Rent The Lost World: Jurassic Park on Amazon Video (paid link) // Buy the book (paid link)
Written by: Michael Crichton (novel "The Lost World"), David Koepp (screenplay)
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Pete Postlethwaite, Arliss Howard, Richard Attenborough, Vince Vaughn, Peter Stormare, Richard Schiff
Rated: PG-13
Watch the trailer
Plot
A research team is sent to the Jurassic Park Site B island to study the dinosaurs there, while an InGen team approaches with another agenda.
Verdict
This is a movie that wants to be Jurassic Park. Unfortunately they just can't capture that magic again. This provides reason enough to go back, but it's no surprise when the mission faces insurmountable hurdles. This becomes characters just trying to escape. Bringing a dinosaur stateside stretches credibility too far. That feels indulgent, like some kind of fan service or a blatant attempt to one up the first one.
Skip it.
Review
This starts on Isla Sorna, an island just south of Isla Nublar where the original movie occurred. Apparently Hammond had a second site. Sorna was the real test lab and Nublar was just for show. The movie states that the dinosaurs were hatched and raised on Sorna, but we know the first movie showed dinosaurs hatched on Nublar. It's a little bit of ret-conning.
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| Jeff Goldblum plays Ian Malcolm |
Hammond wants to send a team to Sorna to document dinosaurs living naturally and institute a dinosaur habitat. That team includes Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldlbum) who outright refuses. That is until he learns his girlfriend Sarah (Julianne Moore) is already on the island. Ian agree to go on the basis of it being a rescue mission. Ian sets off to Sorna, but his daughter sneaks onto the plane. It's as cliche as it sounds.
As Ian and team locate Sarah, another military styled team arrives in helicopters with an assortment of vehicles and weapons. They're much less subtle in their disruptions of local wildlife. They're luring and capturing different species, wanting to bring dinosaurs stateside to start a local zoo. Hammond was ousted as company head after the first movie. He now wants to leave the islands alone, but of course his nephew now in charge wants to create a local dinosaur zoo as the islands are just too far away.
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| Vince Vaughn, Richard Schiff, Jeff Goldblum play Nick Van Owen, Eddie Carr, Ian Malcolm |
What this does well is building tension. We wonder what's lurking nearby, what's next. It's no surprise Spielberg directed this. The instant we see a baby T-Rex, we know what's coming. Ian's the only person that's done this before and knows how bad it can get. Soon we meet Raptors, but they're not as impressive as the first movie where they worked together in tandem to attack prey.
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| Vince Vaughn, Julianne Moore play Nick Van Owen, Sarah Harding |
This soon devolves to various factions trying to run away to varying results. The movie becomes dull at the end, a bunch of big action scenes with the only point being shock and awe. Where this really loses it, is when a T-Rex is brought stateside. Of course it escapes. It's silly, like this is trying to mimic King Kong. It's indulgent fan service. Somehow the ship crashes into the port, all the crew dead. At what point did they all die? Moments before they arrived at the dock? The boat would have veered off course long before port. Ian must save the city from a T-Rex, and it's just a few steps too far into the fantastical. In reality, just trying to escape the island would be the most anyone could do. Trying to capture a T-Rex is such a ridiculous venture. I doubt they'd ever get it off the island before something went wrong.
They subdue the T-Rex, and then it's shipped back to Sorna. It's a great idea to but a dinosaur on the boat, since it worked so well the first time. This only seems to leave the island in a way to one up the first movie. Short of that, it's almost a retread. That's also what robs this movie of nuance and tension.
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