Movie Review: The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
This movie gets a lot of hate, and I only somewhat understand it. It’s nowhere near as good as the original film, of course. But for much of the movie, it’s pretty entertaining and well made. The movie does take a turn for the worst, though, with the last act being dumb, mindless action.
One thing that I loved about the first movie was the sense of wonder it had. This movie doesn’t have that, but it at least sort of tries. The first time the protagonists see dinosaurs, there’s a tiny bit of that, but almost immediately there’s an action scene.
Not many characters return from the last movie, but one that of course does is Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), the best character in that movie. Here, he’s almost a completely different character. He’s not as likable or as funny. The new characters are mostly forgettable, too. The only ones that leave an impression are Eddie Carr (Richard Schiff, The West Wing), who I like a lot, and especially Roland (Pete Postlethwaite, In the Name of the Father). Roland is such an awesome character. He’s a big game hunter who wants nothing more than to take down a t-rex.
This movie has a lot going for it, of course. Steven Spielberg returns as director, John Williams returns with the score, and the visual effects are still remarkable. I really like the scene where everybody’s tracking the herbivores out in a closing. It’s a fun scene and you get to see so many dinosaurs, and see what they can do.
The movie also has a lot more of the t-rex, and that’s not really a problem earlier in the movie. After all, there are two this time, and there are some pretty thrilling scenes with those things going around killing people.
I also like that this movie really withholds on showing you the velociraptors. Those were really the breakout stars of the first movie, so I like that they don’t show up for a while. When they do show up, it’s great. The scene with the raptors taking people down one by one in the field is really well done, and absolutely thrilling.
Sure, we don’t care about any of the characters involved, but I really like the way it’s shot.
When our main characters finally face off against the raptors is when it goes downhill, though. In essentially the first of two climaxes, Jeff Goldblum’s daughter is able to knock out a raptor with her gymnastics skills which were mentioned at like one moment earlier in the movie.
If this moment had been the only absurd thing to happen in the movie, perhaps it would be forgivable, but it’s just a sign of things to come.
Later, InGen brings a t-rex to San Diego, and somehow the people piloting the boat are killed, even though the t-rex is still locked up. So the boat crashes, and the t-rex escapes, rampaging through San Diego and killing a bunch of people. It’s a very silly scene, but it’s sort of entertaining.
It’s certainly dumber than anything in the first one, though, and that’s really what the Jurassic Park series has all been about: becoming increasingly dumb.
I still enjoy this movie to a certain extent, but I wouldn’t mind turning it off shortly after the raptors show up. It’s downhill from there. Up until the gymnastics part, it’s a fairly worthy sequel, despite a less interesting story.
Rating: 6/10
