Review of The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) by Meritcoba — 16 Nov 2015

(I invented my own score system:. This one got a 5 for meh.).

Last weekend was my weekend for movies done with secondary characters from other movies, one being the Lost World and the other being Hannibal. In The Lost World we see Jeff Goldblum resurface as that gloomy cynic from Jurassic Parc whose name I have forgotten. Being forgotten isn't actually strange because his character was a secondary one and there to cast a shadow over the very positive beginning. Of course it all would end bad and Jeff will tell us that he told us so. Or something like that.

In the first movie he had a secondary role, in this one he is the main protagonist, which is unfortunately an uphill battle against some stiff opposition.

The first and foremost of course is Jeff himself. Jeff isn't actually the kind of actor that can carry a movie on his own, certainly not one in which we expect some kind of action hero, even a reluctant and inept one. How well this shows is when Jeff is confronted by Julienne Moore, who is the woman in the movie and a much better actor. In fact she seems much like someone who is trying to have some drama infused in the whole, but Jeff.. well Jeff doesn't quite know how to match her: he just frowns. But even more he is notably overshadowed by the greatest actor in this movie: Pete Postlethwaite. Just put Pete and Jeff in one scene and you forget Jeff was even there. Jeff's greatest enemy is Jeff.

In addition in this movie Jeff has to be something more than a mere cynic and alas, cynics do not make great heroes without some kind of explaining back story that gives us some insight in the man and makes him blossom into something more than a dog that bites heels. A story we never get and a character we never see develop. Oh they try.. they even give him a black daughter to care about. Not that we see any kind of affection between the two: they might as well be strangers.

The other problem with the lost world is that it never tells a clear cut story. Any great story is basically a simple one, like for instance the first movie. It is a single line that runs from beginning to end. They arrive at the island, things go wrong, they flee. And that is about it. There are a few extras, a small part to introduce the two main characters and the plot line that tells us how everything goes wrong.

In the lost world we get a huge entangled mess. There is the story of the group of investigators who are dropped of at the island with a truck that looks cool but also unable to manage even a small ditch, let alone a dinosaur invested jungle on an island. Then, to add complexity, the daughter of Jeff somehow manages to hitch a ride without the others noticing she is in the truck until they are on the island. Then the guy who drops them off with a boat sort of 'discovers' where they are heading when they are almost there and refuses to go further or stay. This must be the first captain in human history who has no clue about his destination but somehow manages to go there regardless. More of this nonsense is served to make an entangled confusing mess of a story.

To add to the confusion another group of heavily armed mercenaries lands on the island too, lead by the experienced hunter of big game Pete, who uses a shotgun to hunt dinosaurs, holds the gun upright in the rain so water can fill the barrels, doesn't check his ammo and seems to have only two bullets for the gun anyway.(Incidentally I find this not as bad as the 'experienced' photographer who takes photos while precariously balancing on a fallen tree)Oh and there are like a ton of armed men, who never use their weapons on the dinosaurs, for they might hurt them.

And then, near the end, you think it is finished, but then another part is glued to the movie that seems totally superfluous and belonging to another movie. In fact it starts with a plot-hole that is so glaringly huge that it has to be put down to incredibly lazy writing. And that from Spielberg movie? I mean the man who made Schindler's list?

I have just one explanation for this: they did it to spite Postlethwaite. Yes, Jeff had to have some scenes with Julienne alone without Pete stealing the spotlight.

The saving grace for this movie are Julienne Moore and Pete Postlethwaite but also, without a doubt, the dinosaurs. It is so funny how two of the raptors get mad at each other when Julienne makes one drop on the other. It is one of the best scene in the movie!

Overall a meh movie though that you should watch for the dinosaurs flattening and eating people. You get two big lizards chasing people over the island. A pity they didn't eat Jeff and had Julienne and Pete escape.