Up until a few years ago, Jurassic Park III was roundly dismissed as the weakest installment in the franchise, even though Sam Neill was more than willing to die on the hill calling Joe Johnson’s threequel “pretty damn good”.
Since then, both J.A. Bayona’s Fallen Kingdom and Colin Trevorrow’s Dominion have fared worse on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, which has in turn opened up Jurassic Park III to reappraisal. Is it a patch on Steven Spielberg’s classic original? Of course not, and it’s arguably nowhere near as downright entertaining as The Lost World either, but it does contain one of the best scenes in the entire six-film series.
As you may have guessed, we are indeed talking about Alan Grant’s hallucination on an airplane, which culminates in a full-size animatronic velociraptor addressing him by name. It’s completely nuts, totally unexpected, and a wild tonal misstep, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t just as hilarious seeing it for the 100th time as it was the first.
With Dominion devouring the box office despite tepid reviews, fans have been revisiting the entire back catalogue on streaming, which has led to a huge surge in popularity for Jurassic Park III. As per FlixPatrol, the underrated entry in the prehistoric saga is currently the fifth-top title on HBO Max among subscribers in the United States, and it could yet fly higher as the week continues.
Not quite as bad as its reputation may suggest, there’s plenty to like about the movie, which extends well beyond seeing a raptor cry out “Alan!” in midair.