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#329 - The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Steven Spielberg, 1997
After the events of Jurassic Park, Dr. Ian Malcolm is brought back in to join an expedition to investigate a second island filled with genetically engineered dinosaurs.
The original Jurassic Park has always been a favourite of mine to some extent or another but this is actually the first time I've seen any of its cinematic continuations (and I'll probably end up catching the third film before Jurassic World comes out as well), but now that I've seen it I can't help but wonder if I should have kept it that way. The Lost World hits a lot of the narrative beats common to those most redundant of sequels - a convenient semi-recycling of the premise (there's a second island full of dinosaurs that wasn't previously mentioned?), an almost entirely new cast of characters (there are four characters returning from the first film, and only one of them is in the film for more than a minute or two), and most obviously an attempt to escalate the scale on every conceivable level that ironically does nothing to actually increase the excitement. There are more characters of varying degrees of sympathy but few are of any genuine interest with the possible exception of Pete Postlethwaite's game hunter, whose interest in the human antagonist's expedition is motivated more by the chance to hunt a T-rex rather than capture it for a rival dinosaur theme park.
One of the main flaws with the original Jurassic Park is that it did spend a lot of time on not just building up to the inevitable dinosaur rampage but also playing up the spectacle. The Lost World does try to compensate by jumping straight into the action thrills (after a lengthy sequence of scenes introducing the conflict and characters, of course). Unfortunately, it doesn't manage to sustain said thrills for long as the dinosaur effects don't hold up all that well under the pressure of action sequences. In addition to the repetition of the jungle island setting, the action often involves repeating setpieces from the last movie - the most memorable one involves an RV dangling over a cliff while being besieged by a T-rex (you know, instead of a jeep). Even the attempt to stage a finale involving a T-rex rampaging through an urban centre (and it's not like this is much of a spoiler considering how the trailer I saw years back played up the T-rex getting into a suburban backyard) just comes across as excessive in the film's greater context, but it does make for an eye-catching trailer. I'm not sure if it's an age thing or if it really is just a very lacklustre sequel, but I just felt extremely underwhelmed by The Lost World and its almost complete inability to recapture the charm of the original. There's enough going on that I don't hate the film, but there's not enough here that makes me think it really needed to exist either. Still going to watch Jurassic Park III when it airs on TV later this week, though.
Steven Spielberg, 1997
After the events of Jurassic Park, Dr. Ian Malcolm is brought back in to join an expedition to investigate a second island filled with genetically engineered dinosaurs.
The original Jurassic Park has always been a favourite of mine to some extent or another but this is actually the first time I've seen any of its cinematic continuations (and I'll probably end up catching the third film before Jurassic World comes out as well), but now that I've seen it I can't help but wonder if I should have kept it that way. The Lost World hits a lot of the narrative beats common to those most redundant of sequels - a convenient semi-recycling of the premise (there's a second island full of dinosaurs that wasn't previously mentioned?), an almost entirely new cast of characters (there are four characters returning from the first film, and only one of them is in the film for more than a minute or two), and most obviously an attempt to escalate the scale on every conceivable level that ironically does nothing to actually increase the excitement. There are more characters of varying degrees of sympathy but few are of any genuine interest with the possible exception of Pete Postlethwaite's game hunter, whose interest in the human antagonist's expedition is motivated more by the chance to hunt a T-rex rather than capture it for a rival dinosaur theme park.
One of the main flaws with the original Jurassic Park is that it did spend a lot of time on not just building up to the inevitable dinosaur rampage but also playing up the spectacle. The Lost World does try to compensate by jumping straight into the action thrills (after a lengthy sequence of scenes introducing the conflict and characters, of course). Unfortunately, it doesn't manage to sustain said thrills for long as the dinosaur effects don't hold up all that well under the pressure of action sequences. In addition to the repetition of the jungle island setting, the action often involves repeating setpieces from the last movie - the most memorable one involves an RV dangling over a cliff while being besieged by a T-rex (you know, instead of a jeep). Even the attempt to stage a finale involving a T-rex rampaging through an urban centre (and it's not like this is much of a spoiler considering how the trailer I saw years back played up the T-rex getting into a suburban backyard) just comes across as excessive in the film's greater context, but it does make for an eye-catching trailer. I'm not sure if it's an age thing or if it really is just a very lacklustre sequel, but I just felt extremely underwhelmed by The Lost World and its almost complete inability to recapture the charm of the original. There's enough going on that I don't hate the film, but there's not enough here that makes me think it really needed to exist either. Still going to watch Jurassic Park III when it airs on TV later this week, though.