Subject: REVIEW: THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK (1997)

From: [email-masked] (Phil Brady)
Date: 29 May 1997 18:20:44 GMT

THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK
                       A film review by Phil Brady
                        Copyright 1997 Phil Brady

Well, on the good news side, the dinos are back..more dinosaurs,
better than ever. While Jurassic Park introduced us to "real live"
dinosaurs, the FX crew has had time to become acquainted with their
cutting-edge technology. They have produced much more lifelike
creatures, and the action is not stingy. One corollary  to this is: more
killing. The body count in Lost World rivals the numbers racked up by
Sly and Arnie. You can judge for yourself whether it's good or bad news
that Jeff Goldblum is actually the star of this film, as opposed to just
attending Jurassic Park and ID4. But the big disappointment is Steven
Spielberg's backslide into mindless action/horror cliches. He, better
than most understands how to do it right. How could he let this happen? 
   The story opens with a good scene of a shore party coming upon some
small dinos that are not as cute as they look. Cut to Jeff Goldblum
being persuaded to go back to "Site B". It goes against all his
instincts, but his palentologist girlfriend (Julianne Moore) is already
there, so he must follow her to get her to safety. She's having none of
that..this is an opportunity of a lifetime, and besides, it's her job to
move the plot along by getting everybody into trouble! Spielberg lets
her character alternate between trying to preserve natural habitats and
trying to disrupt them.
   As soon as we meet her, she rattles off a bunch of observations about
the stegosuarus family structure, then she walks up to a nest with a
baby steg, and pets it! Even modern-day birds would abandon a chick with
a human scent; the only reason to touch the baby is so we can see her
imperiled by the angry parents. Later, she comes across a baby T-rex
with a broken leg, and she decides to carry it back (200 lb, easy) to
the base camp, to set a splint. What a surprise that the parents show up
and trash the camp! The ensuing FX are very good, but Spielberg has
gotten flabby, letting these totally impossible actions move the story.
Would it have been so tough to have a baby killed by another dino, and
have the vengeful parent mistake something left by the humans as a scent
clue? Okay, you need the baby later in the movie, so make the T-rex
brood have two babies. How tough would that have been?
   Later, corporate mercenaries round up some dinos for sale to zoos.
Their Hatari!-inspired techniques are exciting. Our heroes sneak into
the camp and break open the cages of these not-so-fuzzy creatures. A
melee follows, destroying the camp..seems to me that they would be found
guilty of murder, or manslaughter, at the least. Not a good lesson for
the kids, but you don't want your kids to see this anyway. Way too many
scenes seem to have been designed to inspire nightmares in youngsters.
Spielberg tops his own lawyer-chomping scene by having two T-rex's "make
a wish." Late in the film, A captured T-rex breaks loose, Kong-style, in
San Diego. This lets us see some Godzilla scenes in a residential area.
Spielberg punctuates his homage by having one streetful of fleeing
pedestrians all Asian.
   There's lotsa good stuff packed into this movie. Pete Posthelwaite,
always a plus, plays a Great White Hunter leading the corporate team.
And the action scenes are so good, I'll probably have to see the movie
at least two more times. I doubt that Spielberg could have topped the
original, but sometimes it looked like he wasn't even trying. I remember
adolescence, when one friend after another drifted away from the group,
as they got interested in sports, girls, or whatever. The super-child
Steven doesn't want to come out and play anymore..Say it ain't so,
Steven.