Spielberg's direction and the special effects make up for the flaws in this intensely entertaining ride.

Rating: 8/10 (25 May 2001)

*** out of ****
With Jurassic Park III to be released in a month, it will be interesting to see if new director Joe Johnston can outdo Spielberg's work in the previous two installments. He's got a lot to live up to, because while the stories haven't always been spectacular, Jurassic Park was excellent escapist entertainment and The Lost World is a worthy, albeit significantly flawed, sequel.
It's been 4 years since the disaster that occurred at Jurassic Park. The company's new CEO, Peter Ludlow (Arliss Howard) has dissolved his Uncle John Hammond's (Richard Attenborogh) and has plans to create a new park right in San Diego. Hammond quickly forms a team to rival Ludlow's, which is led by chaotician/mathematician Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum). Also along for the ride are photographer/Earth man Nick Van Park (Vince Vaughn), communications expert Eddie Carr (Richard Schiff), and Malcolm's girlfriend and palentologist, Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore), with Malcolm's daughter also along as a stowaway.
Apparently, the island they're headed for is called Site B, where they actually manufactured and created the dinosaurs, then sent them over to the park. When Ludlow's team arrives, with the help of a big-game hunter named Roland Tumbo (Pete Postlethwaite), they entrap several dinosaurs, including an injured baby tyrannosaurus rex. Nick releases the animals and brings the injured rex back to the group's trailers, and chaos ensues when the parents looking for their child, leaving the team's supplies destroyed and short one team member. They are forced to team up with Ludlow and Tumbo, and they must reach the island village to raise communication and rescue.
I'm a little surprised to say that I liked and enjoyed this film quite a bit. I'll mention the flaws first. The story's often quite weak, most of the characters are rote and sometimes downright stupid, and the film lacks the predecessor's sense of awe.
Let me go into the characters first. Believe it or not, the ones that annoy us the most are those in the "good guys" team. Julianne Moore's Sarah Harding is a complete moron. She claims the team is on the island to study and not interact, yet she goes right up and pets a baby stegosaurus on the head, then gets all the other dinosaurs in that nest riled up. She also carries around this "lucky" backpack, often leaves it lying around places where some small dinosaur could come by, then even carries it around when it's covered in blood! Smart, especially when that giant t-rex comes by looking for food and territory.
Vince Vaughn (who, incidentally, appeared with Moore in the Psycho remake) makes a very small impression as Nick Van Park. His character stupidly brings back an injured and growling baby t-rex, which puts his colleagues in danger and results in another person's death, and he never even seems the least bit sorry for it. Vaughn's decision to play him as a rather understated man is commendable, but he doesn't make much of an impression. Vanessa Lee Chester is absolutely useless as Ian Malcolm's daughter. I'm sure she was just used to appeal to the younger crowd but that just puts a jarring difference in the film's tone, which is usually dark and violent. She gets the worst lines, delivers them unconvincingly, and also has a ludicrous scene where she uses gymnastics to kill a raptor. I was just rooting for these three to get eaten before the film was over. Alas, that was not to happen.
There are other problems I could go into but I'll go with what I do like, and the good outweighs the bad quite a bit. Spielberg's direction is first-rate (maybe not for him, but certainly in comparison to most other action directors). I've always considered him cinema's best action/thriller director and he doesn't disappoint here. The action and suspense sequences are tense and thrilling.
I have some particularly favorite moments. I loved the scene with Moore lying on the end of the trailer with the glass slowly cracking with every small move she makes. All the scenes that involve the raptors are probably the film's best. Each raptor attack is intense and engaging. The main focus this time is on the t-rex, and the big boy (and girl if you include the mother) doesn't disappoint. The t-rex is an immense and fearsome sight, and it's fun to behold a creature of this stature in a contrast between the jungle and suburbia.
John Williams' score is also effective in creating some tension. The score is a bit different than his composition in Jurassic Park, it's slightly weaker and features a lot of annoyind drum-banging (as with almost every island adventure flick) but he hits more right notes than wrong ones.
If there's a flaw in these exciting moments, it's Spielberg's decision to film virtually all of it during the night. While there is an oppressive atmosphere in that condition, it gets annoying after a while. As a matter of fact, as I think about it, nearly the last hour of the film takes place in complete darkness.
The special effects are every bit as awesome as they were in Jurassic Park, and there are even more and different dinosaurs in this film. The stegosaurus makes an appearance and the procompsagnathus are an appropriately cute and menacing sight. Along with the variety of dinos comes an increase in violence. I'm sure the PG-13 rating must have been a close call. There are chewed up bodies, gory dinosaur graveyards, ferocious dino attacks, and a severed hand (which actually gets an unintentional laugh from me) (When you see that scene, ask yourself where the body went). This film is definitely too intense for younger children.
The acting is not bad, though with the exception of Goldblum and Postlethwaite, they're all completely overshadowed by the dinosaurs. Goldblum is funny and amusing as Ian Malcolm, and though his character is sometimes a little irritating he's an absolute genius in comparison to his group members. Postlethwaite as the hunter is quite an interesting character. His indifference to anything except for his best friend Ajay and the hunt is fascinating; pity it's not developed very well. Arliss Howard as Peter Ludlow is okay, as good as possible a person can do playing a one-dimensional villain.
There was an extended television version released, though despite one brief humorous scene involving a man hitting his crotch, it's more of hindrance by holding off the dinosaur action by an extra six or so minutes. It's not particularly compelling to watch a group of business executives talking about...well, business.
The film's conclusion is weak in my opinion. Spielberg's decision to change the setting to somewhere closer to home is obviously a change of pace and while it's something new, it's not necessarily what's best. But to his credit, I was so enthralled by the action that I was feeling lenient by the time the end reels began. This is by no means a masterpience or a match to the original, but it makes for 129 minutes (135 if you see the TV version) of raptor-paced entertainment. I've read some initial plot summaries on Jurassic Park III and the story doesn't sound like any great shakes, so director Joe Johnston's only chance of success is making it as exciting as this film or the original. And, hey, he'll also have Sam Neill in the lead role, who was sorely missed in The Lost World.