9 Insanely Misjudged Moments That Totally Ruined Movies

7. The Talking Raptor - Jurassic Park III

Jurassic Park 3 Nightmare
Universal

One of the big problems in the Jurassic Park sequels is that the dinosaurs no longer feel scary, which, in a franchise where they're supposed to be the main bad guys, means that the tension and stakes are pretty much nonexistent.

Just think of the pure horror in that T-Rex attack scene from the original film, or the raptor ambush in the kitchen. Then, look at how these creatures are used in the first sequel, The Lost World: a T-Rex strolls around a housing estate in a scene that feels like it's being played for laughs, while a raptor kindly stands still for a few seconds, to allow a teenage girl to swing-kick it onto a spike. Brilliant.

However, it wasn't until 2001's Jurassic Park III that the dinosaurs well and truly lost their edge, mainly thanks to an early scene in which a raptor actually... talks. In English. While also sitting upright in a plane seat. Sigh.

It's unintentionally funny - misjudged both tonally, and from a story perspective. The moment was clearly meant to illustrate Alan's reluctance and terror at the thought of returning to dinosaur island, but considering that the film had already made that point on several occasions, it didn't need to be made again - especially like this.

The raptor saying "Alan!" has become a popular meme in the years since, for all the wrong reasons. It pulls you right out of the movie, and because the rest of Jurassic Park III isn't particularly impressive anyway, it's impossible to get sucked back in.

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Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!