Because one island full of dinosaurs wasn’t enough right? Released in 1997 the sequel to the massive hit Jurassic Park was not as well received; could be any number of reasons but I’ll get into that later. However I think we can agree out of the original sequels this is the better one. As always spoilers will be ahead. I DO NOT OWN THE PICTURE.
Four years after the events of Jurassic Park Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) is invited to John Hammond’s (Richard Attenborough) mansion, where he also briefly reunited with Lex and Tim (Ariana Richards and Joseph Mazzello). Hammond explains that his greedy nephew Peter Ludlow (Arliss Howard) is now in charge of InGen, the ones responsible for creating the dinosaurs, and wants to use the secret island of Isla Sorna where the dinosaurs were originally living before moving to Isla Nublar for the park, as collateral damage for not just the prior events but for a lawsuit by the parents of a little girl who was attacked on Sorna. Hammond wants Malcolm to help document the dinosaurs in order to create public support in protecting them and he agrees, only after learning his girlfriend Dr. Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore) is already there. Malcolm, along with engineer Eddie Car (Richard Schiff), video documentarian activist Nick Van Owen (Vince Vaughn) and inadvertently Malcolm’s gymnast daughter Kelly (Vanessa Lee Chester) arrive on Isla Sorna and soon discover Ludlow’s real plot of bringing the dinosaurs into San Diego for a theme park, while the leader of Ludlow’s team Roland Tembo (Pete Postlethwaite) wants the Tyrannosaurus Rex, by luring it out using its injured baby (yeah that had BAD IDEAS written all over it.) About as far as I should go without spoiling the rest of the movie.
I think everyone can agree that their favorite character from the first film, and maybe the entire Jurassic franchise, is Jeff Goldblum, and I did love him in this one. Normally supporting characters in one film are not so great with their own; however Goldblum is so good I thought he did fantastic. Moore is pretty good as Sarah and I enjoyed seeing Hammond, Lex and Tim from the first film. As far as acting goes the rest of the cast is not bad, but the script fails to live up to the hype after the fantastic first film (although to be fair that is a high bar.) This was also the last of the Jurassic movies to be based on a book. Special effects had come a long way in between the first and second film, however I think that is why The Lost World has pretty mixed reviews from critics and fans. The first one made it feel like the dinosaurs were real when you know that is impossible; this one kinda took away that magic. I will say seeing the T-Rex attacking San Diego is probably the best part of the movie while my favorite line in the movie is Sarah asking how they would find the T-Rex and Malcolm (whom already has fantastic lines in here) responds “Just follow the screams” (because that it literally the answer to where did the bad guy/monster went.) I think while The Lost World is flawed it is not as bad as I think the critics and longtime fans say; I will say the kills in here were probably the most brutal until the first Jurassic World. If you are starting the Jurassic Park franchise and are curious if this is worth the watch then I would say yes, otherwise put this on the maybe list.
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