20th Anniversary of The Lost World: Jurassic Park

On this day 20 years ago -- May 23, 1997 -- The Lost World: Jurassic Park was released in theaters across the U.S.

"Something Has Survived"

This is my favorite film in the series -- flaws and all. I can't help but feel that this film could've been even darker than it turned out to be, instead opting to play it safe in places with attempts at  humor sprinkled over the top to remind the kids that this is just a movie. But, it still managed to get eerie in some places while keeping a PG13 rating.

The soundtrack is, of course, a defining feature. It's so impressive that John Williams followed up the original classic JP soundtrack with another classic soundtrack for this film -- and that it was entirely its own beast. Absolutely amazing!

This film gets a lot of mixed to negative criticism in recent years, but I felt that the first 1h 30m was for the most part very well done for what it was trying to do. It wasn't really until that last 30m that the film suffered from terrible pacing, glossed over details, ridiculous character feats, and 90's action star Ian Malcolm.

Also, I don't agree that Nick Van Owen could be seen as an antagonist of this film. We're presented with two opposing groups on a remote dinosaur infested island, that were eventually brought together. This place wasn't accommodating anybody whether you were kind and protective, or there for personal gain. All things considering, Nick was most definitely one of the good guys and gets unfairly criticized by some. His intention was good, it's just that the circumstances were beyond anyone's control which led to some terrible outcomes. Even the "antagonist" group weren't entirely all about being bad guys. Anyone could have their reasons for being there, but whatever the motives were, it didn't matter in the end when it all becomes about survival and escaping from that "lost world".

Anyway, what are some things that you guys/girls remember fondly about this film?

For me, I remember seeing the trailers from back then and of course it teased a wild T.rex on the island -- I still remember at the theater thinking "oh, crap" when the film dropped TWO!! T.rexes onto the scene. I had no idea that was coming because the trailers spoiled nothing about it... :O

Another thing: When the group had been rescued and were flying off in the helicopter, I thought that was the end of the movie so I was about to get up and go. I had no idea that we were going to get T.rex loose in San Diego.

LostWorld wrote:

"Something Has Survived"

Too bad this tagline was later retroactively completely ruined once JW stupidly established that the Nublar organic and inorganic material wasn't destroyed. It doesn't mean really anything afterwards with that turd unleashed. I mean obviously something has survived, it didn't even need TLW to exist for that lol.

Anyway. As I've said before, first saw TLW once the VHS hit the local market, probably winter of 1998, however my first memory of it actually comes from seeing the toys and marketing material on toy store. As well as the poster on local movie theater.

As I only saw TLW about half a year later than JP for the first time, you'd think nostalgia and childhood wonder and all that would've made me love it as much as the first one. But no. It's nowhere near as great, not then in 98 or not now. I mean I always thought it was alright, and I do watch from time to time, but still it's not in the same category, not even close. Of course it beats the other two sequels 100-0, but that's not really saying much.

In any case, the most interesting thing was that until about early to mid 2000's, I wasn't even aware that the film was hated by the general audiences. I had always assumed that everyone loved it as much as the first one, partly because some of my friends and sister said so, and that it was just my weird opinion that it wasn't up to the standard of JP.

I was shocked to find out eventually. And since then, I've seen TLW both as one of the most underrated films of all time (GA) as well as overrated (fandom), whereas I sit in the middle. It's fine. Maybe that's where the franchise should've ended as that was the last time they had some original ideas still in the pocket.

A tagline is just a tagline, not meant to be taken too literally. As a kid I didn't even know TLW happened in a different island; Work with me, I was a little kid and thought it was Nublar, it wasn't until I had the VHS many years later that I got that.

I was a huge fan of JP and waited for the sequel forever, when it came out that year I did really bad at school so I almost didn't watch it in theaters. Luckily my parents ungrounded me just in time to catch it before it left theaters. I was super happy with it but I remember my mom and sister saying it sucked, I couldn't believe they were saying that since it had been awesome. I guess inside I knew it wasn't as great since I never really asked for the VHS as a present, then again TLW had more competition from video games than when I was younger so I had different priorities for gifts. I also didn't have many toys of TLW, mostly since I'd had a bad year in school I wasn't given "prize" money that year but I did get the Gulp T-Rex.

I did get a used VHS in 1999 for cheap and watched it again a few times but I knew some of the magic was gone, I didn't like the movie as much as I thought I had and also I was becoming a teenager so my likes started to shift towards girls and music.

Since then I've come to realize TLW is not that bad but it's full of flaws and doesn't have the magic the original had. I know the fandom loves the movie and the general consensus is that it sucks, I'm somewhere in between.

TLW was actually the last movie in the franchise I saw. Went 1, 3 and then 2.

Absolutely loved the movie and I still do. There is a lost world arcade game that also captured my heart.

Mistral wrote:

LostWorld wrote:

"Something Has Survived"

Too bad this tagline was later retroactively completely ruined once JW stupidly established that the Nublar organic and inorganic material wasn't destroyed. It doesn't mean really anything afterwards with that turd unleashed. I mean obviously something has survived, it didn't even need TLW to exist for that lol.

Jurassic Park III started the trend of retconning taglines by indicating that Nublar was still populated with dinosaurs, as Udeskey questioned:"You mean there are two islands with dinosaurs?"
And to be honest, if it really ruined anything continuity wise, it was consigned to a deleted scene and for all intents and purposes nobody really knew about. So, nothing really. Plus the Lysine Contingency was proved to be an empty ploy in TLW anyway. So can we leave the passive-aggressive BS at the door on an occasion like this?

Anyway, my relationship with The Lost World: Jurassic Park is similar to many fans here. I saw it as a (little) kid and enjoyed it but not on the same level as its predecessor. I was five (and therefore did not see it in cinemas, having only discovered JP in TV on Christmas 1996) and not really at an age to understand or gauge the level of quality in a film, I just knew my reaction to it was not as strong as the first film. Still I watched it repeatedly on VHS and later DVD over the years, and went through phases of liking it and not caring much for it. Ironically, Doug Walker's scathing review of it made me take a more analytical look at it and still found much to praise about it. Its now grown to a point where I consider Lost World to be the second best Jurassic film. I have not had the pleasure of seeing it in cinemas, but I plan on rectifying that on Saturday 17th June when I see Jurassic Park and The Lost World at the Prince Charles Cinema in London, so I can finally say I've seen all of the Jurassic films on the big screen.

Also of note, while I was engaging with some fellow JP fans over Twitter, I noticed that Vanessa Chester (aka Kelly Malcolm) had retweeted Jaroslav Kosmina's awesome painting for TLW, I recited Malcolm's line "The school cut you from the team?", and got a like from her! She is officially the second Jurassic cast member I've had Twitter contact with (the second is Colby Boothman, aka the Raptor handler who fell in the pen), so as you can imagine I'm feeling pretty chuffed about it!

Spoiler:

(Also, yeah this counts as a name-reveal.)

BarrytheOnyx wrote:

Jurassic Park III started the trend of retconning taglines by indicating that Nublar was still populated with dinosaurs, as Udeskey questioned:"You mean there are two islands with dinosaurs?"
And to be honest, if it really ruined anything continuity wise, it was consigned to a deleted scene and for all intents and purposes nobody really knew about. So, nothing really. Plus the Lysine Contingency was proved to be an empty ploy in TLW anyway. So can we leave the passive-aggressive BS at the door on an occasion like this?

I have already counter argumented not only that Udesky thing you mentioned but whole bunch of others before. Since I don't feel like repeating myself again:

Response directly to you (7-8th post on the page)
https://jurassicmainframe.forumotion.com/t310p720-general-jurassic-world-2-news-thread

Response to Rhedo (most of the page)
https://jurassicmainframe.forumotion.com/t967-how-would-you-have-made-jurassic-world

Oh and "passive aggressive BS". How quaint wording, did you really think I was gonna look past it and be like 'oh he got me, that's gonna shut me up'. If your highness doesn't want to fight, why include words like that in a post?

sdp showed how to properly response. Although I don't necessarily agree with the sentiment beyond surface level, yes ultimately it is just a tagline, and so you can look past it.

I enjoyed the reads so far everyone.

BarrytheOnyx: That's cool that you got a like from Ms. Chester.

Speaking of Kelly, I liked her in TLW. In the context of the events that transpired on that island, she reacted to everything in a believable way -- sans Raptor-killing gymnastics. By the first night there, her intuition was telling her that bad things were going to happen, and she regretted that she came along. She was then terrified for herself and the safety of her Dad, and her reaction upon meeting him after the trailer incident and then later inside that waterfall nook area felt sincere. She was frustrated with Ian, but that's because that she loved him so much.

She was adorable and initially excited about a potential adventure with her Dad in the beginning, but then you can see how the experience of being on that island was taking its toll on her, and others as well.

If I were to rank the JP kids by their role in the films, it would go:

JP: Lex and Tim (some scenes were iffy, but it's just too classic not to!)
TLW: Kelly
JPIII: Eric
JW: Zach and Gray

I slightly prefer Kelly over Eric -- Eric was a good kid though, and he miraculously survived 8 weeks on that island by himself, which is an impressive feat. Zach and Gray I was mixed on, but I suppose that I should leave any more thoughts about that for another thread.

Also, is it safe to say that this was overall the best looking film in the franchise when it came to dino-action CGI? Most of the time, I feel like these were live animals on set -- down to details such as the glow in their eyes during night scenes. It's impressive what ILM were doing back in the 90's!

Edit: After the female rex storms onto the scene during the "camp-time fun", there's a brief instance when everyone is flailing and panicking where her head and eye movements are totally locked onto their movements. That quick bit is just beautiful to see in motion and an underrated example of attention to detail that is displayed in TLW.

Something similar is then seen again later when the Buck is chasing the crew at the docks.

For the 20th Anniversary, we at the Lost World Minute unleashed a nearly 2hr special episode featuring special guest Jaye Jurassick of the Jurassic Park Podcast:

CT-1138 wrote:

For the 20th Anniversary, we at the Lost World Minute unleashed a nearly 2hr special episode featuring special guest Jaye Jurassick of the Jurassic Park Podcast:

Are you in the podcast?

Yep, I'm Dave.

So happy to see TLW getting love around the internet!

Because ever since the era of YouTube (since around 2006) the internet usually acts like TLW was a sequel that nobody ever liked back in 1997 and that no one cares for today.

I was shocked when I found out about that because since 1997 untill around 2005 I thought TLW was as praised as JP.

The Lost World is personally my favorite film in the franchise. It's the one that I watched the most when I was younger, so it (along with the novels) defined what Jurassic Park is to me.

#TRexSpinorematch wrote:

I was shocked when I found out about that because since 1997 untill around 2005 I thought TLW was as praised as JP.

Same!

But in retrospect and having looked into it since, the blowback was quite hard initially already

Mistral wrote:

#TRexSpinorematch wrote:

I was shocked when I found out about that because since 1997 untill around 2005 I thought TLW was as praised as JP.

Same!

But in retrospect and having looked into it since, the blowback was quite hard initially already

Really? I honestly don´t remember anyone hating on TLW from 1997 to 2005. Most people I talked to about TLW either liked it or really liked it.

Wich is why I can not get over how ever since the YouTube era (2006 forward) the internet accepts as a fact that literaly nobody likes TLW. All you ever hear about the movie is about how bad the gymnastics scene is or how the end feels like a different movie or how it does not have any of the WOW moments of JP...

And I´m like... What were they expecting? A remake of JP? If TLW did anything well is taking and expanding the JP story to another level while feeling very much like a JP movie much more than any of the other sequels.

We got more Malcolm, more Hammond, more of the same dinosaurus while bringin in new ones, cameo by Lex and Tim, what exactly was so horrible about it?

Sorry, forgot we didn't include our names in that episode. Yeah, that's me. The guy with the muffled audio.

Happy belated anniversary TLW! You'll always be awesome and a favorite movie of mine no matter what.

Yep, I'm talking to a movie.

Check out this cool TLW 20th anniversary video. (We need more ´´Why TLW is great´´ type of videos on YouTube BTW).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA30IR48yls&t=803s

This movie I love almost as much as the first one and again despite its flaws... it's just a great follow up and if i have one negative thing to say about it, it's the whole san diego scene... it felt unnecessary considering it wasn't even in the novel to begin with.

The most memorable things for me would probably have to be:

The T-rex's attacking the trailers with Sarah laying at the bottom about to fall through the cracking glass. that was insanely tense!!!
The character Dieter getting lost and getting attacked by compies, his cursing in russian is absolutely brilliant in that scene.
Ian Malcolms reaction at the start when he finds out off Hammond that there's another island with dinosaurs on them.

Well, to keep in the spirit of the ongoing 20th anniversary of TLW...


Sarah Harding: Expert survivalist/plot armor extraordinaire... ?

"Observation without interference"... right? (proceeds to play with baby Stegosaurus)

Best Sarah Harding quote:

"I know what I'm doing." (proceeds to wear bloody jacket for two days knowing about the rexes)

It's funny how Sarah's actions contradicted pretty much everything that she said, being an expert in her field and all.


Not many people can say that they walked away from these:

Spoiler:

And, I caught something recently for the first time regarding Nick:

Spoiler:

So, that's when he sabotaged Roland's plan -- how did I not notice this in the 20 times that I've watched this film?...