The Lost World: Jurassic Park

It’s necessary to taken into account that Steven Spielberg didn’t want to repeat the first Jurassic Park, but instead wanted to film a signficantly darker subject from Arthur Conan Doyle. The sequel’s 130-minute runtime is densely packed with action and adventure, and serves up a Whopper in the last quarter. And the scene with the truck over the chasm takes my breath away every time. With its technically perfect execution and humor, The Lost World is Hollywood entertainment that won’t insult your intelligence. (2003-11-02)

Unfortunately, it is nowhere near as harmonious, likeable, and pleasantly adventurous as the first film. Technically, it’s flawless, but that's not enough. Spielberg seems to be floundering and doesn't know where to go, which is a rather shameful deficiency for a director of his caliber. There is an abundance of clichés, and to make matters worse, we have another downpour in key scenes, as if by coincidence. Jeff Goldblum is a fine and sober hero, with a few original lines, but undoubtedly the second greatest beast is the amazing Pete Postlethwaite. There is humour at every turn and sometimes it seems a bit inconsistent in relation to the action on the screen, which the filmmakers obviously didn't worry too much about. Spielberg's most lucrative film, impressive pretty much only thanks to its technical flair and bombast. Unfortunately, these two attributes are so abundant that I cannot rate it higher than 4*. (2006-06-16)

A blockbuster attraction, where digital effects were meant to play the main role, a breathtaking one at that. However, it was films like this one or Emmerich's Godzilla that made some people squirm and wonder if filmmaking might not also be about adapting to some limits. With them, the crew has to work with some pacing, shooting angles, editing; in short, things that are supposed to convince the viewer that the man in the piece of rubber is supposed to arouse some kind of experience in them. With CGI that can depict everything, you just, uh... depict everything. A tyrannosaurus eats a car on a street full of people? Here you go. A tanker has to drive full speed into a harbor? Here you go, head-on frontal view. Schwarzenegger playing King Lear? No problem. All straight-faced, no hiding, and you kind of watch it and wonder if they were truly serious when they made Jeff Goldblum the main character and gave him a daughter whose only active role in the film is to swing from a pole. (2022-01-13)

There are things in Jurassic Park that bother me, but I'll overlook them because the movie is visually stunning. In The Lost World, there are so many mistakes, plot absurdities, logical inconsistencies, and scenes just for the sake of spectacle that it's impossible to overlook. It has a stupid story with a crazy ending that should have been cut right out. The film would then be an hour and a half long, ending on the island, and that would be perfectly sufficient. This wannabe King Kong ending is a flop. (2015-04-11)

Sure, the magic of the first Jurassic Park is missing here, but it's important to remember that this is a completely different film. Thriller-ish, darker, blacker, even slightly self-parodic towards the end. But all the time it's a typically playful Spielberg movie, which I finish watching every time, wherever and whenever I see it. (2007-09-19)