Entertaining Sequel If Nothing Else

Rating: Null/10 (26 July 2001)

Certainly The Lost World is worlds behind Jurassic Park in terms of film-making. Yet, it is an entertaining film. That is, however, really all it has going for it though. Steven Spielberg again directs humans and computer-enhanced dinos not just on a dinosaur island but also through the streets of San Diego. The biggest problem with this film is the script which is very shallow. Whereas in the first film, the viewer could relate a bit to some of the characters and the characters had some depth(albeit not a lot granted), the characters in this film have no depth at all. We are merely given one-sided stereotypes of certain types of characters. Jeff Goldblum is back as Ian Malcolm, but his character was one-sided in the first film. Goldblum does, however, add some much needed humour to the film, but his character just isn't the strong lead type. Nor is his girlfriend played by Julianne Moore as a determined paleontologist. She has zero depth. The list goes on: Arliss Howard as the greedy tycoon, Richard Attenbourough as the befuddled old man with a heart of good intentions, and so on and so on. The best character for me easily was the great hunter played by Pete Posthlethwaite as Roland Tembo. Just when you think he is nothing but a cardboard character, he shows some signs of having a personality. A nice performance too by a very under-rated Posthlethwaite. The most ridiculous character is Vanessa Lee Chester as Ian Malcom's pint-sized daughter who wows dinos with her gymnastics. Whew! What a stinker of a scene! But acting and writing aside, the film does have the same kind of wonderful special effects and held my attention for two hours. That means, if nothing else, it was entertaining.