Four years after events at the ill-fated Jurassic Park, chaotician Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) has seen a dip in his credibility in the academic community as John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) has been forced out of company InGen with his nephew Peter Ludlow (Arliss Howard) having assumed control and gone to great lengths in covering up the incident at the park including enforcing non-disclosure agreements on the attendants of the park (which only Malcolm has ignored). At the behest of Hammond, Dr. Malcolm pays him a visit and tells him of a second island, Isla Sorna, where dinosaurs for Jurassic Park could run free before being transferred to the main resort. Despite the dinosaurs not having the ability to produce Lysine as a counter measure against containment breaches, somehow there is now a thriving ecosystem with the dinosaurs having survived. In order to prevent possible exploitation of the dinosaurs Hammond prepares a group to travel to the island in order to document their environment in the hopes Hammond can use the research to persuade others to leave the dinosaurs isolated from humans. Dr. Malcolm initially refuses invitation for the expedition, but immediately changes his mind upon learning his girlfriend Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore) is already on the island studying the dinosaurs. Things get complicated when it's revealed Ludlow has his own expedition to the park intent on bringing the dinosaurs back to the mainland for a smaller version of Jurassic Park.
The Lost World: Jurassic Park is a 1997 sequel to 1993's Jurassic Park and a loose adaptation of the novel The Lost World by Michael Crichton. Following the massive game changing success of Jurassic Park, development began for both a new film by Steven Spielberg as well as a sequel novel by author Michael Chrichton despite Chrichton initially having no interest after the first book's publication. Due to Spielberg taking a sabbatical from directing (as well as establishing Dreamworks) there was some initial doubt as to whether or not Spielberg would return to direct the film rather than in a producing capacity. As development of the film and sequel novel were developed parallel to each other, outside of some very basic setting similarities both the film and the source novel are pretty different from each other. With the footprint left by Jurassic Park, Universal pushed the film with a massive promotional campaign with the marketing expenses nearly five times the production budget and repeat with commercial tie-ins. While the film attained the record for biggest Memorial Day opening weekend at that point the film lacked critical support and the holds of its predecessor making a little over $600 million worldwide. The Lost World: Jurassic Park has a very middling legacy (with some even calling it Spielberg's worst film, it's not: War of the Worlds '05 is in my opinion), and while it has the nuts and bolts you expect for a movie like this it lacks the compelling additions of its predecessors.
In an effort to differentiate itself from its predecessor, The Lost World largely downplays the adventurous tone and atmosphere of wonder in Jurassic Park that complemented the more intense sequences in that film. Featuring a darker color palette in the filmmaking and a more dour tone The Lost World feels like it's trying to take a book from Aliens' playbook in that if Jurassic Park was more horror based this is trying to be more larger scaled and action oriented. In principle it's not a bad idea in trying to give a different experience with the dinosaurs, but while the action sequences are quite nice most of the characters who aren't Ian Malcolm or directly related to him are either disposable cannon fodder or don't endear themselves to the audience. Despite the film taking a more environmentalist theme to its story (per the trends of the 90s) the most likable new character actually ends up being Pete Postlethwaite's big game hunter Roland who's not only the most competent one of the ensemble, but also shows himself to be pretty altruistic in helping our protagonists so even though he's working for Hammond's greedy nephew Peter Ludlow (a pretty thankless placeholder role) he doesn't really make the other expedition someone to root against.
As for the other characters they're either shadows of themselves or just not very likable, Ian Malcolm who made such an impression in the first film just feels bland here (he's given some baggage with a stowaway daughter that doesn't add much) and I never felt he had much chemistry with Julianne Moore as his girlfriend. However by far the worst addition to the cast is Nick Van Owen played obnoxiously by Vince Vaughn and he's the most prominent mouthpiece for the environmental bent in the movie which feels half-hearted and confused at best especially from a character who risks peoples' lives for his ideals (and most likely got a few killed) and says odious things like how he joined Greenpeace because it's 90% women. There's nothing wrong with having environmental messages (I'm an environmentalist myself) but when you make your mouthpiece character this obnoxious and unlikable it seems more like it's attacking that stance rather than advocating it.
The dinosaurs once again look fine but aside from a few setpieces based around the T-Rex there's not a whole lot that stands out. A lot of sequences just feel chaotic and lack impact with how little an impression many of the characters make and while there's technical more that happens in Lost World in comparison to Jurassic Park it's nowhere near as memorable except for a climax or more appropriately a second ending. After the movie reaches its natural conclusion things keep on going despite this as apparently it was a sequence that Spielberg really wanted to do so instead of saving it for a potential third movie as originally planned he opted to include it in this movie. It cannot be understated how clumsily grafted onto the film this final sequence feels and not only does it not have any internal logic as to how it happened but it just feels like unnecessary bloat.
I guess if you're just looking for dinosaur based action scenes you'll get your money's worth here, but there's so little in terms of character investment it feels more like a series of video game levels going from one action scene to another. A step down from the first film.
The Lost World: Jurassic Park is a 1997 sequel to 1993's Jurassic Park and a loose adaptation of the novel The Lost World by Michael Crichton. Following the massive game changing success of Jurassic Park, development began for both a new film by Steven Spielberg as well as a sequel novel by author Michael Chrichton despite Chrichton initially having no interest after the first book's publication. Due to Spielberg taking a sabbatical from directing (as well as establishing Dreamworks) there was some initial doubt as to whether or not Spielberg would return to direct the film rather than in a producing capacity. As development of the film and sequel novel were developed parallel to each other, outside of some very basic setting similarities both the film and the source novel are pretty different from each other. With the footprint left by Jurassic Park, Universal pushed the film with a massive promotional campaign with the marketing expenses nearly five times the production budget and repeat with commercial tie-ins. While the film attained the record for biggest Memorial Day opening weekend at that point the film lacked critical support and the holds of its predecessor making a little over $600 million worldwide. The Lost World: Jurassic Park has a very middling legacy (with some even calling it Spielberg's worst film, it's not: War of the Worlds '05 is in my opinion), and while it has the nuts and bolts you expect for a movie like this it lacks the compelling additions of its predecessors.
In an effort to differentiate itself from its predecessor, The Lost World largely downplays the adventurous tone and atmosphere of wonder in Jurassic Park that complemented the more intense sequences in that film. Featuring a darker color palette in the filmmaking and a more dour tone The Lost World feels like it's trying to take a book from Aliens' playbook in that if Jurassic Park was more horror based this is trying to be more larger scaled and action oriented. In principle it's not a bad idea in trying to give a different experience with the dinosaurs, but while the action sequences are quite nice most of the characters who aren't Ian Malcolm or directly related to him are either disposable cannon fodder or don't endear themselves to the audience. Despite the film taking a more environmentalist theme to its story (per the trends of the 90s) the most likable new character actually ends up being Pete Postlethwaite's big game hunter Roland who's not only the most competent one of the ensemble, but also shows himself to be pretty altruistic in helping our protagonists so even though he's working for Hammond's greedy nephew Peter Ludlow (a pretty thankless placeholder role) he doesn't really make the other expedition someone to root against.
As for the other characters they're either shadows of themselves or just not very likable, Ian Malcolm who made such an impression in the first film just feels bland here (he's given some baggage with a stowaway daughter that doesn't add much) and I never felt he had much chemistry with Julianne Moore as his girlfriend. However by far the worst addition to the cast is Nick Van Owen played obnoxiously by Vince Vaughn and he's the most prominent mouthpiece for the environmental bent in the movie which feels half-hearted and confused at best especially from a character who risks peoples' lives for his ideals (and most likely got a few killed) and says odious things like how he joined Greenpeace because it's 90% women. There's nothing wrong with having environmental messages (I'm an environmentalist myself) but when you make your mouthpiece character this obnoxious and unlikable it seems more like it's attacking that stance rather than advocating it.
The dinosaurs once again look fine but aside from a few setpieces based around the T-Rex there's not a whole lot that stands out. A lot of sequences just feel chaotic and lack impact with how little an impression many of the characters make and while there's technical more that happens in Lost World in comparison to Jurassic Park it's nowhere near as memorable except for a climax or more appropriately a second ending. After the movie reaches its natural conclusion things keep on going despite this as apparently it was a sequence that Spielberg really wanted to do so instead of saving it for a potential third movie as originally planned he opted to include it in this movie. It cannot be understated how clumsily grafted onto the film this final sequence feels and not only does it not have any internal logic as to how it happened but it just feels like unnecessary bloat.
I guess if you're just looking for dinosaur based action scenes you'll get your money's worth here, but there's so little in terms of character investment it feels more like a series of video game levels going from one action scene to another. A step down from the first film.
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