Delayed Reaction: The Lost World: Jurassic Park

The Pitch: Jurassic Park made too much money not to make a sequel. Make it about anything.

Dr. Ian Malcolm leads a group that goes to Isla Soma to get enough information about the dinosaurs there to convince people to leave them alone.

This is Fallen Kingdom's fault. I left that movie so flummoxed that I decided to watch The Lost World for the first time in 20 years. I don't know why that made sense. My best understanding of this motivation is that I needed to see if Fallen Kingdom is a natural consequence of making a Jurassic sequel or if it's something unique. And that's being generous. My thought process was more like a series of grunts that then realized The Lost World was on Netflix.

The Lost World was a big movie. When it was released, it broke the opening weekend box office record at the time. In fact, it smashed the record by 36% (from $52 million to $72 million). No movie has broken that record by such a high percentage since. Jurassic Park was such a big hit that people couldn't wait to see the follow up. In a broad sense, The Lost World didn't disappoint. It made a ton of money - enough to convince the studio to make another sequel. It is a weird sequel though, similar to Fallen Empire in a lot of ways.

I don't really understand what it's about. I did in the moment. I just didn't retain any of it by the end credits. Ian Malcolm goes to Jurassic Park's sister island because there's another group that wants to bring dinosaurs to the mainland. Malcolm and his crew are supposed to report back about how well the dinosaurs are doing where they are, which is supposed to convince people to leave them alone. And apparently, either the dinosaurs themselves or just the events of the first movie have been kept secret from the public. This makes no sense to me. As soon as people know there are dinosaurs, there's a 0% chance they won't want to see them. So, it's a dumb mission from day one - doomed to fail. In Malcolm's defense he's only there because his girlfriend already went. I'm a little confused about that one too. Did the rest of her group die, or did she go alone? Either way, she should be more nervous when they find her. These dinosaurs have proven that they'll eat a person with little provocation. Really, I'm confused about why 90% of the people are there. I'm sure I'd know by paying closer attention to the movie, but that's kind of my point. I don't really care about the plot. I just want some dinosaurs.

In that respect, I'll give The Lost World credit. There's a bunch of dinosaurs. It's lousy with them. Big ones. Small ones. Every kind. And, because it's a sequel, there's not one, but two T-Rexes! As I discussed in my Fallen Kingdom reaction, I think the park premise gives the Jurassic Park/World stories some needed structure. The Lost World feels a little random, much like Fallen Kingdom*.

*I keep wanting to call it Fallen Empire for some reason. On principal, if I catch this mistake in my proofreading, I'm keeping it that way. And before you ask, no, I don't know what principal I'm doing that on.

I don't want to get too deep into this can of worms, but casting Vanessa Lee Chester as Jeff Goldblum's daughter is weird, right? Not to mention that the character doesn't fit in the movie. She feels like a focus group decision to make Goldblum more sympathetic.

Steven Spielberg is the difference between The Lost World and Fallen Kingdom. The man knows how to put together and execute a good set piece. He can make a movie like this not just in his sleep but in a coma. It helps that he only left the island for about 30 minutes in the movie. I remembered it being longer, but it wasn't. The longer it's on the island, the longer it gets to be about the dinosaurs.

I guess my "grand experiment" paid off. The drop off from Jurassic Park to The Lost World is about the same as Jurassic Park to Fallen Kingdom. Park just starts at a higher level. My entire memory of Jurassic Park III is that I saw it on the same day that I got braces. I hated life and my mouth hurt too much to eat any movie theater food, which I wasn't allowed to eat anyway. So, Jurassic World 3 almost has to be an improvement on that.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend