YMMV / Jurassic Park III

• Adorkable: Grant, as always. His introductory scene has him playing with plastic dinosaur toys alongside Ellie's son, Charlie. While making mock roar noises, no less.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Was the Spinosaurus really going after the group out of revenge, or did it happen to run into them multiple times as they moved through its territory? The characters finding its dung proves it was already in the area before the characters were, and it abandoned its initial attack once it encountered the Tyrannosaurus. The fact it's attracted to T. rex pee is even reminiscent of a carnivore checking for another predator within its territory.
• Badass Decay: When the T. rex shows up to fight the Spinosaurus, two enter, one wins... and the T. rex goes down in less than a minute, its attacks barely even damaging the Spinosaurus. It doesn't even kill anything in the movie—it's only ever seen scavenging on an already dead dinosaur, no doubt as a reference to Jack Horner's "theory" that it was an exclusive scavenger.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • The Spinosaurus is this in spades. It's either an overpowered Replacement Scrappy for killing off a beloved dinosaur for no reason other than to say "Hey it's a bigger, newer monster!", or an underrated villain that is one of the most terrifying things in the series. Not helped by the fact that the battle against the T. rex was so short due to a mechanical malfunction on set and rewrites.
  • The redesigned Velociraptor can also count, due to their more birdlike snouts and eyes and the tuft of feathers on the heads of the males. Some fans appreciate the subtle nod to the then-recent discovery of feathers on raptors. Others dislike them due to the sudden break in continuity, and still others criticize them for not being feathered enough.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • Alan's bad dream. Sure it's Foreshadowing but it's still pretty random. The fact that it's a redesigned Velociraptor, rather than how they looked in first film only adds to the BLAM nature of the scene.
  • While retrieving the phone, a Ceratosaurus approaches to the group. It's a pretty big predator and the audience expects it to attack, but it merely sniffs the heroes, smells the Spinosaur dung on them, then leaves. Even the human protagonists seem a wee bit confused.
• Broken Base:
  • Some don't like or even hate that the Spinosaurus replaced the T. rex while some are totally fine and even love the Spinosaurus due to it being bigger than the King of all Dinosaurs.
  • Ellie marrying someone else and having kids with him. Granted, in the books she didn't have a romance with Alan (and indeed, she was engaged to someone else as well). She is mentioned in Lost World as formerly being involved with Grant, though now married to a Berkeley professor.
• Contested Sequel: Mostly in regards to comparing it to The Lost World. Where Lost World is more hotly contested and polarizing, Jurassic Park III tends to more often be dismissed as So Okay, It's Average. While the former has bigger set pieces and more polish in the production values, it does suffer from too many subplots and a rather Anvilicious tone. JP III, meanwhile, is a little more to-the-point. Conversely, it's also the film that gets the most flak for not contributing enough to the rest of the series, while Lost World gets praise for at least trying to expand on the scale and storyline from the first film.
• Creepy Awesome: The titular Spinosaurus, Pteranodons, and, per the norm, the much more intelligent Velociraptors.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: The Ceratosaurus, thanks to its short, yet funny scene and rather nice design. While it hasn't returned in the movies, it does show up constantly in the video games and is also quite prominent in the toy lines, one specimen also made an appearence in Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: The Pteranodons escaping and flying to the mainland at the end is treated with whimsy and mild interest, despite the fact these are dangerous man-eating animals that hunt people. In one comic book set after the movie, they end up going on a killing spree over the Southern USA, while supplementary material for Jurassic World says they were shot over Canada... by Vic Hoskins, one of the major antagonists of that film and one of many involved with the Indominus rex project.
• Evil Is Cool: To some, the Spinosaurus is one of the best parts of the movie, being a Super-Persistent Predator that will not stop until it's devoured the protagonists. And despite how controversial the scene is, it fought a T-rex and won.
• Fanon:
  • Most fans believe that the raptors in this film are a separate sub-species from the raptors in the previous films. This is due to the difference in their appearance, and how the raptors in III seem to be more intelligent and cooperative than in previous films. A similar theory is also used for the Pteranodons in order to explain how a small group were seen flying freely at the end of The Lost World, with notably different appearances to the later Pteranodons.
  • There are also certain fans who think that the individual T. rex here is a matured version of Junior, the baby from The Lost World. Which is fairly dark way to look at it, considering what happens to the T. rex in this film. At the same time, though, it could explain why it is so easily defeated; it is young, inexperienced and possibly still has a crippling internal injury. What really pushes this theory even further is when Jurassic World was released, to which people were happy to see that the original Rexy from Jurassic Park was still alive and well.
  • A rather common fan theory is that there actually were two Spinosaurus in this movie. The first one attacks Cooper and is killed when the plane collides with it (as suggested by its blood splattering on the windshield), while the second one stalks the humans for the rest of the movie as revenge for the death of its mate, thus explaining its somewhat abnormal obsession with hunting the heroes. This one however was pretty thoroughly debunked in later years as the script, cast, and media all make it clear it was the same animal the whole time; and it does have visible propeller wounds on the back from where the plane hit it.
  • After the release of Jurassic World, another theory was that the Spinosaurus was the first super hybrid, a progenitor of sorts to the Indominus rex. This would explain its resilience, aggression and apparent sadism during the events of the movie, as well as the Science Marches On aspects. However, this fan theory was debunked by season 3 of Camp Cretaceous, which confirms the Scorpius rex was the first hybrid dinosaur. Furthermore, Jack Ewans, the author of the Dinosaur Protection Group tie-in website which supporters of the Hybrid theory cited as evidence for their claims, confirmed that the Spinosaurus isn't a hybrid.
  • It's also commonly suggested that the Spinosaurus skeleton mounted in the main square of Jurassic World is not a fossil, but the skeleton of the Spinosaurus from this movie, somehow retrieved from Isla Sorna after it died of its injuries. However, the trailer for the fourth season of Camp Cretaceous implies that it is still alive.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Some fans have taken to calling the T.rex in this film "Our Dead Homie", for obvious reasons.
  • "Pteralotsodon"^note Unlike the Pteranodon of the second and fourth movies, the Pteranodon in this film posessed teeth. This was widely mocked by fans, pointing out that the name "Pteranodon" literally means "toothless wing".
• Fanon Discontinuity: Alan and Ellie not being together, the infamous Spinosaurus Versus T. rex battle, the unpopular new characters and the fact that the film as a whole is somewhat inconsequential to the events of Jurassic World have all contributed to it being forgotten by a significant portion of the fanbase.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Depending on how one views it; the events of Jurassic World could've been avoided had the events of Jurassic Park III not happened, or if at least Amanda had closed the Aviary, as according to the tie in websites for Jurassic World, Vic Hoskins was promoted and hired to work on Isla Nublar because Masrani liked how he and his team took care of the Pteranodons after they reached the mainland, which led to Hoskins and his team to make a deal with Henry Wu to create weaponized dinosaurs such as the Indominus rex. Had Amanda closed the Aviary, Hoskins would've likely not been hired to work on Nublar, he would've likely not meet Wu, the I. rex could've been made less dangerous and many lives would not have been lost.
  • After the initial encounter with the Spinosaurus, Billy says he doesn't remember that particular genus being on InGen's list of cloned dinosaurs. Alan knows it wasn't, and he openly wonders what other horrors were being developed behind closed doors. This strikes a shriller tone after the Jurassic World movies, where we're introduced to hybrid dinosaurs and see what they can do. Supplementary material strongly hints the Spinosaurus was actually an early attempt at developing hybrids, which would explain its behavior in this movie.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The Spinosaurus hunting the team underwater becomes this due to later evidence suggesting that the real Spinosaurus was primarily an aquatic predator. Especially in 2020 where its skeleton was finally discovered in full, showing short hind limbs, webbed feet, and a finned tail resembling a newt, and is now believed to rarely come on to land at all.
  • When they first hear the roar of the Spinosaurus, Billy suggests a Tyrannosaurus responsible for the noise, but Alan denies him, on the account that "it sounds bigger". Funnily enough however, according to official size measurements for the animals available at the time, whilst the Spinosaurus in this film is certainly bigger than the Tyrannosaurus it faces off against, it actually is smaller than Rexy (16 foot tall head height to her 17) slightly), the Tyrannosaurus Grant encountered in the original Park, making his comment rather amusing. Later retcons to the official sizes for Jurassic World and related media would complicate this with contradicting sources identifying her as between 15 (slightly taller than this film's rex) and 17 feet tall. Similarly the Spinosaurus would bounce between its original 16 foot height and up to fairly ridiculous extremes of 20 feet (which is really easy to disprove given the fact it's not towering over the rex it fights). By Fallen Kingdom and Dominion Rexy's size was settled on her largest original measurements of 17 feet tall and 44 feet long. The Spinosaurus remains ungrounded but most fans lean towards the original 16 foot measurement.
  • Despite the above mentioned quote of the film Spinosaurus being larger than the Tyrannosaurus and parts of the film hyping it up as the new massive predator on the block, later finds show the film creature is actually smaller than the real creature in some dimensions.
  • Alan Grant's claim about dinosaurs that are "smarter than primates" becomes this after scientific behavioral tests confirmed that corvids such as crows and ravens have cognitive capacities rivalling those of chimpanzees and seven-year-old human children. And as you'd probably know, birds are living dinosaurs. Doubly so after laterstudies suggested that Velociraptors and its relatives were not exceptionally smart, and it was actually T. rex that may have been the most intelligent dinosaurs. Its intelligence was even compared to wolves and baboons, making it the closest Real Life version of Grant's theory.
• It Was His Sled: Billy tried to steal two raptor eggs.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: One of the chief complaints towards the film is that it too closely follows the previous sequel's template of "Character from the first film gets trapped on Isla Sorna with a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits and has to find a way off the island", while also recycling several other plot elements, including a wayward father having to repair their relationship with their child from a now-defunct relationship (albeit the child doesn't belong to the lead character this time), and one of the series' signature predatory dinosaurs being out for blood due to someone threatening its offspring. The main differences between it and the previous film are the Green Aesop being more low-key, the lack of any counterparts to Peter Ludlow and Roland Tembo, and the film just ending when the main characters escape Isla Sorna rather than continuing for anything like the San Diego sequence.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: Since the movie is barely 90 minutes long, it is much shorter than the movies that came before and after it, which could explain why most of the film feels underdeveloped.
• Memetic Badass: In a completely ironic way, a certain group of fans will say this about Cooper, due to Udesky's claim that he's a professional and can handle himself.
• Memetic Loser: Cooper, and to a lesser extent Nash, for being so-called "professionals" that die very early on in the movie, and not in a very dignified way at that.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The raptors being redesigned to have little feather mohawks on their heads made some jokes about "punk rocker raptors", as well as some fans who expressed displeasure at the raptors' feathering being to the barest minimum.
  • With the discovery in 2020 that showed Spinosaurus had short webbed feet, a larger sail and a finned tail, many have since joked about the Spino getting plastic surgery to fit "Hollywood's unrealistic beauty standards".
• Narm:
  • The infamous Velociraptor in the airplane scene, where Alan has a nightmare in which said predator utters his name. It was supposed to be a Jump Scare, but many viewers thought the idea of a talking dinosaur to be absolutely hilarious.
  • The Spinosaurus being spotted by the protagonists because a cellphone it had swallowed rings inside its belly. The sense of imminent danger is replaced by hilarity not only due to the sheer absurdity of the scene, but because the predator's otherwise terrifying appearance is accompanied by a cheesy ringtone.
  • Alan's line about how "Some of the worst things imaginable have been done with the best intentions" is intended to be a shining moment of moral courage, but in practice, comes across as an over-wrought statement of the blindingly obvious.
  • When the group finally make it to the beach at the end, there's a surreal moment of a man in a full suit-and-tie with a bullhorn calling for Alan. As the heroes approach him telling him to stop the noise, they pause in surprise — and the very next scene cut has multiple Navy and Marine vehicles all coming to the island shore at once to rescue them, where the previous shot had nary a hair nor sound of any of their presence. Not even an explanation for how that man was there first.
• Nightmare Retardant: The T. rex and Ceratosaurus are large predators, but many viewers found them to be cute, due to the former turning its head like a confused puppy after being found by the heroes, and the latter Leaning on the Fourth Wall by staring at the camera during one of the film's more comedic scenes.
• No Problem with Licensed Games: Konami released at least two decent games based on the Jurassic Park III name, Park Builder, a park building and management simulator for Game Boy Advance, the game took an In Name Only approach, instead reimagining the first movie if things doesn't go bad. The game actually got pretty decent reviews, and likely helped inspire Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis and Jurassic World Evolution, widely regarded as the two best games based on the franchise. The other is an arcade light-gun shooting game supporting up to 2 players, simply called Jurassic Park III, in which you play as one of two rangers, shooting dinosaurs and rescuing civilians like The House of the Dead.
• Older Than They Think: The Spinosaurus has been in Jurassic Park merchandise before — as a raptor-like predator in a spin-off fighting game, and a toy◊ — but both had completely different designs from this film's spinosaur.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • The Pteranodons only play a major role in one (admittedly lengthy) scene, but they were among the most popular creatures in the film and certainly less controversial than the Spinosaurus.
  • The Ceratosaurus as well. It has a grand total of 15 seconds of screentime, and provides one of the funniest moments in the film.
• Only the Creator Does It Right: Until 2015's Jurassic World, III was the only movie in the franchise which was not directed by Steven Spielberg or directly based on one of the Michael Crichton novels. It's also the most poorly-received by critics. On top of that, many fans who were initially critical of The Lost World and favored Jurassic Park III over it have started to gravitate more to the second film over the years, since it did follow many themes of the original while bringing its own uniqueness to the franchise. The third film, meanwhile took a totally different path and didn't have many of the majestic moments of the first film or much of the adventurous moments of the second film.
• The Problem with Licensed Games: Most of the games based on the film were reviewed fairly poorly, including platformer The DNA Factor and isometric action game Island Attack.
• Replacement Scrappy: The Spinosaurus for the T. rex and it is arguably one of the most infamous examples of this trope.
• Romantic Plot Tumor: There are minutes here and there that the movie tries to dedicate to Paul and Amanda rekindling their relationship... but it's sadly an absolute bore to sit through.
• Rooting for the Empire: Given how idiotic and occasionally unsympathetic most of the protagonists are in this movie, some didn't really mind if the Spinosaurus and the other dinosaurs succeeded in eating them.
• The Scrappy:
  • Amanda Kirby has a huge hatedom and is among the least popular characters in the series for her frequent screaming and general idiocy on an island full of predatory dinosaurs. There's also the fact that she never mourned her ex-boyfriend even though he saved her son's life at the cost of his own. Her and Paul lying to Grant about why they would go the island didn't help either one out, though Paul gets much less hate due to him fending off the Spinosaurus, which redeemed him enough for many.
  • Depending on your interpretation of the "Barney" scene, either Barney himself for distracting Ellie's son while Grant and company are in mortal danger... or Ellie's son for being distracted by Barney while Grant and company are in mortal danger. Or both.
    Ellie: Alan, he's three.
• Signature Scene: The Spinosaurus Versus T. rex scene, which concludes with the brutal death of the latter, more popular dinosaur, sparked waves of mockery that transcended the boundaries of the fandom, eventually upgrading the Spinosaurus to the status of stock dinosaur and popularizing the idea of the species having a rivalry with the T. rex in multiple works across all media.
• So Bad, It's Good: Although it's often brought up as one of the (if not the) worst Jurassic Park movies, the film has a following who enjoy it for having several unintentionally hilarious moments bordering on Black Comedy, mostly brought upon by many of the characters acting like complete idiots. The effects looking quite a bit weaker than the previous two films can just add onto it.
• Special Effect Failure:
  • As if the Spinosaurus wasn't controversial enough, for about half the movie it's a blatantly obvious animatronic when it's used in broad daylight. The CGI model fares a little better, however and the animatronic looks much better in the darker scenes.
  • With the possible exception of the raptors and Pteranodons that transition between animatronics and CGI almost seamlessly, the effects, both practical and digital, are a bit weaker than in the previous two films. Examples include the green screen effects in the opening, and the CGI herbivores that turn up every now and again.
• Tear Jerker:
  • Amanda crying over the fact that Eric is alone on this island after discovering Ben's corpse.
  • Dr. Grant mourning Billy after thinking he died, especially after the last words he said to him.
  • Grant lamenting about how being a paleontologist means that you can never truly see or touch the things you study, and that they all, deep down, study dinosaurs as a way to chase this unachievable dream.
  • Amanda and Eric crying out for Paul, thinking he died. Thankfully he survived.
• Ugly Cute: The Ceratosaurus. It would be a fearsome predator, but the hilarious Oh, Crap! expression it makes (directly into the camera no less) once it detects the scent of Spinosaurus dung make it a far more endearing creature.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • For a number of viewers the Kirbys came across as this because they lied to Grant and then practically kidnap him and ended up get several people killed.
  • For some, Amanda Kirby was more unsympathetic specifically because of her initial screaming and carelessness ends up attracts several predators that chase the group while her husband is at least, usually, more reasonable and willing to listen to Grant’s warnings.
  • Nash and Udesky catch some hate for abandoning their buddy Cooper to be ultimately devoured by the Spinosaurus. What gets overlooked is that not only did they just realize how in over their heads they were and rightly panicked, but they still had several civilians whom they were responsible for safeguarding and the best way to do this in that moment, with a 50+ foot superpredator barreling toward them, was to get everyone who was on the plane as high up in the air as quickly as possible.
• Vindicated by History: While not the most praised of the franchise, audience opinion on this has eased up a bit since its release, with many finding praise for the Visual Effects of Awesome and citing that while it's not as memorable as the original, it is easier to follow than Lost World and is essentially just a straight up adventure flick that's much more contained with a smaller cast. Plus, unlike all the films in the series, it doesn't follow the corporate side of things nor carries the usual Aesop of playing around with nature. Giving anyone who was annoyed by those plots a much needed break from them. It helps that Sam Neill has cited it's his favorite of the franchise and that he had a pleasant time filming it. Jurassic World Dominion also made the Alan/Ellie shippers ease up on the film by having the pair eventually rekindle their romance over two decades later.
• Visual Effects of Awesome:
  • The effects that brought the Pteranodons to life weren't half bad. The practical effects used for them are particularly praised, especially with the little baby Pteranodon puppets and the adult suits/animatronics whose movements are scarily birdlike.
  • The Velociraptors are quite impressive as well to this day, with their eerily realistic movements and behavior. This extends to both the CG and puppets: there's a shot of a raptor's legs walking up to Udesky before tearing into his back; the legs are prosthetics worn by an actor, but it looks utterly real.
  • The Spinosaurus animatronic during the river and boat attack soars into this, being able to preform smoothly and in a terrifying manner despite being drenched from it being half submerged in water and getting rained on.

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