You can hardly go wrong with these films, yet Johnston has added nothing particularly notable besides a slightly above-average interest in the relationships between the characters. But there's none of Spielberg's extremely high standards for plot, character and, most of all, effects. Rather, we get superficial story elements populated by people who are never anything more than they seem to be (even their sneaky secrets are obvious and untextured). We also get no taut set pieces to raise the hairs on the back of our neck.

"'No force on Earth or in Heaven could get me on that island.' So says Neill's Dr Alan Grant, who soon reinforces the Signorney Weaver-Alien rule that cash is a great incentive. Even though the plot for JP3 could well have been borrowed from an Alien sequel, this movie was actually quite entertaining. Neill and costar William H Macy were as watchable as ever, and of course, there were the monsters who were as spectacular as could have hoped, except perhaps the odd shot of the spinosaurus' snout poking at the terrified humans, which looked like a fairground attraction. Missing the refined storyline plot construction of Michael Crichton's original story, JP3 still has that unavoidable thrill of the possibility of dinosaurs living in the present tense, and director Johnston only really spoils it with the hasty ending, which makes the viewer feel maybe the spinosaurus took a bite out of the print before it got to the projectionist." --James Cartledge, London 1.Aug.01