Lost Opportunities

So what exactly makes for the most popular movie in cinema history? In the case of Jurassic Park, it was groundbreaking special effects, a neat twist on an old idea (you know: dinosaurs), and zippy action sequences involving those pesky velociraptors. Somehow, it struck a chord deep within our primordial fears, and bingo!–quicker than you can say "Jaws on land," a global mega-hit was born with almost a billion dollars in ticket sales.

Naturally, this was not enough.

Not unlike those crafty genetic scientists of the original movie, the executives at Universal Pictures have managed to extract the necessary elements to create a modern-day Jurassic clone. Will this brazen challenge to the very forces of nature deliver another monstrous hit, or will the studio be punished for its impudence? Seeing as how The Lost World has already broken every Memorial Day weekend record (with an estimated $90 million four-day total), it's a safe bet to say there won't be much of a backlash. But The Lost World is full of safe bets–so many, in fact, that it feels completely familiar. All it offers are more refined special effects, an old twist on an old idea, and yet more zippy action sequences involving those pesky velociraptors. While it does deliver the expected jolts, that's all it delivers.

As some readers would ask: isn't that enough? Well, not when the director is Steven Spielberg, the budget is $80 million, and the media hype is smothering. We as an audience have been conditioned to accept less and less for our entertainment dollars, even as ticket prices rise to pay for all these supposed "event" movies. If studios actually delivered films that lived up to their claims, then we'd be living in a golden age of entertainment. What we're actually getting are endless reiterations of other movies, only with bigger budgets. When Twentieth Century Fox is willing to pay an estimated $140 million so we can see Jason Patric beat up Willem Dafoe on a boat in Speed 2, I've got to say: enough. I'd rather see a cure for cancer.

What makes The Lost World more disappointing than most sequels is the fact Spielberg must have surely known he wasn't creating anything new or even fresh. So why did he bother? After starting his own movie studio (Dreamworks) that's been making nothing but floparoo TV shows, maybe he felt the need to prove he's still got the Touch. Or perhaps he just wanted to do something fun after achieving his critical apex with Schindler's List. Either way, it feels like he just phoned in his directions while busying himself with designing submarine restaurants and video game arcades ("Put in more 'raptors! Call me at Geffen's house if you need me.")

The choppy plotting of The Lost World makes Jurassic Park look like a model of airtight storytelling. Jeff Goldblum returns as "chaos expert" (is that possible?) Dr. Ian Malcolm, who apparently was discredited in the scientific world after going public with his tales of dinosaurs. (Uh, what about the other scientists? Did they suddenly become mute?) Meeting venture capitalist John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) at his palatial mansion (apparently he's still got plenty of money even after the demise of Jurassic Park), Malcolm is coerced into leading a team onto the abandoned "Site B," a previously unmentioned island that apparently was the hatching grounds for the Jurassic Park island. (Why was this site necessary when we clearly saw the hatchery on the original island? Uhhh....) Although highly skeptical, Malcolm decides to join the venture after learning that his girlfriend, Dr. Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore), is already at Site B, alone, studying the dinos that are now running rampant.

Conflict arises when Hammond's successor at InGen, Peter Ludlow (Arliss Howard), decides to make a last-ditch effort at making a profit off the company's dino investment by creating a Jurassic Park in San Diego–and importing dinosaurs from Site B. So much for scientific study. The rest of the movie is basically about watching Tyrannosaurs gobble these two teams up. They get eaten while trying to take cover in cars; they get eaten while getting lost in the jungle alone; they get eaten from behind while running away… why, they get eaten in just about every way they got eaten in the original film (except for the toilet sequence). Then, don't you know it, those wily 'raptors corner our heroes in the abandoned HQ, chasing them 'round and 'round. Ho-hum.

It's as if Spielberg and company weren't even concerned with trying to develop a new angle or a fresh plot; it would've simply been a pretext for what they knew people would really come for: big, nasty dinosaurs. And, admittedly, the creatures look even more realistic this time, with more detail and more natural movement. But The Lost World mostly leaves me with a sense of lost opportunities–in the last 15 minutes or so, Spielberg unleashes a T-rex onto downtown San Diego, and we finally get to see something that wasn't already in Jurassic Park. So why didn't they use that idea for more of the movie instead of just as an afterthought?

Oh well. Maybe they will in Jurassic Park 3.

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