The Lost World: Jurassic Park - Collectors Edition

With Jurassic Park being one of my top ten guilty pleasures, it was inevitable that I’d run out and purchase Michael Chrichton’s sequel with the anticipation of what is to come if it were ever adapted into a movie. With Spielberg anxious to revisit his box office blockbuster, the sequel was made.

It’s been 4 years since the disastrous events took place in Jurassic Park, but that hasn’t deterred the nephew of billionaire John Hammond, Peter Ludlow (Arliss Howard) to take over the reigns of INGEN and bring the reality of the failed park to reality. To do this, he organises a team of game hunters to travel to site B, the testing Island for the original park, and to capture some free roaming dinosaurs to bring back to the US as star attractions for a newly developed park.

Meanwhile, Hammond (Richard Attenborough) has once again called upon the services of Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) to venture to site B with a small team for the purpose of monitoring the activity of the now wild dinosaurs. Hammond has the leverage to counter Malcolms obvious refusal, from his experience with the original park, by using his girlfriend, Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore), as the incentive as she has already made her way to the Island. What’s a boyfriend to do but come to her rescue, no matter if there are man eating monsters running wild and free.

If the first transfer was pretty damn good, the second is just a tad better, being a more recent print. As with the first movie, this image really does seem almost artificial with the clean transfer throughout the movie.

The widescreen image provides a good sense of depth that are used to great effect even after the digital effects have been added in by ILM. It’s amazing how far digital technology has developed since the first attempt in Jurassic Park that not many people will notice. The use of lens flaring helps create a seamless mix between the live action and CG elements of the movie.

There are three main environments in which the movie is set: Lush tropical jungle, Jungle at night and the city at night. DVD once again produces an image that is beautiful to which by maintaining all manner of detail in any situation. Some of the jungle scenes provide excellent, rich, green imagery. Even at night, the green vegetation are still richly apparent. There are some really nice patches of scenery throughout the movie.

--- As is with all good calibre sequels, the audio is a refined improvement that produces a more active mix to partner the updated action sequences.

More T-Rex means more subwoofer action. You can’t get around this equation and the sound engineers have made sure that your room will shake that little bit more than the first instance, even if I thought it wasn’t possible.

John Williams is back again providing a different score, with a more tribal influence, whilst still retaining the elements of the original theme throughout.

The release of Men In Black Limited Edition has put a dampener on what I would consider quality versus quantity of extras. There are enough extras on this disc, but combined they only provide marginal value in comparison. As with the first disc, we have a cool animated menu introduction followed by a site B themed main option screen with more raptors on the loose. A look at the extras reveals the following:

• A 50 minute making of documentary focuses more on the movie this time rather than the special effects. We know what ILM can do so the sale of the movie is the prime concern here. Toward the latter half though we do revisit the effects work involved and how they are vastly improved over the original. This is always the case, the first attempt breaks the mould and the second refines the process. A good follow-up documentary.
• Next up are 2 deleted scenes. The first featuring the board room of INGEN where Ludlow takes over the reigns of the company by using a majority vote to overthrow his uncle Hammond. The second sees the original introduction of game hunter Roland Tembo played by Pete Posthlethwaite.
• Then comes a bunch of photos and/or sketches to deal with Illustrations and Conceptual Drawings, Storyboards, Models, The World of Jurassic Park, Industrial Light and Magic, Production Photographs, Marketing of Posters and Toys and the same Dinosaur Encyclopedia as appears on the first disc.
• The same 3 trailers greet us on this disc in the same presentation ranging from poor video to an uninteresting promotion of the 3rd instalment.
• Production Notes and Talent Profiles round up the textual information that is mostly covered in the making of feature.
• And finally the dvd-rom component that simply provides a link to the official web site http://www.jurassicpark.com.

Not nearly as interesting as the first disc but the documentary is sure to get a few viewings from time to time.

Whilst deviating from the novel I read, Lost World still retains the basic premise of the second dinosaur Island being targeted by game hunters. As a movie on it’s own, Lost World just seems rushed with many obvious plot filling sequences that just don’t come off. As a sequel, we are given a somewhat plausible vehicle for Spielberg to revisit a land of dinosaurs with moderate to good results.

Let’s just hope Jurassic Park 3, with the return of Dr Allen Grant (Sam Neill) and the likes of Tea Leoni and William H. Macy already on location filming, that it is something as special as the first one.