The Lost World: Jurassic Park

It’s clear right from the word go that The Lost World: Jurassic Park marks a considerable step down from its sublime predecessor, as director Stephen Spielberg and scripter David Koepp, in their efforts to top the original, offer up a erratically-paced and far-too-episodic narrative that contains almost as many lulls as it does highlights. The story, which follows Jeff Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm as he returns to Jurassic Park‘s dino-filled island to rescue his girlfriend (Julianne Moore’s Sarah), has been bogged down with superfluous elements that compound the film’s palpably unsteady gait, with the bulk of the narrative’s first half devoted to the exploits of characters that remain woefully underdeveloped and unsympathetic. (It is, for example, hard to work up any real interest in the continuing exploits of several vicious hunters.) It doesn’t help, either, that The Lost World: Jurassic Park suffers from an oddly low-rent visual sensibility, as director of photography Janusz Kaminski proves hopelessly unable to replicate the lush, cinematic landscape established by Dean Cundey in the first movie. The film does improve once it passes a certain point, however, with Spielberg offering up a handful of undeniably exciting set-pieces – including a fantastic sequence involving an attack by two blood-thirsty Tyrannosaurs. And although the movie does boast a few more engrossing moments in its second half – eg Malcolm and company must avoid the advances of several raptors – The Lost World: Jurassic Park ultimately falls prey to the various trappings that tend to afflict modern-day sequels (ie bigger is not always better).

**1/2 out of ****