If the first Jurassic Park movie was about humans trying to contain nature and use it for their own gains, then The Lost World: Jurassic Park is a movie about humans DOMINATING nature through any means necessary and using it for their own gains. sigh
It's bigger, bloatier, noisier and more heavily packed with less intense action sequences featuring characters we have barely gotten to know about because the movie's writing can't seem to know what idea or issue to focus on at one moment, showing us glimpses of characters and objects that might prove to be important, dedicating whole shots to them to eventually led to a luke-warm, fizzling out (what better example than the damn opening scene! It almost made me yawn) -- but it also is about pretty much the same idea and thesis we have already done and covered in Jurassic Park. This is oddly referenced in the movie when one of the main character says to the villain, "Now you are [insert first movie's villain name]", like, really? The villain was pretty much a standard villain that you see in a thousand movies.
Even the music wasn't that inspiring, it had bit more action and bite to it but it wasn't memorial and I wouldn't be able to hum it if there was a gun to my head.
The character's are mighty, mighty stupid idiots. These people that are scientists, businessmen, safari rangers seem dumber than the usual horror movie protagonists.
That is not to say the movie is never sane and good. The technical aspects of it - Spielberg's direction included - are amazing. There's a motion and momentum to the action sequences and a feeling of weight to the dinosaurs that makes everything feel more authentic and realistic and it is a delight to watch. The dinosaurs look - exept for some of the dated special effects - really good too. T-Rex and the small compies and the velociraptors are all equally a delight to watch.
This would be such a better movie if only the action scenes were done in a way that was less dumb (though they are still thrilling if you can stop thinking logically about them and just feast your eyes and ears on them) and the plot was a lot more compelling and thoughtout than what we got.
The worst thing about The Lost World: Jurassic Park is that it feels like it starts with a limp and then just keeps limping in it's half-hidden subtleness and half-heavy action way and feels like it never truly opens. Even the first big scene which looked amazing (the InGen making landfall on the island and getting to work) just doesn't payoff, it fizzles out in it's conclusion.
My overral rating would be a generous 6/10.
P.S: Julianne Moore was more beautiful in this movie than any shot of nature or dinosaurs.
It's the only movie I've seen with Vince Vaugn that isn't a comedy. Funny enough, I can probably tell you the major beats of the movie, but I couldn't tell you the plot.
A more interesting sequel might have centered around the geopolitical consequences of Jurassic Park's failure, such as a bankruptcy of InGen that triggers all kinds of spiraling events. I'm already imagining investor plots to recover their funds, nearby countries to the islands dealing with the new risks, international outrage over gross business misconduct, rising pressure on the US to clean up it's corporate mess, etc. The rippling consequences of the spare-no-expense park's failure would thicken the plot immensely.
And add more stake to it, no doubt.
Hammond's "this is our last chance of redemption" was so out of nowhere that it didn't mesh well with the movie at all. And from there it just goes downhill plot wise
I wish we could have seen something closer to the book. I really liked the character of Doc Thorne.
My favorite bit is when they kill the child at the beginning, then ten minutes later Hammond casually mentions that actually she's fine — all the bad taste, none of the dramatic impact 👌
