The Lost World: Jurassic Park

Search Reviews · Now Playing · All Reviews

Starring	Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Pete Postlethwaite
Director	Steven Spielberg
Year	1997
What it's worth		Second run (See it as part of a double-feature or at a dollar house.)

"From capitalist to environmentalist in four years," mutters Ian Malcolm, the charming-smarmy chaostician from Jurassic Park, in amazement over the change he now finds in John Hammond, the owner of the dinosaur park that went terribly awry. And we in the audience can nod our heads in sympathy for his bemusement. This sequel to the movie that brought monsters back to the big screen has also gone through an unlikely change of heart in its new appearance. It's gone from the purely capitalistic powerhouse that Jurassic Park was to another special-effects extravaganza, but one with pretensions at an environmental message. The extra baggage bogs down the movie; where the first's plot was threadbare but focused, this one ends up muddled and astray.

Jurassic Park had a theme that, while it didn't do a great job of expressing it, was an interesting idea. It dealt with the power of natural forces and just how insignificant people can be in the face of them. Humans were meddling where they had no business being, facing up to typhoons and tyrannosaurs with equal futility. This time, the message has changed. In The Lost World, the dinosaurs have become the victims. People are still meddling where they have no business being, but now with devastating effect on the dinosaurs who just want to run (and eat) free.

The plot takes three sentences to describe. The Jurassic Park island was just the tourist facility for Hammond (Richard Attenborough) and his company. There is a second island, the one that the dinosaurs were actually being bred and born on, that remained untouched, and this one is now in danger of being exploited by the money-grubbers who are vying for control of the company. Hammond enlists Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) to help record the island's inhabitants to stir up public sentiment to keep the park pristine. Ian is persuaded to return only because his girlfriend, Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore), is already part of the team. Include an eco-terrorist photographer, a good-guy gadgets man, and a stowaway kid, and you have all the makings for the Jurassic Park sequel.

The biggest hurdle Lost World has to clear is to somehow stand out from its predecessor, to try to be more than just an extension of the special effects from Jurassic Park. It has mixed success. There were a few moments that I began to wonder whether we weren't seeing recycled footage from four years ago: in particular, I got an incredible feeling of deja vu when a tyrannosaur chases a jeep down a road and when a lone party member enters an abandoned power building.

In spite of the wispy plot, the movie delivers what it promises: dinosaurs. Lots of stomping, leaping, growling, impressive-looking dinosaurs. The special effects crew shows off some of the improvements they've made in the last four years: there's a scene that is amazing to watch when a group of the corporation bad guys ride jeeps and motorcycles right through the midst of a dinosaur herd. Those effects are the main reason for my rating for the movie: I figure they're worth paying a second-run theater price for. This is a movie to catch on the big screen if you can - don't wait for it to appear on cable or the video store and expect those dinosaurs to look nearly so impressive. But while there are some great lines of dialogue in the movie, a few very witty moments, but unfortunately, there's no decent story to sew those lines together.

Just like the first film, we're treated to an initial flurry of dinosaurs. The stegosaurs get a nice showcase, and we get to see a healthy triceratops for a few moments. But this time, the tyrannosaurs take the center stage from the velociraptors, and before long, the movie settles into the tyrannosaurs' battle against the people. They're suddenly gifted with King Kong-like intelligence (including anger and vengeance motives), and the parallel with the ape movie continues when suddenly, after it seems the story should be wrapping up, we're taken back to the U.S. mainland for a tyrannosaur's import and subsequent escape to wreak havoc on San Diego. It's as if an entire other mini-movie is jammed onto the end of the first, and while it plays up for some of the best laughs of the film, it's completely unnecessary and a jarring change of pace.

See the movie if you're a dinosaur or a special-effects fan. Enjoy the chance to see movie magic - dinosaurs roaming the same ground as people - that you'll never get to see anywhere else. But be prepared for a jumbled story that never seems sure of what it wants to do next.

Browse the other In The Dark reviews and weekly release information.

More information about this movie is available at the Internet Movie Database.

In the Dark is created by Beth Ann Griese. In the Dark and the reviews on it are copyrighted; you may link to any portion of this site, but the contents cannot be copied without permission.