6.5/10... If I had to lean towards a whole number, though, I'd give it a 7.

JP3, on the other hand, had most people enjoying themselves...

These things didn't affect my enjoyment of the film at all, though... you just have to sit back and let them play with their dramatic license.

Despite the somewhat lakcluster ending (and the cell-phone bit, which I didn't really care for) I liked this one better than The Lost World, and I thought it was a really good popcorn flick.

So, didn't Spielberg say he had another idea and he wanted to produce a fourth film? I have a feeling it'll be a go project, if the theater activity in my area is any indication of the rest of the country. The first theater had sold out four shows in a row (and in my case, sold out twenty minutes before the show started!) The second theater I went to was sold out for the time I wanted, and I ended up eventually going to a much later show (which we afterwards learned was also subsequently sold out).

Is this JAWS all over again?

quote:

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Originally posted by Hasta:
I found Final Fantasy to be poorly written, poorly edited, and poorly directed.... Cliche riden and worst of all boring. I saw it with a wide range of friends, many of us who disagree on most the stuff we watch... We all hated it.

JP3, on the other hand, had most people enjoying themselves...

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I think you need to come over to my house...You busy this week.....

I saw "JP3" tonight. I liked it. The script was kind of blah, but it was a fun aciton film.

--Brian

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Originally posted by James:
The Spinosaurus was smaller than the T-Rex, and it did not have such a slender, crocodilian snout; and Pteranodons didn't have teeth; I could go on, but I won't.

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Well, the Spinosaurus had a slighter build than the T-Rex, but it was much longer. Sure the film exaggerated a bit, but hey - it's a MOVIE wrought with flaws. Giving the pteranodons teeth is no doubt a plot device - where's the danger in something that would gum you to death?

(Anyways, you can always chalk these discrepancies up as InGen's genetic manipulation. Happy? )

Hasta...I can't believe we saw the same film in regards to Final Fantasy. I'm not going to poo-poo your opinion because we are all entitled, but I am fascinated that you found it to be so "horrid!" I've seen it twice, and the people I saw it with really enjoyed, even my fiance which is hard to do.

To me it was one of the better sci-fi films made in recent memory, and it engaged me far more than A.I. Some of the dialogue was on the thin side, but we have to remember that we are still dealing with an animated film. But I don't feel it needs a crutch...it stands well enought without it. What cliches did you notice? How was the directing and editing poor? Just curious.

It's too busy. The vast majority of the CD is all tutti, all fortissimo. After 20 minutes, one's ears simply try to block it out, like any sonic disturbance. The only cue I lean favourably toward is track 3, if only because of the Steiner 'King Kong' paraphrase in the last 30 seconds or so.

I'm a Schaffner Ape Warrior thank-you...not a Fun-fa Monkey.

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Originally posted by Michel:
Is the dinosaur that looks at the cast while they are digging through the Spinosaurus' droppings an Allosaur? That's what I would say, but it wasn't identified. He was red and black with a horn on his snout.

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According to the JP3 press kit chart, it's a ceratsaurus.

Just curious. I just watched a little behind the scenes of JPIII and Jack says that in fact the Spinosaurus was the biggest meat eating dinosaur that lived. I love dinosaurs, but I'm not a fanatic. And not that I don't believe you either, but can you point me somewhere where I can see for myself what was actually bigger, the T-rex or spinosaurus? I'm just curious, for continuity's sake.
It would seem to me that they have Jack working on this because of his knowledge as a paleantologist. So I'd just like to know for myself.

If you do a lookup on the Spinosaurus, they mention how it's much longer than the T-Rex, but not bigger (in terms of mass) because it's leaner.

So, the film (I think) pretty much got it right.....

"Funniest Meat Eating Dinosaur"

"Dumbest Meat Eating Dinosaur"

"Meat Eating Dinosaur With The Highest Cholesterol"

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Originally posted by Big Bear:
"Meat Eating Dinosaur With The Highest Cholesterol"

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That would be the Sonsiralosaurus.

I liked it overall, curious how they found snacks from a vending machine on an island left uninhabited for some 6 years so tasty mind you, if the dinos didn't kill em, surely that would, no? You sense its flaws in being a film that was being re-written whilst they were in principal photography, but I'm a bit lost on complaints of it's running time and allegedly "abrupt" ending. If you think about it, the first JP movie is tied up no slower, in fact JP3s ending would seem to be a nice tip of the hat to the first film's close. I kind of liked that.

Kind of cool how Trevor Morgan as Eric was a lot like Tim from the JP original novel, definately the best kid and easiest to put up with of the trilogy. Really only the poor writing is harmful to some otherwise excellent performers (Neil, Macy, Nivola and Jetter).

I do enjoy the score a lot. Had it for a little over a week now, enjoyed the CD very much, in fact knowing the cues before I saw the movie, it was obvious to see where the last minute edits had been made to the film because a fair few segments of the cues on the CD were dropped from the final cut and re-edited I noticed. Some interesting stuff not on the CD, ok, mostly alternate takes on Johnny's themes but I liked them, especially a little piano ditty that plays as Alan pulls out of Ellie's driveway near the start. I Wouldn't say no to a promo.

Pity to see only one Rex and only for some 70 seconds at that. Wonder where the other two Rex's were? Baby should be all grown up by now. If this indeed turning into Jaws, then all I can sey is I sense JP4 Rex: The Revenge. Michael Cain would surely do it.

Back to that running time, if the movie had to be longer it should have been at the start with an additional 10 mins of setting things up better maybe. It's odd, most complain that the ending is executed too quickly, I say the reverse and deem the begining and getting to the island stuff to be a bit too fast for my taste, but not enough to enrage the JP fan in me by any means.

One last thing that threw me somewhat was perhaps the skin tones of the various dinos we had seen in the previous movies. Wether this was done to keep up with changing discoveries I don't know, but it was odd at first to see the Brachiosaur's look different.

Anyhoo, ratings of the trilogy (out of ****):

Jurassic Park (a weak) ***
Lost World - **1/2
Jurassic Park 3 - (a fairly stable) ***

Dan (UK)

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Originally posted by Dan Brecher:
Wonder where the other two Rex's were? Baby should be all grown up by now.

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Isn't it obvious? The spinosaurus killed them all off!

POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!

Yeah the ending was a little abrupt, I thought the film could have been about 15 to 20 mins longer.

Was it necessary for Billy to be alive and pull an Indiana Jones moment with Grant's fedora?

There wasn't enough of the Spinosaurus.

I thought the T-Rex fight could have been a little longer.

They never explained what happened to the boyfriend. One moment he's alive in the parachute cutting the kid down then they find him dead, hanging there. What got him?

I would have liked to see and still want to see a Triceratops v.s. T-Rex/Spino battle, too bad they couldn't have had the Spino get it in the end by another dino.

The dinos looked even more realistic than ever. Joe Johnston did a great job of pacing with what little script there was. The film really had a dark edge to it. Makes me wonder how much darker The Lost World would have been if he had gotten the chance to direct it.

Sam Neill is great as Grant and it was nice to see him back in the saddle. Macy and Leoni were pretty good in their roles as well.

The score as heard in the film made more use of Williams' music. Davis made use of the Island theme and JP theme more frequently in the film than heard on the CD, especially the End Credits. The film included some similar sounding parts that are heard on the second half of track 3 and the beginning of track 11 on the original JP soundtrack. Also track 7 & 8 in JP3 have some similar cords as heard in Ludlow's Demise on the Lost World score. Or at least it sounded that way in my opinion.

I though Davis did do an excellent job with this score though.

As we were driving home my girlfriend made the comment "I wonder where the Pteranodons flew to?", I said "Jurassic Park 4!!"

Overall a fun film that wasn't too heavy on the blood and technology. Just wish there was more Laura Dern and dino action.

I thought the movie was ok. Had it been longer it would have gotten annoying. I'm really tired of all those movies which are stretched and stretched with useless overdramatizations and badly made action sequences.

JP3 was perfect in that regard. It was just long enough. And had the right amount of action. Best of all, the action scenes were more or less new, and not totally predictable.
And the movie had other nice unexpected elements.

Overall, a bad movie, but a good time at the theatre.

When it comes to music, I don't know. The CD is great. It's not the complete score, but I guess most of the really good stuff is on it. The driveway piano theme was very similar to the piano theme on the first JP soundtrack, so it's not that big a loss.

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Originally posted by Quill:
What cliches did you notice? How was the directing and editing poor? Just curious.

I guess we're at two ends of the spectrum...because honestely, I'm to the point where this film ranks as my favorite of the year...so far!

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Well, I am not Hata (God forbid..j/k) but if I can comment on your questions.

Cliche: The general: A long, black leather and Nazi looking coat? Common, how much hints do we need that the guy is a bad guy. An overused, and quite frankly boring cliche.

The worst of the worst: The aliens turn out to be ghosts? After over an hour, hating these things, now they are confused, scared ghosts? I don't think so. I mean, it's all fine and well...but whenever u start feeling sorry for the supposed villan, things start falling apart in this type of movie. At least for me.

Third beef: Why was this movie called Final Fantasy? No characters from the film showed up and or story line. It seemed they just made a movie and slapped the popular name Final Fantasy in order to get more people to watch it.

Animation: While extremly well done, it was incredibly inconsistent.

But besides all of this, I liked the film.

I love u.

Aww, gee, cyber smooch to you!

I don't find the story points about the aliens cliche...I can't think of another sci-fi film that executed it...maybe horror. For me, this plot point made the film a little more interesting than the standard Aliens storyline.

As for the Final Fantasy name...well, from what I know there isn't that much consistency within the games themselves, especially the recent ones. But an obvious marketing ploy none-the-less....

That could very well be. My question is why would they design the character that way in the first place? It was obvious from the very first scene when the general showed up that he was the evil guy because of his outfit. Why is the intelligince of the audience always questioned this way? We could not figure out that this guy would turn out to be a bad guy? To me it was just a cliche that has been overused. It was fun with Darth Vader and all, but these days, let's use something different.

don't find the story points about the aliens cliche...

Neither do I. The whole post wasn't just about cliches, I apologize for my lack of clarity here. My point here was that once I started feeling sorry for the aliens/ghosts, the whole movie turned a bit sour for my taste. I might add, my nephew, who is 23 wasn't to happy with that plot twist either. Sure, it hasn't been done before, that still doesn't sweeten the taste to me. Perhaps they could have made them really bad ghosts? I dunno...

for the Final Fantasy name...well, from what I know there isn't that much consistency within the games themselves, especially the recent ones

Unfortunately, I don't know too much about the game and can only comment on what others, who do know the game, have told me. Since I have no knowledge in this regard, I shall open this formum to the once who [b]do have it and shut my mouth.[/b]

First , as stated the ending was one of those three o'clock in the morning endings like many frequent in their college or high school days..."I gotta get to bed." It was just plain stupid and would have been better replaced by a huge title card that read "THE END." That is essentially what it was. 'Cause someone was burning the midnight oil and it was time for nite-nite.

Next was the various lack explanations. What happened to the guys on the boat. What happened to Ben in the tree. How'd he become a skeleton? Come on. Just a few more seconds on the camcorder could have taken care of this problem. How is Ellie able to get two branches of the military to go rescue a group of stranded adults when they won't go after a little boy (in an area that has been restricted mind you)? And why, all of a sudden, when in THE LOST WORLD, it was so vital to contain the dinosaurs in this restricted area, is everyone so nonchalant including the military (and the ones who just suffered a Pteranodon attack) about them flying off into the sunset. and their freedom. You think they would have shot them down.

Another thing. Is Alan Grant so stupid that he goes against his beliefs for returning to the island because of a funding check again? Didn't he learn from the first movie? It makes his character seem less noble and more a money hungry pig. "Well I disagree with everything John Hammond has done. I can't even look upon those 'theme park monsters' again...Oh a check is involved? Money? Oh, well, in that case..." Give the guy some integrity.

I thought the movie was great up until the plane crashes. Then it started the downward slope to it's inevitable idiotic ending. And true, they could have done more with the Alan/Ellie thing. I almost felt a CASTAWAY moment there in the driveway...But remember how prevelant the discussion of kids between them was in the first movie? You think they might have done more with that relationship that didn't work out between them. Like referring back to how she wanted children and he didn't.

They could have done a lot more with this movie to keep it true to the original which I still feel is the best one But it's interesting to see the demise of the once beautiful sunny island locale which was JURASSIC PARK.

Davis did a fine job with the score, almost assimilating Williams style into his own. I'm glad for that. The movie would feel that much different if this had not been accomplished.

Firstly: Unless we're talking about a documentary, I couldn't care less how much they alter the dinosaurs for the film's sake. Nothing they did in JP3 even came close to what they did to the Dilophosaurus from the first movie. It is very easy (for me at least) to nitpick the hell out of a film without hindering my enjoyment of it in the least.

Secondly: That was a Ceratosaurus, despite what the JP3 press kit might tell you.

Thirdly: Dan's link is a good source on the Spinosaurus-Tyrannosaurus differences. To me the Spinosaur just looked more massive than the T. rex in the film, but maybe it's because I was sitting way too close to the screen and everything looked massive.

At any rate, I liked the movie a lot.