Not a disaster but still dissapoints

Rating: Null/10 (24 April 2004)

I always loved reading Crichton. It makes me feel out of this world. I remember once I read half of his "Airframe" in my bed, and then closed the book, shut the lights, go to sleep. But I couldn't do it, I felt uncomfortable and woke up, and finished the book. As in this case, I've read "The Lost World" before watching Jurassic Park, or at least watching properly (when it was released I couldn't even compute how many fingers I have)
Everybody knows that Spielberg did not accepted doing sequels for his movies. And for me, when I heard he decided to shoot JP 2, I was a little shocked, and asked myself what happened so he was forced to accept. But in "Making of Lost World" featurette he confesses that he wanted to make a sequel for JP. Now, this movie is not totally disaster, but it also lacks something to be a sequel of JP, and an adaptation of novel.
First of all, the advantage of Lost World was that it was based on Ian Malcolm, that mysterious chaotic mathematician. Malcolm is a unique character and I believe that Crichton worked a lot on him, as he is not normal. Alan Grant is normal, Ellie Sattler is also acceptable. John Hammond is a mirror to today's rich people who own enterprises that they know nothing about (but he was portrayed differently in the movie, as I also cannot imagine legendary Richard Attenborough acting a grumpy, disgusting millionaire). In JP, only one main character is removed (Ed Regis, parks public relations blah blah) and Donald Gennaro (lawyer) was changed a lot. Still it was loyal to the novel. But Lost World loses two amazing characters: Jack Thorne and Richard Levine. Thorne is an old physicist who is now producing field equipment, and Eddie Carr is his assistant, and this retired teacher was like completing the circle. Also, Richard Levine is a paleontologist, who is the absolute opponent of Ian Malcolm. Also story involves a smaller cast; as Levis Dodgson (guy who hired Nedry in first movie) and two from his side try to snatch eggs from nests of creatures, as Malcolm, Thorne, Levine, Harding, Carr, and students of Levine; Arby and Kelly aim to use the island to prove their theory about observing behaviors of prehistoric... Well I am digressing. Malcolm is completely destroyed. He is not that grinning smarty with cool glasses and dark nature, but more looks like John McClane of the "Die Hard" series. I only felt existence of Malcolm and Jeff Goldblum when he said "Well, your are not doing the same mistakes, you are doing new ones..". In the other scenes he is just another guy.
Bottom line: It is completely a new plot. Nephew of Hammond? A new and bizarre Park? All those gadgets and vehicles? Humiliated Hummers? I like Daivd Koepp's work but he really deserves being "the Unlucky Bastard" for this movie.
Next, even though action, atmosphere, characters (well a little bit), dinosaurs and effects are really impressive, the story cannot "hold" you. I mean JP was like a theme park ride, that you could not get bored of. But for The Lost World, sometimes you feel that you are getting bored. Well, if it was not a sequel of a great movie this would be acceptable. Or should it be the other way, as nowadays sequels mostly s**k.
But I should underline, effects are superb. Winston and Lantieri are masters of this business. Also sounds are astonishing. Music is classic John Williams. Cast is cool; Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Pete Postlethwaite, Vince Vaughn and Peter Stormare even though none of them used their real capacity. And I am not even mentioning that it contains one of the greatest plot holes ever (disappearance of the crew of "The Venture")
This movie will only amuse dinomaniacs and effect lovers, but a viewer with standard potential will not accept that this is a Spielberg flick. Not bad, but it had to be a lot better.
My Note: 6.5/10