The summer movie season has kicked off and the movie that ended up being the first out of the chute is most typical of summer film fare. It’s big, loud and chock-full of special effects and stupid characters. Granted, no one goes to the summer action films to be educated. The point is to shock, thrill and overwhelm the senses with a wall of digitally created sights and sounds. On that level, The Lost World succeeds magnificently. As a movie, stripped of the volume and looked at with the slightest skepticism, it doesn’t fare so well.
In 1993’s Jurassic Park, genetically created dinosaurs wreaked havoc on the island amusement park complex they were created for. This time, the existence of a second island, used as a factory to create the dinosaurs for the amusement park, has been uncovered. It seems the dinosaurs have created a nice little environment for themselves and Dr. John Hammond (Sir Richard Attenborough), the creator of the dinosaurs, has decided that it would be nice to study these creatures in their habitat.
So he hires Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), who survived the first dinosaur encounter; his girlfriend and predator expert, Dr. Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore); photographer Nick Van Owen (Vince Vaughn) and equipment expert, Eddie Carr (Richard Schiff) to record what they find on the island. For the kiddies, Malcolm’s daughter, Kelly (Vanessa Lee Chester), stows away and finds herself not enjoying the trip.
It seems that a second expedition has also decided to travel to Site B, but with a much different motive. They want to capture dinosaurs and take them back to a new Jurassic Park site in San Diego. Led by a hunter (Pete Postelthwaite) who wants to bag himself a male Tyrannosaurus Rex as a prize, the group begins assaulting virtually every species of dinosaur on the island in their first five minutes onscreen. I guess that’s to set them up as the “bad guys.”
The movie begins with the two groups as adversaries. But as the dinosaurs prove to be a little more than the two groups can handle separately, smashing their communication gear in the process, they join forces and attempt to merely survive a jaunt to the old communications center on the island. The trick is that the center is located on the interior of the island where the predators, including the highly intelligent velociraptors, have claimed their territorial boundaries.
The special effects, which were the highlight of the first movie, are improved and spend a lot more time onscreen. Dinosaurs of various shapes and sizes run, jump, scamper and plod all over the place, tearing a few humans apart in the process. The script, however, is not so special. The story is better than the first movie, but that’s not saying a lot.
As the movie begins, it plods along like a brontosaurus on Prozac. When it finally gets moving, it doesn’t really know where to finish up. A final showdown in San Diego with a Tyrannosaurus Rex seems tacked on and that’s a shame because it had the potential of making up a much more interesting movie than the two hours that proceed it.
The Lost World is another example of special effects overwhelming a script in terms of priority. It’s disappointing because this material screams for a story to go along with the beautiful scenery.
2.5 out of 5.0 stars
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