THE LOST WORLD (1997)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
Chaos scientist Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) is back chasing away dinosaurs on Isla Sorna, a mountainous island full of redwood trees and vines, also known as Site B. This is the place where the dinosaurs were supposedly bred before being sent to the island of Jurassic Park in the original - all of this is explained by Richard Attenborough reprising his role as John Hammond in a quick cameo (You may also notice that the tormented kids from the original, Joseph Mazello and Ariana Richards, show up for an unnecessary cameo as well). Malcolm is astounded by this secret and especially that a group has been sent to photograph and study the creatures at the site, including his paleontologist girlfriend, Sarah (Julianne Moore). Malcolm runs off to save her amid all those rampaging T-rexes, quick velociraptors, stegosauruses, and numerous other mammals. Quick question: if everyone knew how dangerous the closely guarded theme park of Jurassic Park was, why would anyone want to come to an island full of dinosaurs on the loose? One answer: money.
"The Lost World" has some spectacular action sequences, especially the scene where two T-rexes throw a trailer halfway off a cliff leaving the group hanging for their lives and Sarah caught in a glass spider web - it is hair-raising, thrillingly edited and typically vintage Spielberg. This is what we came for - the vicarious thrills and chills of dinos making their way through the screen stomping and chomping humans. What's missing this time, though, is a sense of mystery and, surprisingly, a real sense of adventure. The digital dinosaur effects are superb yet they somehow seem old-hat - almost everything in Hollywood entertainment is digitized so that the thrill of seeing real dinosaurs is somehow gone. "Jurassic Park" was great entertainment - this movie falls short of being just good entertainment. It also feels a little overbearing and monotonous at times, and since there's not much of a story or real characters to identify with, we are left watching a soulless monster movie with some doses of black humor to compensate for a couple of dull stretches. An example of good black humor is the grand finale where the T-rex runs loose in San Diego terrorizing all the citizens in their swimming pools, video stores and buses. It's fun for a while but joyless in execution - Spielberg doesn't take it over the edge as you would expect him to.
As written by David Koepp, the characters are less defined than in the original. Jeff Goldblum has more fun with his part largely because he has the lead role, however, he resorts to basic running and jumping at the end - leave it to Spielberg to explain the significance of Malcolm's black daughter who comes along for the ride. An interesting character is the bald big-game hunter who wants to capture and shoot T-rexes and he's played by Peter Postelthwaite ("The Usual Suspects"). But, again, his character is disappointingly thin and ill-defined leaving his conquest, at best, as anticlimactic. Ditto the poorly written role of Arliss Howard as Hammond's son who wants to exploit the dinos in a theme park. Julianne Moore has a nice rapport with Goldblum and I wish there were more scenes between them but Spielberg is just interested in bloody carnage.
"The Lost World" is hardly a total washout but it is not among Spielberg's better films. It spurts some funny, fast and furious moments but nowhere near the level of "Jurassic Park." The action doesn't creep up on you and make you shiver - great Spielberg action is so thrilling, it scares you and makes you want to grab your seats or the person next to you. "The Lost World" is a real workout and it makes you sweat, but it does not make you wince.
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