My Favorite Jurassic Park Movie: The Lost World.

On May 23rd 1997, The Lost World: Jurassic Park made its world debut and my dad was taking me to the movies to see it. Now at the time I had absolutely no idea what I was about to see, but that didn't matter because the movie was sold out and we weren't able to see it that night, so my dad took me to either Blockbuster or Hollywood video to rent the predecessor to the movie we were supposed to be seeing called Jurassic Park. After watching it a few times that weekend I was hooked. This movie was instantly like the best anything of Dinosaurs I had ever seen, so when my dad told me that the movie we were supposed to be on our way to seeing the night before was actually the second one I was actually looking forward to seeing it, so the next weekend when I came over my dad's house again we actually did get to see it this time and even during this second week the movie was still busy, yet we still were able to see it.

Out of all the films in the Jurassic Park film series, The Lost World is hands down my favorite one, as well as the one I feel is the best of the franchise. What I love so much about this movie is chaotic yet adventurous it is. So the plot of the film brings back the character Ian Malcolm portrayed by Jeff Goldblum from the first film as he has been sent to Isla Sorna by Jurassic Park veteran John Hammond portrayed by Richard Attenborough on a study turned rescue mission to save his girlfriend Sarah Harding portrayed by Julianne Moore. Long story short, Malcolm's team joined by Malcolm's daughter Kelly, all venture to Isla Sorna and cross paths with big game hunters hired by the infamous company InGen who are looking to collect dinosaurs off the Island and in the process both sides end up becoming targets of prey for the creatures on the Island including a family of Tyrannosaurus Rex's and Velociraptors, forcing both sides to join forces on a quest to make it off the Island alive.

The first thing I love so much about this movie is how its thrilling nature makes it a good bit darker than the original. Now this is in no way a negative critique of the first film, that movie is a perfectly crafted masterpiece, this is more of an observation. Because of how creatively included the children were in the first Jurassic Park film there is a big lighthearted tone amongst the chaotic adventure they are on in the movie, but being that this film has one child less and so many more adults who are fair game prey. With that being said, this movie spares no expense on exploiting the very real life danger surrounding these characters. The updated CGI in this film also adds to the film's adventurous thrill ride by making the dinosaurs look more realistic.

What I love best about this film is how it expands on the character of Ian Malcolm, who is also my favorite character in the entire series. This is a character who many may have brushed off at the end of the first film as a survivor blessed with dumb luck, but given his background as a chaos theorist seeing him come into the plot of this film fully savvy to what he is up against makes it more interesting to see how he responds to every impending threat this second time around, given that he also has a daughter and a girlfriend who he loves dearly hanging in the balance. I also love the inclusion of the big game hunter character Roland Tempo. His character is so likeable to me because of how considerably crass and opportunistic he seems on the outside, when on the inside he is actually very morally grounded and is just very determined to carry out the objective that lies in front of him.

The third act of this film is truly the icing on the cake to this masterpiece. I think bringing the dinosaurs to the mainland of San Diego, California was both interesting and entertaining because it showed how the nature of both humanity's chaos and the dinosaur's chaos are just not ready to cross paths yet and that the world of Jurassic Park is exactly why the distance between both worlds is needed. This kind of played out in reality for me because I remember the Four Season's mall in Greensboro, North Carolina having animatronic dinosaurs on every floor of the mall to advertise the movie and they scared the crap out of me. All in all, this movie is truly a great follow up to the original and I cannot wait to see Jurassic World: Dominion this Friday as it brings back the characters from that favorite film of mine in the series.