Probably one of the least ‘needed’ sequels i’ve seen in a good while, ‘The Lost World’ came 4 years after the original ‘Jurassic Park’ blew through cinemas like a tornado. And…im gonna be completely honest with you, up until a couple of years ago. I didnt even know this film was a seperate film to ‘Jurassic Park’, I always assumed that ”The Lost World – Jurassic Park” Was the full title of the original ‘Jurassic Park’ and that it had just been shortened by the pop culture machine because the full titles a bit of a mouthful…

So the plot picks up 3-4 years after the events of the original Jurassic Park, and Dr. Malcolm is called for to attend a SECOND island that Hammond purchased that was supposed to be the ‘factory floor’ creating the dinosaurs that would then be shipped over to the original island from the first film.

He’s reluctant, but when he’s told his Girlfriend has already gone ahead of him, he agrees, if only to bring her back. Anyway; they get there, and it turns out that one of Hammonds Nephews has wrangled away some rights to the park and intends to send hunters to the island to tranq a few Dinosaurs and bring them back to the mainland, where they’ll be on display in an amphetheater, which was supposedly being built BEFORE the islands were procured, but was never finished. The idea being that, a smaller enclosed park in the city could be so successful that a global franchise could be launched.

And…thats basically the rest of the plot of the movie, Dr. Malcolm, his kid, his girlfriend and crew of documentarians fighting to stave off hunters, who are getting slowly picked off one by one by dinosaurs…and its just kind of meh to me…

I really dont think this needed to be made, it lacks the whimsy and fun of the original, it feels darker, colder and less pleasent, the lack of consistent humour throughout makes this 128 minute film about dinosaurs sluggish and uneven. The act structuring is lop sided, the characters just arnt that interesting and dont really have good motivations or drives to really be doing anything here. It all feels quite rushed and a bit boring at times honestly.

Theres a sense that the magics gone with this one, that extroadinary feeling the first film still gives me after multiple watches, this film just…doesnt really try to match it, or even surpass it. Hell, it only ever fleetingly even feels like a Speilberg film, for the most part, it just kind of feels like a generic action movie/creature feature.

The direction and cine are fiiine, Theres nothing inherently bad here, it just again, doesnt really feel like anything other than ‘more of the same’. There are moments where you can tell they just repurposed the old animatronics from the first film, and this ones weighted a little heavier in favour of CGI, which is a shame as its much more noticable here, and it all just feels kind of beige as a result.

Technically, I think its good, its a strong film. But then, its a studio film, so I kind of expect, at minimum on a 73 million dollar movie healmed by a legend of the directors chair, for it to be AT LEAST good. anything less than that would be cause for concern…

Even Jeff Goldblum cant really save this. Dr. Malcolm in the first film only really worked because he had an enigmatic cast to bounce off of, and because he was 3rd in line to the lead role position, it meant that he could spend most of the film being playful and sarcastic, which was endearing…Here? they have to write him as a much more serious, stoic character, and while he still gets the occasional dry joke here and there. It really kind of feels like a different character to the first films.

The rest of the cast as well just…didnt cut it for me, they didnt quite have the presence here. There are no bad performances really, but rather, theres just a lack of energy, a lack of spark, a lack of the kind of tone and vibe that I enjoyed with the first film. Im sure there are folks out there who will enjoy these performances. But I just couldnt vibe with them.

Even the scores kind of dry, when the highlights of the films music are the best tracks from the last film…thats a problem.

I dunno, this just felt like a long, dry and kind of generic movie. The kind that, I wouldnt mind if its running in the background and I dont have to give it my undivided attention, but not one that I feel like I could solely focus on other than for the purpose of this review.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-lost-world-jurassic-park/