After an incident where a child is injured, John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) reveals to Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) that Jurassic Park has a Site B on an island 80 miles away from the original park. Site B was abandoned after a hurricane and all the dinosaurs released to roam free and now that Hammond has lost control of his company to his nephew he wants Malcolm and some other experts to observe the dinosaurs and spearhead a policy of non-interference.
Malcolm is initially reticent until he finds out that Hammond has already persuaded his girlfriend Dr. Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore) to take the trip. Their group is then completed by the addition of equipment specialist Eddie Carr (Richard Schiff), photojournalist and animal activist Nick Van Owen and a stowaway in the form of Malcolm’s daughter Kelly (Vanessa Chester).
However just as the team are getting their bearings a competing group led by Hammond’s nephew Peter Ludlow (Arliss Howard) arrives on the island with the formidable Roland Tembo (Pete Postlthwaite) who for all intents and purposes is the antithesis of the original films Robert Muldoon. A big game hunter after the ultimate predator.
Whilst The Lost World is an entertaining action movie it does suffer from living in the shadow of Jurassic Park. One of its biggest flaws is that its characters are not as interesting and as a result we are not as invested in their survival. We have the short cut of knowing Jeff Goldblum’s Malcolm from the original film but virtually no one else makes an impact. Of the main group Sarah and Kelly’s role is clearly trying to give the same dynamic with Malcolm as Dr. Grant had with Ellie and Hammond’s grandkids in the first film. But it never quite clicks in the same way and they tend to lean more towards characters in peril than characters. Vince Vaughn’s character probably makes the least impact and just seems to disappear, whilst Richard Schiff’s character whilst friendly may as well be wearing a red jacket. Of the secondary group you essentially just have a bunch of no name cannon fodder and Pete Postlethwaite making the most impact in the entire film. He certainly has the most fun introduction as he tears into Ludlow for being a little inexperienced in the field.
As far as the dinosaurs go this film decides to flip the focus of the original film by making the T-Rex the star and giving the velociraptor a cameo. It’s a nice change and gives Spielberg the chance to pay homage to King Kong in the final third. Although I must say it feels slightly incongruous that the film switches to a chase in San Diego after spending the majority of its time in the jungles of Costa Rica.
Whilst the characters are flat and the plot takes a turn at the end the one thing that remains consistent is Spielberg’s handling of the action set pieces and humour. Excusing some gymnastics parallel bars randomly appearing in a scene the dinosaur set pieces are exciting and tense. The humour also starts right at the beginning when a screaming mother cuts to a yawning Malcolm on the subway.
Perhaps it is telling that Spielberg stepped away from the franchise after this entry with the only other sequels that he has taken on being Indiana Jones where he made the first four entries.
Entertaining, but no classic.
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