Of course, then there's the 1997 sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park which isn't as bad as some critics out to be but at the same time is nowhere near as good as it could/should have been. It's unfair to peg this movie as the one that opened the floodgates, but it's certainly one of the first series/franchises that turned a great stand-alone movie into unnecessary sequel one after another. That's my biggest issue with so many franchises. Harry Potter? Those sequels needed to be made to finish out the story. Jurassic Park? The first film is pretty much perfect as it is, and didn't need sequels. But you wouldn't be reading this is someone didn't want to make piles of money so here we go.
It's been four years since the disaster at Isla Nuba and mathematician Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) is still trying to put the experience behind him. He is approached by InGen head and creator of Jurassic Park John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) with a proposition. There were actually two islands where dinosaurs lived, and he wants Malcolm and a small team to go to the second island and investigate, see how the creatures are living without human interference. Malcolm refuses...briefly, until he finds out his girlfriend, Sarah (Julianne Moore), a geologist, is already on the island so he agrees to go along. Finding Sarah proves to be the easy part as a financially struggling InGen sends an expedition to the island at the same time. Their objective? Capture dinosaurs so they can be exhibited for a world-wide audience. Malcolm, Sarah and the little team are caught in the middle as T-Rex, velociraptors and more are on the hunt.
I've long been a fan of Michael Crichton's novels, but this is one of the few I haven't read, mostly because I'm not a huge fan of the movie to begin with. If I didn't like the movie much, could the book save it at all? Eh, maybe down the road I'll get to it. My main issue with the movie though is that it is basically a carbon copy of the first movie, but without the energy or excitement. It is the definition of an unnecessary sequel. The script is bad, full of laughable one-liners and equally laughable scenarios, and the action/chases don't know when to stop, an orgy of adrenaline and drama that goes overboard whenever it gets the chance. If you're trying to repeat success, add something to it, don't just settle for the status quo.
What saves this from being a complete waste of time is what else? Surprise, surprise...the dinosaurs, and more specifically the dinosaurs eating people. You really just can't go wrong with that formula. The surprise factor of the first movie -- seeing dinosaurs, even if they are CGI -- has worn off some, but the little kid in you can't help but smile when a dinosaur (check that, any dinosaur) comes on-screen. Then think of a T-Rex and its awesomeness, and then a pack of raptors working together...yeah, definitely can't go wrong there. There are characters around who are meant to be dino-bait, and Spielberg certainly finds some unique ways to kill the baddies. So throw out the action scenes that drag on end into tedium, you've still got a whole lot of badass dinosaurs killing people. Good stuff. Oh, and throw in John Williams' epic, sweeping and iconic score for good measure.
The more I see of Goldblum, the more I suspect he's not acting. He's just playing himself. His Dr. Malcolm isn't an ideal choice to lead a movie, but his character is still pretty cool. Moore plays Sarah, the girlfriend who -- no disrespect to Moore, just the character -- could have been played by anyone. She has to run around with Malcolm and look worried. Oh wait, that's everyone, cardboard cutouts of characters. My bad. Vince Vaughn and Richard Schiff are good as the other member of Ian and Sarah's team while screen veteran Pete Postlethwaite is a scene-stealer as Roland Tembo, a big game hunter leading InGen's expedition, his desire to bag a T-rex driving him into danger. Look for Arliss Howard and Peter Stormare as two bad guys you just know will meet a nasty fate as well with Attenborough briefly making an appearance as Hammond, still cool and clueless as ever.
There are just elements of unexplained weirdness here that make you question 'Really? That's the best you got?' The biggie for me has always been Malcolm's daughter, Kelly (Vanessa Lee Chester), who secretly travels with dear old Dad to the island, not realizing the danger she's put herself in. You'll notice if you look at her IMDB page that she is an African American actress. Not a racist comment, just a comment because the movie never addresses this. Is she adopted? Did Malcolm steal her from a black family? Mostly though beyond just a weird race angle is that her character is annoying and doesn't serve a purpose. Malcolm's already worried about Sarah, and then you throw in another reason. That's great. She also takes out a raptor via a gymnastics act. That ranks high on the list of all-time stupidest movie scenes ever.
The movie on the whole is a mixed bag. Certain scenes are just bad, and action scenes -- like two T-rex's attacking a camper -- just go on too long, not knowing when to pull the plug. If this was any old dinosaur movie, it'd be pretty good in a 'so bad it's good' fashion. But it isn't, following one of the all-time greats, Jurassic Park. Very watchable and generally a pretty dumb movie, but you can do worse.
The Lost World: Jurassic Park <---trailer (1997): ** 1/2 /****
No comments:
Post a Comment