Reviewed by Jon Barton

Released years ago, and unashamedly showing its age, James Ballard's neo attempt to recreate a jaw dropping film sadly fails to inspire in the way Spielberg's original did. Rather less appreciated is the almost randomesque nature of the story, essentially revolving around the hunter and the hunted arc, ultimately relying on this idea far too often to tell a one dimensional story.

Why be so negative in the opening paragraph alone? Because ironically, the opening of the film is the most promising part, a shot moving in on Isla Sorna as John Williams' monumental soundtrack kicks in. Afterward Ballard's ideas never seem to take off and give as powerful an impact as the score suggests, loading JP:UC full of red herring shots where we rarely see the dinosaurs themselves. A flaw yes, and although bearing in mind the movie was made before a lot of changes, before we saw a butt-kicking Godzilla roar into the Bored with 3dmm Demon's face, and before HMCs became really impressive construction-wise, it still doesn't answer the question.

The answer is titular. Jurassic Park gave me reason to love cinema. Yes back in 1993 the movie was enormous. Yes 11 years ago now Spielberg's dinosaurs roared onto the screen in a way never seen before. And in a way a kid completely unaware of cinema's institutional heritage could understand, Jurassic Park was the movie that changed my viewing habits substantially. As a result, I have and will always have a soft spot for the masterpiece and sadly, although I give full credit to Ballard for the attempt, it breaks my heart to see a 3dmm version made for different reasons Crichton wrote the concept. UC does not test ideas of nature vs. nurture and it certainly doesn't tackle the principles of man-made disaster. Instead, a rather bubbly version of the complex discovery plot exists here, with a patchy script and a premise so simple that it doesn't seem like it deserves to wield Crichton's ideas behind it. Consequently it breaks my heart to see a 3dmm version made before its time. What's worse is that Ballard is a superb director bound by limitations. Maybe people will say this about Goro and Haynes one day, when Redux is a couple of years older and 3dmming is so advanced we've discovered a way of countering nuclear terrorism with the program. But its painstaking to see how limited Ballard is with his tools, unsure of where to really hit the audience where it hurts in the same way the rising tension of the Rex ripping through electric fence could.

What's worse is that the film shows its stretch marks almost everywhere save for the excruciatingly simple plot, where ironically I would have liked to have seen stretch marks. The original and, to a lesser extent the second, used very complex plots reaching beyond the wire frame and visually demonstrating the theories of evolution and as subtitled here, chaos (a theory so handily explained by Dr. Malcolm, who also provided diagrams for the novels) that Crichton so adamantly nurtured when putting pen to paper. None of that criticism of humanity and morality here, instead Ballard is far too impatient and the potential story is the sacrificial goat to the Rex, which mostly exists as a biting head half off-screen. To be fair I cant blame Ballard for trying and I can certainly give him credit for it. Made by a very capable and very skilled director but unfortunately I can blame him for the lack of patience and rushed story which more often than not deals with how to escape the park rather than questioning how it is they were actually moronic enough to end up so inevitably stranded in the first instance.

Jurassic Park: Undiscovered Chaos is a film made before its time, and being too big for its boots it end up just being pretentious. You stop caring about the characters at the half-way point and just want Ballard to break out of the fence that keeps him contained. Unlike the raptors he never does, remaining brainless with the nature of the events. Thus, depressingly, the film isn't nearly as powerful as William's' suite suggests; despite its age the movie could have been much much better. However this is no reflection on Ballard, who is renowned in my book for being the most experimental director (indeed, panning shots were a first among most of us when he did it) director around. Unfortunately, JP:UC will remain a two star victory among his more successful efforts.

4/10