Perhaps the first thing that can be realized with the Lost World: Jurassic Park, is that it partly shares the title with the 1925 silent film, the Lost World, which also highly influenced this newer movie. The biggest example of this influence is not exactly the title, but actually the fact that both films culminate where a dinosaur is let loose in a major city and causes severe damage. It makes for quite an exciting finale, which can either be viewed as a good thing in providing more excitement to the movie, or as a bad thing in that it only adds to how 'far-fetched' the movie is.
Four years after the events of Jurassic Park, John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) has lost control of his company In Gen to his greedy nephew Peter Ludlow (Arliss Howard). While Ludlow sends in an expedition to capture live Dinosaur specimens, so does Hammond, who sends in a little expedition of his own with Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) this time leading the team. When the two teams become stranded on the island together, they must work together to survive the odds against Dinosaur attacks.
The weakest thing about the Lost World: Jurassic Park, is that the dinosaurs this time around are not as foreboding or formidable as they were the first go around. In that sense, the dinosaurs themselves continue to look very real and authentic. Even still, I am remain amazed at how the filmmakers managed to create these giant beasts. These creatures look so real, but the problem is that we've seen it all before.
Dinosaurs hunt people. Dinosaurs eat people. It makes for good entertainment. Humans barely manage to survive and escape in the end. Bottom line is that dinosaurs and humans cannot coexist, but they are put together anyway to make good cinema.
The Lost World: Jurassic Park is not without some thrilling moments. The scene where, after an attack by two T-Rex's, the motorhome vehicles start dangling over the edge of a cliff and one guy has to tow them back up to save the heroes inside while still facing T-Rex's (don't ask me why they chose to park their motorhome on the edge of a cliff). In another intense scene, men run around in a field at night as Velociraptors start to pick them off one by one. You might even call the end exciting, where the T-Rex is accidentaly let loose in LA. I'm sure that there's other scenes that just aren't in my mind right now.
For a Spielberg pic though, I'm sorry, but he could do better. The first Jurassic Park was quite an expierence. This time around, we know that the dinosaurs look like and can do, so what's the big deal? In that knowledge, the Lost World: Jurassic Park is not almost anything that Jurassic Park was, but thankfully, Spielberg did a good enough direction to not turn this into a waste of time. Big, loud, exciting and entertaining, the Lost World: Jurassic Park managed to pull off being another big box-office success, though not on the scale as the first installment.
I said towards the end of my review of the first Jurassic Park that if I ever made a list of 'Must See Movies', then you could be sure to find Jurassic Park on there. Would I put the Lost World: Jurassic Park on there? Most likely not. But if you liked the first Jurassic Park, then I see no reason of why you shouldn't give this one a look. You'll like the animatronics, the dinosaurs, the special-effects and the excitement. But what else is there to talk about?
*** /5
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