Well everyone, today, we for sure continue on the Jurassic Park train, as we dive into the second film of that franchise. And I do want to throw something out really quick. I already rewatched at least 2015’s Jurassic World, as well as the 2018 follow up, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and reviewed them. Having said that, I do at least plan to rewatch those two as well, but not review them, as I already did so a few years ago. Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know that so that you don’t end up asking me where my reviews of Jurassic World, and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom are. Now, in the meantime, let’s discuss the second film of the first franchise, The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
Plot: After Dr. John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) discovers that there are a group of genetically engineered dinosaurs on a nearby island called Isla Sorna, he assigns Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), Malcolm’s new girlfriend, a paleontologist named Dr. Sarah Harding (Juliane Moore), and Malcolm’s daughter (Vanessa Lee Chester) to go to the island, and check out how inhabited it is. Along the way, however, they discover that Hammond’s nephew, who is head of Hammond’s former company, Ingen, wants to capture the dinosaurs, and take them back to an unfinished Jurassic Park attraction in San Diego. With the help of an environmentalist named Nick Van Owen (Vince Vaughn), and a field equipment expert named Eddie Carr (Richard Schliff), can this small group stop Ludlow, and his thugs from carrying out their mission?
Well, to start things off, The Lost World: Jurassic Park isn’t a bad sequel. First of all, there is a great deal of suspense in this film. Not only that, but some of the sound effects were very cool to listen to. I was surprised to find that one of those sound effects was used in the 2001 Disney animated film, Atlantis: The Lost Empire (which of course was released four years after this film, along with Jurassic Park 3). As for the CGI on the dinosaurs, it looks very good, if not somewhat better this time around. Additionally, the movie does help teach about how to learn to survive some rather dangerous situations. Hopefully, not nearly as many similar situations occur in real life, regardless of whether or not there are dinosaurs involved (which of course dinosaurs don’t exist in real life anymore, so that was more rhetorical), but still. As far as the score goes, it may not be as great as it was in the first installment, but very good nonetheless. I would say that the highlight of the score was probably the end of this film. It was also good to see some of the humans that showed love and compassion for the dinosaur creatures despite there being other humans that wanted to also have those creatures for their own gain. Finally, as far as the pros go for this film, it was definitely good to see at least some of the characters from the first film return for this second movie.
Even then, The Lost World: Jurassic Park is probably not one of the best sequels to have come out over twenty years ago. First of all, some of the newer characters didn’t seem to be all that fleshed out. Honestly, unlike with the first film, you don’t get to know quite nearly as many of the characters as you would like. Part of what made Jurassic Park 1 mostly a classic was that, despite there being a couple flaws in that one, at least it knew how to pace it’s story, and flesh out as many of the characters as possible. Sadly, the same cannot be said in the sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Not to mention that some of the old characters from the first film felt rather pointless this time around. Hopefully that was fixed in the third film. We shall find out fairly soon. Overall, the story seemed to focus a little too much on action, and suspense more than story this time around. I heard one of the reviews say that, and I quote, “The Lost World demonstrates how far CGI effects have come in four years since Jurassic Park; unfortunately, it also proves how difficult it can be to put together a truly compelling sequel.” Yeah, that seems true for this sequel, one would hate to say. That’s not to say it was a bad sequel, but it could have somehow been better.
And that’s my review for The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Even if there are quite a few highlights for this particular sequel, it is one of those ones that could’ve been better. Even so, I would say still see it, since it continues the story, and it will more than likely help one to understand the storyline, and the Jurassic Park/World franchise overall.
Final Grade: C+
Matthew’s Animated & Live-Action Movie Reviews 