The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)

Genre

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

Director

Steven Spielberg

Country

USA

Cast

Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Vanessa Lee Chester, Vince Vaughn, Pete Postlethwaite, Arliss Howard, Richard Attenborough, Peter Stormare, Harvey Jason, Richard Schiff, Thomas F. Duffy, Ariana Richards, Joseph Mazzello, Thomas Rosales Jr., Camilla Belle, Robin Sachs, Cyd Strittmatter, Bernard Shaw

Storyline

Four years after the failure of Jurassic Park, John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) reveals to Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) that there was another island on which dinosaurs were bred, and sends a research team to the island to study the dinosaurs while another team approaches with a different agenda.

Opinion

Given the huge success of "Jurassic Park", it was more than obvious that there was going to be at least a sequel, and, although to my understanding it's not a very popular opinion, "The Lost World" is a pretty good one.

Once again based on Michael Crichton's work, although this time it's only loosely based on a novel of his, the film sure lost the originality and freshness of the first entry, but it still manages to deliver an interesting plot with several twists that will keep you engaged throughout the whole film.

Just like in the first film, the characters aren't that deep, but "The Lost World" does better in this field. It indeed gives us a group of more interesting characters that we also get to know better and therefore love and empathize with them.

But that's not the reason this sequel works. The credits for that go to Steven Spielberg, who returned to the director's chair and did a great job not only at building suspense and tension, but at balancing drama and action as well.

Also like its predecessor, this film features fantastic special effects (a lot of very realistic dinosaurs) and a good score, but most important is the cast. Jeff Goldblum reprised his role of Dr. Ian Malcolm and still did a good job, and the new comers did a good job as well, from Julianne Moore, to Vince Vaughn, to Vanessa Lee Chester who does better than the kids in the other film. Also it was very interesting to see Goldblum and Moore work together as they had a nice chemistry.