Jurassic Park III

For the third instalment of his blockbuster creature-feature franchise, Steven Spielberg has passed the reins to Johnston, who works to a copycat script. Jeff Goldblum is out, Sam Neill back; the kid this time is Trevor Morgan, son of mega-rich Macy and Leoni; and Dern is demoted to final reel cavalry. Morgan gets lost parascending over the dinosaur-infested Isla Sorna, and Neill and young colleague Nivola are conned into a search and rescue mission. True, the film offers little new, but it's still stirring family entertainment, even if Spielberg's elegance of construction and his preservation of the element of wonder are replaced by vamped-up sound effects and violent large-scale action sequences. The shift from wonder to spectacle is epitomised by the now depleted crew drifting downstream in an old tug, gazing at grazing dinosaur herds, and passing on by. Johnston feels little interest here, nor a need for Michael Crichton-style lectures - he's more a bloody meat man. However, the film's souped-up animatronics give it the fun feel of a '50s B-movie; the child's grace and self-sufficiency are interesting, too, as Johnston knows how to dignify his kids.