Lost World: Jurassic Park
Dir Steven Spielberg
Written by David Koepp, Michael Crichton (novel)
Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Vince Vaughn, Vanessa Lee Chester, Pete Postlethwaite, Arliss Howard, Richard Schiff, Peter Stomare, Richard Attenborough
Four years after the tragic events at Jurassic Park, John Hammond (Attenborough) has lost control of his company InGen to his pompous nephew Peter (Howard). Wanting to show the world the awe of dinosaurs one last time, be quests Ian Malcolm (Goldblum) to head to a sister island to document the dinosaurs in their natural habitat, and it just so happens Hammond has already sent Malcolm’s girlfriend Sarah (Moore) to the island days ago.
With no options but to go, he heads there with photographer Vaughn and equipment specialist Schiff to track her down, and also his teen daughter Kelly (Chester) has stowed away in secret, and joins them. Soon they discover Peter has come to the island himself with his team, and plan on taking dinosaurs off the island!
Fairly subpar sequel to the classic first movie does a lot wrong. While it was based on the novel of the same name, there is very little that is the same. While Malcolm is the lead in both the novel and the movie here, he does not have the same gravitas that Sam Neil’s Alan had from the first movie.
There is a few too many inconsistencies in the screenplay, and in logistics that can’t be ignored. A couple that bothered me was as the Malcolm team were approaching the island, the captain of the boat called the islands Las Cinco Muertes to which a character is shocked at – but it was on a poster in the van the audience saw less than five minutes earlier. Kelly was able to stow away in the van, so did that mean Malcolm didn’t say goodbye? The biggest annoyance was how all the people were eaten on the boat in the third act. This was apparently explained in a deleted scene, but plays poorly in the finished product. Another character is seen in the second act and never seen again.
The score is also significantly weaker than that of the first movie, and is far less memorable or dynamic its predecessor.
The ups for me were the supporting cast, with several great character actors joining the action. Vaughn, Schiff and Stomare are all great (with the latter two a tad underused due to ‘reasons’) The MVP goes to the late great Pete Postlethwaite as the game hunter Roland. He plays one of the well written and developed characters in the entire franchise.
While there were a couple of ups, this is mostly a letdown watching again. Still not as bad as what is to come.
3/5