Steven Spielberg’s sequel to 'Jurassic Park' was met with mixed reviews upon its release but much of it went underappreciated due to the focus on its glaring missteps. It has been twenty-five years since its original release in 1997 and it has stood the test of time better than many films of that era. This is largely due to Stan Winston’s unbelievable animatronics coupled with the caliber of craft Spielberg has as a director.
'The Lost World: Jurassic Park' was once my favorite of the original two Jurassic Park films. As a nine-year-old boy, it had everything I wanted- more dinosaurs, more carnage, more action, and more Goldblum. A lot of this is still applicable to this day. Even at the time I was well aware that a T-rex rampaging through San Diego was ridiculous B-movie material, but it still fills me with a certain amount of glee thanks largely to its top tier effects. Most people who have seen 'The Lost World' argue that much maligned sequence is where the film fell apart. I disagree, it fell apart before that, and I will address that in a bit
The film hits the ground running in a very Spielbergian fashion with a succinct inciting incident. The opening scene involves a small girl being attacked by Compsognathus, or Compys, on a new Island with dinosaurs, Isla Sorna. This event dominoes into a sequence of events that involve John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), the founder of Jurassic Park, being removed from control of his company, Ingen. He then has to covertly assemble a research team to document all the dinosaurs on Isla Sorna in order to garner public favor and protect the island before InGen’s team farms the island and exploits the dinosaurs for profit. Hammond's team includes Ian Malcom (Jeff Goldblum), Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore), Eddie Carr (Richard Schiff), and Nick Van Owen (Vince Vaughn. Ingen’s team includes Roland Tembo (Pete Postalwaithe) , Peter Ludlow (Arliss Howard), and Dieter Stark (Peter Stormair).
Much like the original, Spielberg sets up several plot threads in order to build tension that would eventually unravel into chaos within the narrative. Unfortunately, the plot threads are fashioned with less finesse than the film's predecessor and it shows in the final product- the narrative itself became the victim of chaos. Hammond's team begins their journey on Isla Sorna with an encounter from a majestic herd of Stegosauruses before chaos ensues. The film from that point devolves into a chaotic creature feature. Ian Malcom says it best, ‘Ooh, aah, that’s how it always starts. But then later comes running, then screaming.’
The cast, the visual effects, the score, the cinematography are all impressive in a way audiences may have taken for granted because that level of quality was merely signature Spielberg by the late 90s. 'The Lost World's undoing was its script and not even the entire thing. There was a lot of strength in it's construction, but it eventually falls apart. This was due to a slew of changes made during production which in turn called for rewrites. The audience can pinpoint when the script, and in turn the film, begins to falter in real time if they pay close attention.
During the point in the film where The T-rex attacks the campsite with the survivors of Hammond and InGen’s teams, who had joined forces by this point, just before the false ending, the film's cohesiveness starts to ebb and flow to the point where it’s hard to frame how each group of characters got to where they are, how time has lapsed, and the overall feel is that scenes are missing. It does the film no favors that the entire sequence- which involves a T-Rex chase that splits the teams back up, followed by multiple Raptor attacks- paces itself, crescendos, and resolves like a third act, which turns out not to be.
What is left of the survivors of Hammond's team escape the voracious carnivores and are helicoptered off the Island only to find out that InGen's team has captured a Buck T-rex as well as its infant and are to be taken back to a new park in San Diego. This sets in a motion a new narrative involving the T-rex escaping off a boat into San Diego. Ian Malcom and Sarah Harding go on a crusade to find the infant, capture the adult male Rex, and return them both to the boat. While the incorporation of these sequence of events is poor, the catch 22 is it was necessary to wrap up several loose threads already set up.
What the audiences in 1997 were left with is a mess of a film, albeit an exciting Speilbergian one. As time passed, most of the mess is more endearing than irksome. It is also nifty that subsequent films as well as other canonical media in the Jurassic Park/World universe have added more depth, context, and relevance to the characters and events within 'The Lost World'.
The entire Jurassic Park/World film collection is available to check out at The Brown Deer Public as well as Michael Crichton's original novels- Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
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