Michael Crichton is gone. Spielberg dropped down to executive producer. Jeff Goldblum suffered an injury before filming began and dropped out. The script is unfinished when filming starts. "Jurassic Park III" set itself up to be a disaster, but perseverance paid off to create an enjoyable, if lacking, survival movie filled with (yet again) brilliantly designed dinosaurs.... even if they don't fit in with the previous films in the series.

Amanda and Paul Kirby (Tea Leoni and William H. Macy respectively) have lost their child on Isla Sorna, otherwise known as Site B in the Jurassic Park project, after a parasailing incident. Lying to get Alan Grant (Sam Neil) onto a plane for a fly-over in order to search for their son, the group faces a small problem when the pilot botches a take off, leaving them stranded on an island full of the most lethal predators the world has ever seen.

Funny story: While viewing this film on opening day, the first early morning showing, I was nearly kicked out for blowing up in a tirade when a raptor actually talks during a dream sequence early in the film. It took five minutes and an usher to finally settle me down. Basic rule of thumb: Don't mess with my dinosaur movies.

Regardless, the scriptwriters here basically took an attitude of "the hell with it" and let the design department go nuts. Their latest creation, the Spinosaur, is a brilliantly realized monster. Though it makes absolutely no sense when you think of the previous two films (how could they miss the largest predator on the island twice?), the impact this animal will have on future entries is obvious.

In the films most exciting moment, a Tyrannosaur, a major threat in both of the preceding films, enters into a life or death struggle with the long-snouted newcomer. With a sort of primitive "passing of the torch," the Spinosaur soundly defeats what was once the king. It is this moment where the film picks up a head of steam, which it never lets go of.

Running briskly at around 90 minutes (the shortest film in the series by over thirty minutes), little time is wasted with any type of a storyline and the shooting script likely contained countless lines like "dinosaur attacks." This relentless pace keeps the audience in their seats with one shock moment after another. The raptors reappearance is wonderful, a welcome change from the clumsy and rather stupid animals in "The Lost World." Their new ability to communicate follows with recent research and used with perfection.