The Lost World: Jurassic Park – Film Review

John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) summons chaos theorist Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) to his home with some startling information — while nearly everything at his Jurassic Park had been destroyed, his engineers happened to have a second site, where other dinosaurs were kept in hiding. It seems the dinosaurs on the second island are alive and well and even breeding; and Hammond wants Malcolm to observe and document the reptiles before Hammond’s financiers can get to them.

After the immense success of his previous film Jurassic Park, director Steven Spielberg had quite a mighty task on his hands when it came to directing the highly anticipated sequel, The Lost World. Of course, any director that had to make a follow-up to Jurassic Park would be sweating about the mere thought of messing it up.

They’d be sitting up in bed at night, hoping and praying to God that nothing would go wrong during production. But Spielberg knew exactly how to make a genuinely great sequel. Is this movie as good as the first? Not even close. But even still, The Lost World is an exhilarating action spectacle filled with tension, humor, and heart.

I just love how this series can genuinely be heartfelt despite the fact that it basically follows a group of people stuck inside of a park that just so happens to be flooded with dinosaurs. But what’s also fantastic is that, despite being so funny and heartfelt, the film also knows exactly when to get your blood pumping.

Spielberg and company were wise enough to make sure that the first film and this sequel were legitimately intense action movies first, and comedies second. There are tons of hilarious lines in these first two films that are insanely quotable and memorable. But what’s even more memorable in these movies are the characters and storylines.

The first film had Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler, and Ian Malcolm. Malcolm returns in this film, once again portrayed by the iconic Jeff Goldblum, who actually gets quite a lot of action-heavy stuff to do this time around. So, yes, believe it or not, there was once a time in which Goldblum was set to be the next big action star.

Is it goofy? Kind of, but I don’t care. I love it anyway. Goldblum is one of my all-time favorite celebrities, period, and seeing him have the time of his life in this film is just so wholesome. Julianne Moore also gets a decent role here, as does Vince Vaughn as Nick Van Owen.

The film isn’t anywhere near as investing as the first film, however. It has an excellent setup in the beginning that slowly fizzles out in the disappointingly boring second act. Thankfully, the film never loses focus on its characters, expanding them the best they could while also making one heck of an explosive dinosaur movie.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park may not be anywhere near as excellent as its predecessor, but Jeff Goldblum’s blissfully fun performance and impressive set pieces make this film worth while.