7. Jurassic Park III
You can't really go wrong dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are cool. And Jurassic Park nailed it. It was exciting (the T-Rex chase sequence). It was tense (the raptors in the kitchen). It had great humour (pretty much anything with Jeff Goldblum's Malcolm) and brilliant action set pieces (the end sequence in the foyer where the T Rex takes on the raptors whilst our heroes make their daring escape). But there were also great characters in Sam Neil's Alan and Laura Dern's Ellie - and of course Richard Attenborough's John Hammond. There was a great story in the attempt to use dinosaur DNA to clone new beasts and the theme park setting was twisted and fun. The sequel didn't have as strong a story, though it had great characters again - particularly the late great Pete Postlethwaite as Rolan Tembo and some utterly thrilling sequences (the double T-Rex attack on the trailer is the most exciting action piece in the entire trilogy and the T-Rex loose in the city is a whole lot of fun) The trouble is, with the second sequel, characterisation and plot seems to be a bit thin on the ground. The family searching for their son is a weak and somewhat irritating story line and only the return of Sam Neil as Alan Grant adds any gravitas to the cast. It's also a film without an ending. They run to the beach and make their escape, watching as Pteranodons fly off to the mainland to terrorise the human populace...and then there are the end credits. It ends so abruptly you wonder what the purpose of the fi;m was about. Well apparently the purpose of the film was to introduce flying dinosaurs, missing from the franchise so far, add some feathers to raptors because paleontologists have now discovered these beasts had them and introduce the spinosaurus, discovered since the first Jurassic park film just to have something bigger and badder than the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Too much of the effects and the realisation of new dinosaurs that had not been seen on screen before and not enough plot to maintain a third film in the franchise. Admittedly there is still some great stuff to be had when watching this film but there is no denying that great effects aside, the trilogy went out with a whimper rather than a bang. Let's hope Jurassic Park 4 can get the franchise back on track.