Doesn't work

Rating: 1/10 (19 February 2011)

Just for the record, I love Jurassic Park. It has a great score, great dinosaurs and is just great fun from start to finish. I like Steven Spielberg, but I did not like this movie one bit, and I feel this is his worst film. Spielberg has made some masterpieces, and he has also made some disappointing or mediocre movies, but for me The Lost World is the only time where he has hit rock bottom. It isn't just disappointing or mediocre, it is pretty darn bad.
The only redeeming qualities were the score, well it is John Williams what do you expect, and the dinosaurs, they look wonderful despite the fact we have seen most of them before. The scenery and cinematography were very good too, but not as good as that in the original, lacking its polish.
What really brought the film down was the script and story. The script is just terrible, when it tries to be funny it is actually unfunny and predictable while there is too much mugging on Jeff Goldblum's part. The story is pretty redundant, not the idea but in the way it was executed. There is too much filler that could have been trimmed or excised, as some of is superfluous to the story and just bogs it down significantly. The rest of the story is predictable, is filled with plot holes and lacks any thrills, focusing less on suspense and more on action. The film is also overlong, drags due to those aforementioned fillers primarily and feels rather anti-climatic. Spielberg's direction is disappointingly lethargic, almost as if he wasn't interested, while the film is devoid of a single likable or sympathetic character, apart from one and he was killed off early. Kelly and Vince Vaughn's character especially are irritating. The acting is poor, Goldblum is a great actor with good material, but seeing as his material is actually awful he tries his best but it is all wasted effort by the end. The rest of the cast including Julianne Moore and the late Pete Postlethwaite try too but the script and how badly written their characters are undermine them to the point they struggle too.
All in all, a huge disappointment and just didn't work. I can understand the disappointment of fans of the original, and I have heard valid criticisms of this film which I agree with. I also agree if you compare this in any way to the original, this movie is doomed, but any comparison is inevitable. As a sequel, it is not the worst, it isn't quite as awful as Home Alone 4, NeverEnding Story 3, Secret of NIMH 2, Son of the Mask and Jaws:The Revenge(Superbabies:Baby Geniuses 2 is also terrible but unlike the above its predecessor is bad as well), but to me The Lost World is one of the more disappointing ones. 1/10 for the score and the dinosaurs. Bethany Cox