Sam Neill reprises his role from the first "Jurassic Park" movie as paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant, a character loosely based on real-life paleontologist Jack Horner. This is tied in further when Grant arrives at a dinosaur dig site at Fort Peck Lake, Montana driving a Museum of the Rockies vehicle. Horner is also the paleontological advisor for "Jurassic Park III."
Jeff Goldblum does not appear in this "Jurassic Park" movie (he played "chaostician" Dr. Ian Malcolm in "Jurassic Park" and "The Lost World"), although his character is mentioned in passing. Laura Dern reprises her role as paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler in a few brief scenes. I would have liked to have seen Dern take a greater role in the movie, as "Jurassic Park III" was sorely lacking in a strong female character.
Tea Leoni and William H. Macy play Amanda and Paul Kirby, a divorced couple who trick Grant and his assistant Billy, played by Alessandro Nivola, into accompanying them to Isla Sorna, also known as Site B from "The Lost World". The Kirbys are searching for their son Eric, played by Trevor Morgan, who has disappeared while parasailing near Isla Sorna with Amanda Kirby's new boyfriend in the opening scenes of the movie.
An encounter with a Spinosaurus leaves the group stranded on the island after the Spinosaurus wrecks their plane. Spinosaurus is the star of this movie, and this big boy proves his mettle during a fight with a Tyrannosaurus. After meeting up with the Spinosaurus, the group encounters a Raptor nesting site, and the Raptors are soon tracking them.
I refer to these dinosaurs as Raptors, instead of giving them a distinct species name. Although "Jurassic Park" featured its version of Velociraptors, they were considerably larger than the true Velociraptor, more in keeping with Utahraptor. The Raptors in "Jurassic Park III" are the same size as the "Jurassic Park" Velociraptors, but their coloration is different, and the males of the pack exhibit proto-feathers on their heads, while the female does not.
After the Kirby family is reunited, the group soon finds themselves in the Pterosaur aviary, a scene from Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park which did not make it into the first movie. One of the more glaring paleontological errors of the movie shows the Pteranodons with vicious teeth. In reality Pteranodon, whose name means "toothless flier", did not have teeth, and probably swallowed its fish meals whole.
| Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: | View all related messages |
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to Beverly Eschberger's Paleontology topic, please visit the Discussions page.