Watched on Blu-Ray

When a film breaks all previous records at the box office and, what's more, earns huge sums thanks to rampant merchandising, it's really only a matter of time before the sequel is due. In the case of "Jurassic Park", it was to take four years until the sequel, "The Lost World - Jurassic Park", trampled into cinemas worldwide. There, the film left a powerful mark, and part two also meant a real windfall. Compared to the groundbreaking first film, the result was nevertheless a bit disappointing, with the numbers plummeting by about a third. A phenomenon is not quite so easy to repeat.

Yet the preconditions were not bad. Once again, blockbuster director Steven Spielberg entered the competition, supported musically by his old companion John Williams. Michael Crichton, who had written the novel on which "Jurassic Park" was based and was also involved in the screenplay, was not present this time. Instead, he had written the novel "The Lost World" in the meantime, which David Koepp adapted as he did for the predecessor, but this time very freely. Jeff Goldblum, one of the main actors from the first part, also returned. Not to mention the beloved dinos, which are a bit more numerous this time, at least as far as the dangerous species are concerned.

And yet, "The Lost World" cannot compete with the celebrated "Jurassic Park". For one thing, the sequel to such a film automatically has a harder time. While the attraction of the sci-fi adventure lay in seeing the prehistoric creatures, otherwise only known from books and drawings, brought to life on the big screen for the first time with the most modern technology, the effect is automatically less with a second encounter. And this is despite the fact that the special effects are even better in themselves, the dinosaurs look even more realistic, and can even be seen 25 years later. There is even more interaction, especially the T-Rex do damage that you can practically feel.

However, there is less tension than in the opening. There, Spielberg took his time before he set the giant lizards on the humans. Instead, he first took care of the two-legged characters, their relationships with each other, but also the feeling of encountering a real scientific wonder. All that is dropped here. The characters here are mere disposable commodities whose only raison d'être is to be hunted by dinos or, conversely, to hunt them. Even Malcolm, who was a real highlight in "Jurassic Park" as a means of contrast, is suddenly very pale. The thrill of when and where one of the dinosaurs might appear has been abandoned. Because now they are everywhere. What's more, it's already clear in advance who's going to get it.

"The Lost World - Jurassic Park" is therefore not bad. In the film series whose 6th part starts in June 2022, the second part is somewhere in the middle. Instead of wonder and terror, there is constant fire. You can have fun with that too, for example towards the end when Spielberg bows to the cinematic original lizard Godzilla. However, the fact that the director had no more desire for the sequel at some point during the filming, as he later admitted, is also noticeable in this one. This is nothing more than a loud recycling machine. Of course, you can fire it up to pass the time somehow. Despite some funny or impressive scenes, the film world would not necessarily be poorer without the second part.