Far from Spielberg's Best

Rating: 8/10 (23 November 1998)

Though it is far from Steven Spielberg's best work, it is also not his worst. The Lost World improves in certain ways on the original and yes, it devolves in many ways too. For one, the visual effects are even better. The score by John Williams is terrific, and I must say the overall look is more atmospheric and absorbing than the squeaky-clean theme park look of the first Jurassic Park. The problem is that too much of the film is spent with the more frightening dinosaurs, rather than the calm majestic sense that Spielberg allows the dinos to have in the original for the first hour before he went off and gave us the thrill ride. Also the sequel forgets that what made the first one so successful was that it managed to give us a thought-provoking set-up. The Lost World offers none of that. As an adventure it is above average but as a Spielberg film it is admittedly below par. Still, it can be said that the scenes reintegrated by FOX on TV helped establish more plot development. They helped develop characters and it is anyone's guess why Spielberg had them cut. They are making a third film, so despite what people thought of this episode, everyone will again be flocking to see JP 3 when it comes out. Cast hopefuls: Jeff Goldblum (da), Sam Neill, Pete Postelthwaite, Richard Attenborough, and why not- Richard Dreyfuss. For being a loose, entertaining venture, I give this an 8. But a very low 8, indeed.