Lost World: Jurassic Park, The (1997)

reviewed by
Michael Redman

                        THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK
                       A film review by Michael Redman
                        Copyright 1997 Michael Redman

** (out of ****)

Steven Spielberg's sequel to "Jurassic Park" signals the beginning of the big bang summer films. Unfortunately it also begins the season of major disappointments.

It turns out that the dinosaurs n the original were breed elsewhere and shipped to the theme park. Now there is a battle for control of the island where the beasts have roamed free for the past four years. The grandfatherly corporate big wig John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), having had a change of heart, wants to let the lizards roam free. His greedy capitalist pig nephew Peter Ludlow (Arliss Howard) has taken over the company and decides to bring them to San Diego for a mainland Dinoland.

Hammond calls in the expert in chaos theory from the first film Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) to head up a four-person team to document life on the island to sway public opinion so that the prehistoric creatures can stay where they are. Malcolm, no fool he, declines the offer, but heads for terrorville anyhow to convince his current significant other, paleontologist Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore) that she is in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Once in the land of the very large predators, bad turns to worse as Malcolm discovers that his teenage daughter Kelly (Vanessa Lee Chester), who was never mentioned in the first film and just happens to be black, has stowed away. Continuing the trend towards disaster, the evil company has sent a team to round up dinosaurs in rodeo style.

That's about as much of a plot as we get. There's a lot of destruction, human-eating and loud screams on the island. A T-Rex is shipped back to the mainland and then there's even more destruction, human-eating and loud screams.

As you might expect, the effects are stupendous. The stegosauri and tiny piranha-raptors are awesome (in the pre-eighties meaning of the word). Everything looks even better than it did in "Jurassic Park".

One of the problems with the original was that the dinosaurs were more real and interesting than the human cardboard cut-outs with the exception of Jeff Goldburg. The same is true here, but even Goldblum succumbs to the blandness.

After an amusing scene where a yacht accidentally discovers the island, the first clue that we're in for trouble comes in a brief but seemingly eternal scene with Malcolm and Ludlow. Goldblum hems and haws through the conversation leaving the audience to wonder whether Malcolm had a lobotomy or Goldblum just slept late and forgot to memorize his lines. Where is the cocky Ian who was the only redeeming person in the original?

The plot is full of holes and the people, remarkably stupid.

Harding, who has studied dinosaurs for years, hangs out petting a baby stegosaurus while its parents are heading towards them. She is oblivious to any danger. Then she hijacks a baby T-Rex to set its broken leg, little suspecting that mom will come looking for her kid. And then she wears her dinosaur blood-soaked jacket as they try to make their way through a land of critters with the best sniffing ability in the world. She must have gotten her degree from the Institute Of Really Dumb Things To Do.