivates the security system, thinking that he will go deliver the samples and get back in time to fix the system again. However his jeep gets stuck in the rain & mud and he is killed by a dilophosaurus. The rest of the people, which include Hammond’s grandkids, in the park have to survive the attacks of the dinosaurs, including a T-rex and velociraptors and in the end only the 3 scientists, the kids and Hammond get off the island.
In 2007’s Jurassic Park II: The Lost World 4 years have passed since the incident of the first movie. Hammond has lost control of his company to his nephew & on a deserted island, dinosaurs have secretly survived and been allowed to roam free. His nephew forms a team to bring the animals back to the mainland for creating revenue. Hammond sends a smaller team with Dr. Malcolm & his girlfriend paleontologist Sarah Harding and to help leave it as a nature preserve. The facilities on the island have been mostly destroyed by a massive hurricanes. Their camp is attacked and they have fend for themselves on the island being attacked by velociraptors. The InGen team led by Ludlow which they spot chasing and capturing several dinosaur species such as Parasaurolophus, Pachycephalosaurus, Gallimimus and Mamenchisaurus but a Triceratops destroys the camp and the dinosaurs escape. InGen does capture a T-rex and it’s infant and carries it by ship to San Diego.
At the docks in San Diego, the ship crashes and Malcolm & Harding find the people in it all dead. A guard inadvertently opens the cargo hold releasing the Tyrannosaurus, which escapes into the neighborhood, then into the city, and creates havoc. Using its infant, which was shipped separately, to lure the mother T-rex, Malcolm and Sarah manage to tranquilize the adult before it can escape again and seal it in the hold. The next day, Malcolm, Sarah and Kelly watch television reports of the cargo ship on its way back to Isla Sorna, surrounded by a convoy of naval vessels.
That brings us to Jurassic Park III – the only one not directed by Spielberg (though he was an Executive Director) or based on a Michael Chricton novel. A rich divorced couple tricks Dr. Grant to join them on a trip, along with Grant’s assistant Billy Brennan, to Isla Sonar to help them find their son, who went missing while para-sailing near the island. The boy, who is into dinosaurs and a fan of Dr. Grant survives on his wits and using his knowledge of the creatures based on Dr. Grant’s books. Their plane however crashes when they are attacked by a Spinosaurus (bigger than a T-Rex) that comes crashing through the trees. The team, which includes a couple of mecenaries, escape from the creature only to run into a male T-rex which pursues them back to the Spinosaurus. The two predators proceed to battle each other and the Spinosaurus kills the Tyrannosaurus by snapping its neck as the group escapes. The group comes across a derelict InGen laboratory. After exploring the compound, they are attacked by a Velociraptor. The group traps the raptor, which calls for help as the group leaves the building.
Outside they are pursued by a raptor pack and one of the mercenaries is killed. Dr. Grant is separated and surrounded by raptors but is rescued from them by Eric, who uses gas grenades to disperse the pack. Eric & Grant reunites with the rest of the group and manage to just escape from being killed by the spinosaur by going into a building. Grant finds that Billy stole two eggs from the raptor nest in hopes of using them to fund their digging. The group then sets out for a boat docked at a nearby river and are attacked by Pteranodons. The group escapes onto the boat, but while navigating down the river, the Spinosaurus emerges from the water and attacks them. They ingnite the oil in the boat to drive the dinosaur away. the group is rescued the next day at the beach by, Marine helicopters and infantry arrive, who were alerted to the island by Dr. Grant calling Ellie using the satellite phone.
Thus ends 3 epic movies about man playing ‘god’ and going against nature and trying to bring back to life & control a species he has no business with. Or being alive on the same planet with them. Enjoyable and entertaining although the sequels pales in comparison with the first one. But a movie franchise no kid or adult should stay away from.