The Lost World: Jurassic Park ««
PG-13, 129m. 1997
Cast & Credits: Jeff Goldblum (Dr. Ian Malcolm), Julianne Moore (Dr. Sarah Harding), Pete Postlethwaite (Roland Tembo), Arliss Howard (Peter Ludlow), Richard Attenborough (John Hammond), Vince Vaughn (Nick Van Owen), Vanessa Lee Chester (Kelly Curtis), Joseph Mazello (Tim), Ariana Richards (Lex), Richard Schiff (Eddie Carr). Screenplay by David Koepp based on Michael Crichton’s book, The Lost World. Directed by Steven Spielberg.
A warning ought to be heeded by movie studios who release sequels like The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
“Those who don’t learn from history’s mistakes are doomed to repeat them.”
I don’t remember where or how I came up with this saying. I know I didn’t make it up. Perhaps I got it watching an Oliver Stone film or saw it on the walls of some historical museum I was at.
If you compare the box office revenue between a sequel and its predecessor, you will find, as has been the cases with some of the worst sequels I’ve sat through like Home Alone 2: Lost In New York (1992) or Ghostbusters II (1989), that one, they don’t make as much as money as the originals did and two, they’re just lousy retreads short on imagination and big on action and special effects.
Audiences learned this lesson a long time ago. The reason studios today still don’t get it is because they only give a damn about how much money can be made the first couple weeks before people realize what they paid six dollars to see was really a recycled waste of celluloid junk.
As a result, gifted directors and screenwriters sell their souls sacrificing enticing storylines and character development in return for clever advertising campaigns like the one people saw watching previews of The Lost World: Jurassic Park. If you went to theaters like the General Cinemas Northpark I and II in north Dallas, you would have seen silver white lights quickly flashing on and off like lightning as the trailer played. I especially loved the warning the theater had posted on the ad for the movie, The Crucible.
The warning said something to the degree of, “If you are easily scared by flashing white lights, then please don’t watch the opening preview of The Lost World in this theater.”
The trailer, unlike the movie itself, showed promise. Director Steven Spielberg’s approach to The Lost World is a lot like the college senior who has already achieved a 4.0 grade point average the past four years. So in his final semester before graduation, the soon-to-be college graduate decides it won’t hurt to slack off making a C in at least one class.
I couldn’t help but wonder if Spielberg realized halfway through filming there was really nothing new he could do with these prehistoric beasts that he hadn’t already done in the original.
The movie is nothing more than an endless overlong safari trip best summarized by Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) in the film’s first hour.
“First there is ooing and ahhing,” he says. “Then there is running and screaming.”
And everyone in the film goes through this movie “running and screaming.”
Gone is the awe and wonder I got watching these prehistoric beasts in the original. It is true these creatures were deadly thus proving one couldn’t bring a dinosaur home to raise it as a pet but at the same time, Spielberg captured their beauty as well. What we get in its place instead are a lot of graphic scenes meant to shock the audience.
Examples include a mom and dad Tyrannosaurus Rex ripping a body apart like two people fighting over a wishbone. Hunters become the hunted disappearing in fields of high grass at night or get stomped on while a little girl becomes lunch for a family of small jumping lizards. Is there an obvious sense of danger here? Yes. Is any of it exciting? No. Didn’t we see all this before in the original? Yes.
Jurassic Park (1993) briefly explored the ideas of what happens when man tampers with science. The Lost World expands on that dealing with corporate greed and the notion these beasts should be left alone to live in their own environment. Bringing a T. Rex to San Francisco to live in the local zoo is a great idea provided the beast doesn’t accidentally awaken from its crate upon arrival in a real bad mood.
I enjoyed the dry sarcastic wit Goldblum gave to his character Dr. Malcolm. Malcolm is sent by the ailing delusional entrepreneur, John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), to investigate dinosaur sightings on a remote island not far from the one he created in the original film.
“I’m not going to make the same mistakes again,” Hammond tells him.
“No you won’t,” Malcolm retorts back. “You’ll make all new ones.”
Goldblum’s Dr. Malcolm is like the college fraternity brother who won’t join in the fun of drinking and partying because he’s seen first-hand what damage it can do. When it comes to observing dinosaurs, Malcolm is the movie’s resident party pooper.
I also enjoyed Pete Postlethwaite’s character as a modern day rendition of Captain Ahab whose white whale is the T. Rex and soon realizes hunting isn’t a sport.
“I’ve spent enough time in the company of death,” he says.
What’s missing from The Lost World though is the human element. The movie gives us no reason to like or dislike any of the characters.
Whatever happened to the days when directors and screenwriters of various sequels weren’t afraid to take their characters into unexplored, unthinkable territory? The best installments were the ones where people walked out after the film was over wondering whether or not Darth Vader was really Luke Skywalker’s father in The Empire Strikes Back (1980), not believing a beloved character like Mr. Spock would give up his life to save the crew of the starship Enterprise in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), or seeing Don Michael Corleone put honor first before family and order the death of his brother Fredo in The Godfather: Part II (1974).
Innovative creators and directors like George Lucas, Nicholas Meyer, and Francis Ford Coppola must not have been too terribly concerned about what audiences would think when they saw and heard the revelations. Their vested interest was in being able to tell a great story.
The Lost World: Jurassic Park, however, proves that studios today aren’t interested in giving excited moviegoers a sequel with an intriguing storyline. They put quantity first before quality and as a result, disappointed patrons like me walk out of movies like this one saying, “Been there, seen that.”
©5/23/97
PG-13, 129m. 1997
Cast & Credits: Jeff Goldblum (Dr. Ian Malcolm), Julianne Moore (Dr. Sarah Harding), Pete Postlethwaite (Roland Tembo), Arliss Howard (Peter Ludlow), Richard Attenborough (John Hammond), Vince Vaughn (Nick Van Owen), Vanessa Lee Chester (Kelly Curtis), Joseph Mazello (Tim), Ariana Richards (Lex), Richard Schiff (Eddie Carr). Screenplay by David Koepp based on Michael Crichton’s book, The Lost World. Directed by Steven Spielberg.
“Those who don’t learn from history’s mistakes are doomed to repeat them.”
I don’t remember where or how I came up with this saying. I know I didn’t make it up. Perhaps I got it watching an Oliver Stone film or saw it on the walls of some historical museum I was at.
If you compare the box office revenue between a sequel and its predecessor, you will find, as has been the cases with some of the worst sequels I’ve sat through like Home Alone 2: Lost In New York (1992) or Ghostbusters II (1989), that one, they don’t make as much as money as the originals did and two, they’re just lousy retreads short on imagination and big on action and special effects.
Audiences learned this lesson a long time ago. The reason studios today still don’t get it is because they only give a damn about how much money can be made the first couple weeks before people realize what they paid six dollars to see was really a recycled waste of celluloid junk.
As a result, gifted directors and screenwriters sell their souls sacrificing enticing storylines and character development in return for clever advertising campaigns like the one people saw watching previews of The Lost World: Jurassic Park. If you went to theaters like the General Cinemas Northpark I and II in north Dallas, you would have seen silver white lights quickly flashing on and off like lightning as the trailer played. I especially loved the warning the theater had posted on the ad for the movie, The Crucible.
The warning said something to the degree of, “If you are easily scared by flashing white lights, then please don’t watch the opening preview of The Lost World in this theater.”
The trailer, unlike the movie itself, showed promise. Director Steven Spielberg’s approach to The Lost World is a lot like the college senior who has already achieved a 4.0 grade point average the past four years. So in his final semester before graduation, the soon-to-be college graduate decides it won’t hurt to slack off making a C in at least one class.
I couldn’t help but wonder if Spielberg realized halfway through filming there was really nothing new he could do with these prehistoric beasts that he hadn’t already done in the original.
The movie is nothing more than an endless overlong safari trip best summarized by Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) in the film’s first hour.
“First there is ooing and ahhing,” he says. “Then there is running and screaming.”
And everyone in the film goes through this movie “running and screaming.”
Gone is the awe and wonder I got watching these prehistoric beasts in the original. It is true these creatures were deadly thus proving one couldn’t bring a dinosaur home to raise it as a pet but at the same time, Spielberg captured their beauty as well. What we get in its place instead are a lot of graphic scenes meant to shock the audience.
Examples include a mom and dad Tyrannosaurus Rex ripping a body apart like two people fighting over a wishbone. Hunters become the hunted disappearing in fields of high grass at night or get stomped on while a little girl becomes lunch for a family of small jumping lizards. Is there an obvious sense of danger here? Yes. Is any of it exciting? No. Didn’t we see all this before in the original? Yes.
Jurassic Park (1993) briefly explored the ideas of what happens when man tampers with science. The Lost World expands on that dealing with corporate greed and the notion these beasts should be left alone to live in their own environment. Bringing a T. Rex to San Francisco to live in the local zoo is a great idea provided the beast doesn’t accidentally awaken from its crate upon arrival in a real bad mood.
I enjoyed the dry sarcastic wit Goldblum gave to his character Dr. Malcolm. Malcolm is sent by the ailing delusional entrepreneur, John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), to investigate dinosaur sightings on a remote island not far from the one he created in the original film.
“I’m not going to make the same mistakes again,” Hammond tells him.
“No you won’t,” Malcolm retorts back. “You’ll make all new ones.”
Goldblum’s Dr. Malcolm is like the college fraternity brother who won’t join in the fun of drinking and partying because he’s seen first-hand what damage it can do. When it comes to observing dinosaurs, Malcolm is the movie’s resident party pooper.
I also enjoyed Pete Postlethwaite’s character as a modern day rendition of Captain Ahab whose white whale is the T. Rex and soon realizes hunting isn’t a sport.
“I’ve spent enough time in the company of death,” he says.
What’s missing from The Lost World though is the human element. The movie gives us no reason to like or dislike any of the characters.
Whatever happened to the days when directors and screenwriters of various sequels weren’t afraid to take their characters into unexplored, unthinkable territory? The best installments were the ones where people walked out after the film was over wondering whether or not Darth Vader was really Luke Skywalker’s father in The Empire Strikes Back (1980), not believing a beloved character like Mr. Spock would give up his life to save the crew of the starship Enterprise in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), or seeing Don Michael Corleone put honor first before family and order the death of his brother Fredo in The Godfather: Part II (1974).
Innovative creators and directors like George Lucas, Nicholas Meyer, and Francis Ford Coppola must not have been too terribly concerned about what audiences would think when they saw and heard the revelations. Their vested interest was in being able to tell a great story.
The Lost World: Jurassic Park, however, proves that studios today aren’t interested in giving excited moviegoers a sequel with an intriguing storyline. They put quantity first before quality and as a result, disappointed patrons like me walk out of movies like this one saying, “Been there, seen that.”
©5/23/97
No comments:
Post a Comment