Reel Features Season 12 Ticket 10 - SEASON FINALE
It's difficult to take in that over 20 years have passed since this sequel to 1993's Jurassic Park was released to the cinema-going public, as it still feels fresh to this day.
It delved deeper into the World that Michael Crichton had created via his 2 books. There was pressure on him to write a sequel to Jurassic Park so that a sequel could be made from his book. If I had to put The Lost World down to 2 specific themes in this movie it would be that of redemption and escalation. Redemption, because John Hammond is looking to keep Isla Sorna contained and away from the rest of the world so that the animals may be left undisturbed and not have the Island's Dinosaurs be taken from their own just to realise a very scaled down version of his dream. Escalation as well, because if you're successful in resurrecting animals from extinction and you have failed in one dream to have them showcased to the public as part of a theme park, then surely someone will look to reep the benefits of your mistake in the goal of actually realising the original dream. The lighting of this movie is done in a much darker tone as that of the writing. One could argue that Jurassic Park is a horror movie for a family viewing audience and you would be right to a certain extent. It would be a full-on horror if the movie escaped the boundaries of it's PG-Paddock and cross over into a more mature rating, but that would not net them as much capital. But that being said, there's nothing that says you can't have horror aspects through off-camera carnage which is what happens to the InGen workers on Isla Sorna as they plow through the Velociraptor Field towards the end of the flick and to where the Infant Tyrannosaur eats Peter Ludlow which is a form of karma coming to bite him for what he did in having his Uncle, Hammond, removed as the CEO. Keeping with the darker theme - I mention in the video below that it's more terrifying when you can't see what's going on when you hear the sounds, roars and screams because it's causing the mind to work over-time because the mind is most afraid of the unknown. It's an over-used motif in Hollywood that has been used for decades, but it's a tried and tested method that works. If you see a situation before your eyes, OK, you may still be frightened of it, but you have the context of what is going on and can respond accordingly. But when you only have sound to work with and no image of the situation - that becomes very frightening. One moment that comes to mind is the approach of the 2 Tyrannosaurs to the Advocate Camp as you can see the trees below the high-hide being disturbed with birds fleeing the tops of the branches as the clear indication that something large and powerful is moving below. If I could mark the movie down on one thing, is it's the aspect of bringing the male T-Rex to the mainland as we've seen this before from King Kong and Godzilla. It's not fresh nor new. It made for some exciting moments in the movie with the male terrorising San Diego after having escaped the confines of his cargo hold on the SS Ventura and scouring the Streets of the City to satisfy his appetite. And given that humans are not really made up of that much in comparison to it feeding on a Triceratops or an animal of similar size then it would be fair to presume that the body count would certainly be in the double figures if not treble. The Casting for this movie is equally as good as the first as they had the right actors for the right role. Jeff Goldblum as a more hardened Ian Malcolm is just a joy to watch as he's back in a world that he does not want to be part of but he's key to the plot in order to have the Island and it's animals preserved and protected from human interference. And also because he's experienced having been one of the few lucky survivors of Jurassic Park. Julianne Moore is the Yang to Jeff's Ying. Her portrayal as Dr. Sarah Harding was such a contrast to Ian as she's excited to be on Isla Sorna to witness the animals for herself and dismisses Ian's concerns until she witnesses the parental instincts of a T-Rex and barely surviving the incident with the trailer as it went over the cliff. Julianne adds a lot of sass to Sarah's character as she not only bites back at her boyfriend but also the Hunters who are there to capture the animals and bring them back to the Mainland at San Diego, California. Arliss Howard makes Peter Ludlow so unlikable with his obnoxious and condescending tone of how he speaks to everyone from Ian Malcolm and even his own hired Paleontologist in Dr. Robert Burke. He's one of those characters you just want to chew out for a lot of his irresponsible behavior and choices - literally and figuratively. Pete Postlethwaite as veteran Hunter, Roland Tembo, was brilliant casting. Here is a guy a who is the Leader of the enemy camp to the Advocates, and yet he carries himself in such a respectable manner with how he lays the down of his services and will not compromise anything. He is only on the Island for one reason: to hunt a male T-Rex. Peter Stormare's Dieter Stark is just a complete jerk who has no respect for the animals with how he shocks a Compy with an electric cattle-prod to karma, literally, coming to bite him when he's killed by a whole pack of Compys, of which is a nod to Hammond's death in the original book. John Hammond did not survive Jurassic Park in the Novel and the only reason why he exists in the sequel movie is because of the casting of the late Richard Attenborough as John Hammond. Because he had played Santa Claus in Miracle on 34th Street, there was no way Attenborough could portray Hammond as an antagonist. Speaking of Attenborough, it was wonderful to see him reprise his role as a very humbled Hammond in business and life from what the events of Jurassic Park had had on his business and health. I mention that he had improved on his performance and he clearly enjoyed playing the character with the sheer energy and enthusiasm in his performance. While this movie is not as sharp in writing, I would the say Visual Effects had improved to the point that the animals are more life like with them being able to do more. With 2 Tyrannosaurs stalking the human targets and seeing such authentic movements of muscle tissues and weight distribution whenever they would move. That's not to say that makes the original inferior with regards to it's VFX, not at all. The original Jurassic Park was the standard-bearer of how to elevate the quality and evolution of Visual Effects where you can buy into the idea of seeing a CG Dinosaur walking around on-screen and fool the eye into thinking it's real. But that said, the animatronics had improved as well to where each dinosaur that had been built by Stan Winston Studios really had credible life-like looking animals from their skin texture and to their movements. Especially the Tyrannosaurs as these were much heavier than the original T-Rex and they were kept in place on a track in a studio and the sets were changed around the dinosaurs to suit the purpose of the scene. John Williams brought a much darker score offering to the sequel which elevated the dark and more terrifying aspects of the movie especially in scenes when the humans are being stalked by the predatory carnivorous dinosaurs. The Jurassic Park score is used where it's needed to in the flick with the meeting between Hammond and Malcolm to seeing a happy ending at the close of the movie with the Tyrannosaur family reunited. But that said - you cannot do a Jurassic Park movie without that score. It's in the same context as doing a Christopher Reeve Superman movie without the iconic theme, which was also composed by John Williams. To summarise this: it's still an amazing movie after all this time and it reminds me of a time where movies were more about entertaining rather than keeping an eye on the dollar mark. Now I get that movies are there to profit as well fore they need to make money in order for the Studios' to maintain doing their amazing work. To put it like this - I would say the Lost World is a far better Jurassic movie than that of Fallen Kingdom. Simply because the writing is superior. Again, not as sharp as the original, but it's rare when a successor surpasses the original these days. The Lost World: Jurassic Park is available to Buy from Amazon in the links below
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May 2019
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