Jurassic Park was big.
The highest grossing movie of 1993 by a huge margin. So naturally a sequel was pre-destined. Probably a studio mandated sequel. I imagine they called up Spielberg and said, “You in or out, because we’re making this movie regardless.”
So probably as reluctantly as Dr. Ian Malcolm, Spielberg headed back to Isla Sorna.
So hold onto your b— oh wait, that guy didn’t make it out alive last time.
But hey, let’s not kick this off on a sour note.
Despite its faults, I enjoy The Lost World overall. I still remember how excited I was to see it when it first hit theaters and how it satisfied my craving for more of Spielberg’s brand of dinosaur action.
It’s a very different movie than the first, and deviates even further from Michael Crichton’s source material than its predecessor. Probably the biggest thing that sets it apart is the absence of Alan Grant as the protagonist, paving the way for Goldblum to step into the leading man role.
And you know what? In SPITE of his, ah, Goldblum, ah, isms… I actually really like him in this role.
Just like the first one, he’s got the best lines, keeping the comic relief side of his character intact.
However, this time around, he’s got way more at stake, trying to keep his girlfriend and daughter from becoming dino snacks, so he’s developed into more of a worry wart this time around which makes sense.
What doesn’t make sense is why he was brought back into the fray. Hammond wanted to put a team together to explore Site B, which has more dinosaurs (how convenient) and the idea was to observe them and collect scientific data about nature vs. nurture or some such thing but ultimately none of that matters cause they had to make up something to get people back on that island.
Meanwhile, Hammond’s self-righteous nephew has plans of his own to capture some dinos and bring them to San Diego so he can rake in the cash. But of course Goldblum and friends can’t have that because “they belong in a museum!”
No wait, wrong movie.
Can we take a quick pause here to point out that when the kids from the previous movie are having their poorly acted cameo, Mr. Pitt from Seinfeld is running around in the background doing his best Alfred impersonation. First Newman, now Mr. Pitt – let’s hope Puddy pops up as a helicopter pilot in the third one, or better yet Mickey dressed as a baby triceratops.
Sequels have to be bigger and better than the original. That’s a rule, right? In this case, I guess bigger means throwing in a ton of nameless, faceless extras on the island to up the kill count. Which is great if you’re making The Expendables 20.
But this is a Spielberg movie. What made the original Jurassic Park much more intense is the fact that we got to know each and every character by name and spend time with them before the chaos erupts. We may not care if each and every one of them makes it out alive, but at least when they do die, it means something.
If the first Jurassic Park was Jaws, The Lost World is War of the Worlds, one of the lesser Spielberg movies.
As far as the cast goes, you’ve got Goldblum, who is solid, Julianne Moore, who I love in everything, and Vince Vaughn, who if I’m not mistaken was cast based on his charismatic performance in Swingers and is the complete opposite of charisma in this role.
He’s kind of just there in this movie with very little personality to speak of, but Spielberg likes to work with emerging talent so I guess it makes sense to cast the fresh face with some heat on him, but it didn’t amount to much here and his role is not memorable except for the “hey, isn’t that Vince Vaughn” factor years later.
Also between Maude Lebowski and one of the nihilists, I half expected The Dude to pop up in a rug-inspired dream sequence which would have really tied the movie together but that’s just like, my opinion, man.
Even though it makes little sense, there’s a kid in the movie, which feels completely forced, but it’s Spielberg so there’s gotta be at least one kid (which has kind of become a Jurassic Park staple at this point). Having said that, the girl here who plays Goldblum’s daughter is far less annoying than the whiny brats from the previous movie and a much better actress too. So the movie has that going for it.
For the most part, the movie follows along the formula of the first one beat for beat, but then it starts to lose momentum in the third act which feels much less tightly plotted than the first act and feels like they didn’t really know how to end it. The idea of a T-Rex running around loose in San Diego was too tempting not to put on screen, but with each viewing, it starts to lose its luster.
But, really, how about the scene with the two Tyrannosaurs and the trailer over the cliff? That is the single best scene in the movie and rises to the heights of the first movie. The suspense generated proves Spielberg to be a master of his craft.
I wouldn’t go as far as to say the movie is all downhill from there, but not even the anticipated return of the raptors can top that scene. The less is more approach that he perfected in Jaws and then carried over to Jurassic Park was abandoned here where the raptors almost get almost too much screen time.
I wonder if Spielberg loved making the original Jurassic Park so much that he couldn’t wait to dive back into that world. I mean it’s a fun world to play in so who could blame the guy. It’s a safe bet the studio couldn’t wait. My biggest problem with the movie is it feels rushed. I’m guessing part of the reason it differs so greatly from the book is because they started writing the movie before the novel was even finished. Unlike the original movie, which gives Michael Crichton a co-screenwriting credit, this one is credited solely to David Koepp.
Lucas had his Star Wars trilogy, Zemekis had his Back to the Future trilogy, and like his contemporaries at the time, Spielberg had his trilogy as well in Indiana Jones. But despite that, I never really thought of Spielberg as a sequel guy. He launched a franchise with Jaws (last time I’ll reference Jaws, I swear), but quickly moved on to the next project after it propelled his career forward.
I wonder if the less than stellar reception to his second JP go-round made him think twice about coming back for more when clearly Universal wasn’t done making Jurassic Park movies anytime soon. It could have been the fact that clearly this is where the series was taking a turn and expanding beyond the Crichton material and just becoming a generic monster movie franchise.
Whereas the original felt like a massive achievement, The Lost World has more of a B movie feel. A very entertaining B movie, but a B movie nonetheless. But if you thought this was the low point of the series, think again. Just like John Hammond learned his lesson the hard way that bringing dinosaurs back to life wasn’t such a hot idea, Universal got schooled badly for the three-peat.
Wish me luck.
