Jurassic Park III 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.5

Jurassic Park III 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 27, 2018

Universal has released 'Jurassic Park III,' often considered the least of all the franchise films, to the UHD format alongside 'Jurassic Park,' 'The Lost World,' and 'Jurassic World,' all available only in bundles, both a DigiBook and a Best Buy exclusive SteelBook set. This film's UHD video struggles but the audio is excellent. No new extras have been added. Read on for more details.

A young boy goes missing on Isla Sorna. His parents, divorcees Paul (William H. Macy) and Amanda (Téa Leoni) Kirby, pose as wealthy adventurers who approach Dr. Allan Grant (Sam Neill) and his assistant, Billy Brennan (Alessandro Nivola), and coerce them into returning to Sorna under the pretext of acting as tour guides from the safety of a plane that will not touch down on the island. But touch down it does, against Grant's better judgment. The team of desperate parents and dinosaur veterans finds itself staring down a violently hostile and increasingly intelligent dinosaur population -- including Raptors -- in what seems like a lost cause rescue mission with even lower odds of escaping the island alive.

For a full film review, please click here; scores for movie, Blu-ray video, and supplements are carried over from that review.

Jurassic Park III 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc. Watch for 4K screenshots at a later date.

Wait…is it the UHD disc in the player? Or the Blu-ray? The Lost World's opening island title card sparkled with a bright white coloring. Here on Jurassic Park III's 2160p/HDR-enhanced UHD presentation, the Isla Sorna lettering is very dull, with no dynamism to it at all (though the "Fort Peck Lake" card about 10 minutes later is brighter, but exhibits vertical streaking). The shot accompanying the card is very dark, and the Blu-ray actually looks to be more detailed, at least as detailed as the island greenery and rocky formations can appear from distance, and it's not very sharp on either. But that's the first few seconds of the movie on an establishing, probably second unit, shot. How about everything else? Eh. This is not a dynamic image. At all. It's not particularly nice to look at, and it wasn't a very enjoyable image to review, either. That doesn't mean it looks horrible. This looks horrible. Jurassic Park III on UHD does not. Uninteresting, but not horrible. Grain hasn't been scrubbed to death, but the image is often undeniably flat, pasty, without much depth of field or visual contrast. The image lacks the colorful saturation of Jurassic Park on UHD and the fine point clarity and cinematic texturing of the sequel. This image just looks bland. Much of that seems attributable to Director Joe Johnston's and Cinematographer Shelly Johnson's composition and other visual choices that render the movie fairly drab (even on Blu-ray and its brighter, but less finely saturated, colors).

The image is so much darker than the Blu-ray under the HDR-10 coloring that details seem to flatten under the burden. Blue skies and green vegetation enjoy more vitality and depth in bright exteriors, but so many scenes just appear overwhelming absorbed, including under the dense jungle canopy. Essential details are largely fine, but certainly unspectacular. Skin, clothes, leaves, some practical dinosaur models, most of it's fairly strong, but not substantial. Black levels and shadow detail are fair and skin tones are decent under the movie's darkened HDR parameters. Ultimately, this is a very serviceable UHD image of a fairly bland movie that can look fairly strong in places and fairly weak in others. HDR colors don't do it many favors and details, while crisp, can't match Jurassic Park at its best or darn near anything in The Lost World. This is easily the most frustrating of the four (soon to be five) Jurassic films on UHD.

Jurassic Park III 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Jurassic Park III's new DTS:X Master Audio soundtrack is of course a beast, though perhaps not quite as ambitious and absolutely intense as the other tracks in the original trilogy series. This one is never afraid to push limits and engage every last inch of sonic real estate at its disposal. Surround activity comes regularly and is prodigious in volume and engagement. Numerous action scenes produce a very impressive array of top-end, high-impact moments of sonic bliss. A plane crash 22 minutes in delivers exceptional movement through the stage and high yield low end impacts, and the subsequent rolling of the hull creates a tumbling effect through the stage that is very firm and very capable of not only sending a singular roll through the listening area but adding in all of the little odds and ends nuances that give that authentic edge as various objects and passengers tumble about with it. A stampede of dinosaurs powers through the stage in chapter 10, offering a fantastic blend of low end engagement and total stage saturation as dense and heavy footfalls power throughout the listening area. Raptor shrieks, swooping pterodactyls, and all variety of dinosaur-specific sound effects present with fantastic vigor and clarity, often reverberating about and often with some semblance of a top layer component. Jungle ambience is immersive and smartly positioned. Music soars with refined clarity and natural spacing. Dialogue is clear and well prioritized with consistent front-center placement.

Jurassic Park III 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Jurassic Park III's UHD disc carries over the special effects team commentary track. Otherwise, all extras are included on the bundled Blu-ray. Below is a list of what's included. For a full supplemental review, please click here.

• Return to Jurassic Park: The Third Adventure
• Archival Featurettes
• The Making of Jurassic Park III
• The Dinosaurs of Jurassic Park III
• The Special Effects of Jurassic Park III
• The Industrial Light & Magic Press Reel
• The Sounds of Jurassic Park III
• The Art of Jurassic Park III
• Montana: Finding New Dinosaurs
• Behind the Scenes
• Tour of Stan Winston Studio
• Spinosaurus Attack the Plane
• Raptors Attack Udesky
• The Lake
• A Visit to ILM
• Dinosaur Turntables
• Storyboards to Final Feature Comparison
• Production Photographs
• Theatrical Trailer
• Audio Commentary

Jurassic Park III 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Jurassic Park III is a very serviceable Adventure film that, unfortunately, falls rather flat on UHD, at least in terms of its video presentation. The good news is that audio is excellent and the included carryover supplement are fine. Worth a look.