Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World is
essentially a rehash of the original. Man messes with nature. Things go
wrong. People get eaten. The major difference is in the last part which
is quite sophomoric and not at all fitting of Steven Spielberg.
It
is four years after the horrific disaster that happened at Jurassic
Park. Again, we meet the good doctor, John Hammond (Richard
Attenborough), no longer at the head of his company but still pulling a
few strings behind the back of his son, Peter (Arliss Howard). The
original base camp of operations set up by Hammond on Isla Sorna, Site
B, still exists and there are living colonies of dinosaurs there.
Hammond, who has gone from capitalist to naturalist, wants to observe
the creatures in their natural habitat and put to rest years of
speculation about the lives of the great animals.
Dr.
Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) is asked to come on board the team sent to
scout the island where the dinosaurs live. He refuses until he learns
that his girlfriend, paleontologist Dr. Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore)
is already alone on the island. He then becomes part of a rescue mission
including himself, photographer Nick Van Owen (Vince Vaughn), equipment
specialist Eddie Carr (Richard Schiff), and his daughter Kelly Curtis
(Vanessa Lee Chester) who stowed away in the back of the van.
Besides
the animals who would like to have humans for din-din, Malcolm's team
has to cope with Peter Hammond and Roland Tembo (Pete Postlethwaite).
Tembo's goal is to kill a Tyrannosaurus Rex to prove man is the greatest
hunter. Peter wants to capture the animals and bring them to the
mainland to create "Jurassic Park, San Diego". Bad idea.
Spielberg
and company, clearly realising they had a winning formula the last time
around, don't deviate very much from it. By the time the Tyrannosaurus
Rex gets to San Diego, I couldn't help but thinking I had just seen
Jurassic Park again.
What
is missing in this movie compared to the original is the intellectual
aspect. There's no talk of chaos, no background about how the animals
were bred and raised, no delving into evolution about how the animals
could overcome their lysine deficiency, and no "this is Unix, I know
this stuff!" Viewers are simply expected to have this knowledge, and
this means more time for bone crunching effects. As a result, we have a
movie that is darker and gorier than the original.
The
movie is entertaining and has some interesting messages about cruelty
to animals and leaving nature alone to do as it will. See it for the
matinee price but don't spend the big bucks on this one.
