The Lost World: Jurassic Park [PG]

Ian Malcolm had seen enough of dinosaurs since his nightmarish exploration into Jurassic Park and would rather not be reminded of the dangers of such an adventure. However fate has other plans when John Hammond contacts Ian and informs him of a second Jurassic Park site, located on a remote island. Hammond asks Ian to go there with an exploration group and document the progress of the dinosaurs. Initially adamant that there is nothing in hell or on earth that could persuade him to repeat the nightmare of his previous exploration into the dinosaur park, Ian’s attitude changes when he learns that his girlfriend Sarah is already on the island as park of the exploration group. 

Having recently engaged in a Jurassic Park marathon as lead-up to the new movie, I have come to the conclusion that the whole franchise is, for me, a reflection on the central theme of the movies in that it’s really just a novelty. I only saw Jurassic Park as an adult, I was not really raised with it and I cannot help but feel that this is a strong contributing factor to my not being whole-heartedly enamoured with the franchise. I liked the first movie fine, the animatronics were absolutely amazing, but in retrospect there is really nothing by ways of character or plot that elevate these movies into the realms of brilliance. I know that diehard fans are going to develop the cloning technology, hunt me down, and unleash raptors in my kitchen as a means of punishing me for being so blasphemous, but these really are my feelings on the franchise. 

So, The Lost World. The second instalment in a series that works upon its foundations of animatronics, special effects, suspense build-up, and action movie foundations, this movie really just takes the moral of the first film and drops it into a bigger enclosure that it quickly escapes from and goes to cause a grander scale of chaos as a means of hammering home the point. I have to admit that I do like movies that play with this idea that mankind is going to eventually shoot themselves in the foot by trying to ‘play God’ and overtake even the forces of nature as the dominant driving force that makes the world spin. It’s an idea that gets uniquely explored and expressed in the reboots of The Planet of the Apes and it still works to solid effect here. 

Essentially the film doesn’t hold an awful amount of gems in terms of plot or characters, the thrills that it delivers continue to come in the form of suspense build-up, action, and gore with the animatronics taking centre stage as the most awesome driving forces of the film. 

At the end of the day, I’m a bit at a loss; what do you say about a movie that pretty much just redelivers what the first one did? 

Starring Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Peter Postlethwaite, Vince Vaughn, Arliss Howard, Vanessa Lee Chester, Peter Stormare, Richard Schiff, Thomas F. Duffy, and Richard Attenborough, The Lost Word: Jurassic Park is a fine sequel as far as sequels go, but it does just deliver similar thrills as its predecessor as it’s filled with action, cool special effects, romance, comedy, drama, and suspense. 

What I will say for the Jurassic Park franchise in its defence is that you’re never going to be disappointed in what you receive from it. You expect a movie with dinosaurs and action and a bit of gore and that’s exactly what you get. Whilst they don’t really exceed expectations, these movies don’t disappoint them.