After the horrible "Lost World", the Jurassic Park series redeems itself with JP3 (ironically, without the vaunted directorial power of Steven Spielberg who was the one who dropped the ball with the last film). But let's not kid ourselves...Jurassic Park has never been about revolutionary film making (with the possible exception in the special effects department) or thought provoking plotlines. No, from the very beginning the first Jurassic Park film set a tone of fun, thrilling entertainment done with enough charm and intelligence to pass as respectable moviemaking. In this spirit, JP3 lives up to the original and will not disappoint. "The Lost World" was full of cheap thrills and gore but sorely lacked any real character and style, but JP3 succeeds where the previous film failed.For one thing, the characters have enough personality and liveliness to actually hold a film and make the viewer care when it looks like they're about to be eaten by a pteranodon. The quality cast brings a good amount of substance to a pretty conventional plot (this may have something to do with the fact that the front runner is Sam Neill again this time rather than Jeff Goldblum). The dialogue has some interesting exchanges ad there is a good amount of smart humor that really made me enjoy this film a lot. At times, the movie even pokes fun at itself and the Jurassic Park series at large, which makes for great fun.JP3 is definitely not without flaws though. Director Joe Johnston does a great job stepping in for Spielberg, but Spielberg still cannot be beat in the thrills department. The tension and anticipation of the first film is sorely missing. Although the CGI dinosaurs are the same (if not a bit better), Johnston simply doesn't give them the same intimidation and personality as Spielberg did in the first film. The kills are not nearly as stylish as in JP1, but they are also not as needlessly bloody and graphic as in The Lost World. The body count is actually kind of low this time around which was a bit disappointing to me. There was at least one character who really should have been dino food but for some reason they actually let this person live! I must also say that despite technological advancements in the area of CGI, much of the dino effects didn't really look all that convincing to me. Perhaps there was not enough blending of actual models along with the CGI. The movie is also a little bit on the short side and without giving away too much, I will say that the ending rescue really had a lot more potential than the anti-climactic way it turned out. The ending was a bit disappointing. The bottom line is that this film will not fill you with the same awe and wonder as the first film (yep, the first is still the best) but it is still far better than the second and it will fulfill your wish for a quality dose of cheap matinee entertainment in a summer that has so far been dsappointing.