--- title: "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" year: 1997 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-lost-world-jurassic-park" fi1m_score: 64 critics_score: 63 critics_reviews: 14 published: "2026-09-19T16:30:07.678494+00:00" updated: "2026-09-19T16:30:08.333852+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) Directed by Steven Spielberg · 2h 09m · MPA PG-13 · Adventure, Action, Science Fiction **Fi1m score: 64** · Critics 63 from 14 reviews *In a sentence:* Two tyrannosaurs push a caravan off a cliff, and nothing afterwards quite matches it > Spielberg’s sequel has better dinosaurs, a meaner streak and one sequence, in a trailer on a cliff, as good as anything he has made. It also has a script that treats its people as bait and a last half hour that goes somewhere silly. ## Synopsis A British family’s yacht puts in at a second island where InGen bred its dinosaurs and then abandoned them, and a small girl wandering the beach is set upon by a pack of compsognathus, animals no bigger than chickens. John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), pushed out of his own company by Peter Ludlow (Arliss Howard), asks Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) to lead a team recording the animals before Ludlow’s people arrive to take them. Malcolm refuses, then agrees, because his partner, the palaeontologist Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore), is already on the island alone. He flies out with the photographer Nick Van Owen (Vince Vaughn) and the engineer Eddie Carr (Richard Schiff), not knowing his daughter Kelly (Vanessa Lee Chester) has stowed away, while the hunter Roland Tembo (Pete Postlethwaite) brings Ludlow’s expedition ashore. ## Review Steven Spielberg goes back to Michael Crichton’s dinosaurs four years after [*Jurassic Park*](https://film.one/film/jurassic-park) (1993), and this time he has left the wonder at home. John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) has lost his company to Peter Ludlow (Arliss Howard), and wants a record of the animals on the second island before Ludlow’s men crate them up. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) goes because Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore) is already there. That is David Koepp’s setup, and it is a good one. What follows is a monster film with better monsters than its predecessor and much less idea of what to do with them, and we came out admiring the animals and shrugging at the people. The opening sets the tone. A little girl wanders off from a picnic on the beach and finds a small dinosaur, about the size of a chicken, and then its friends, and then the film cuts to her mother’s scream. Spielberg did something like it on a beach in [*Jaws*](https://film.one/film/jaws) (1975), with the same relish. It is a nastier film than the first one. The PG is earned by cutting away, not holding back. The middle hour is where the money went. Janusz Kamiński shoots nearly all of it at night and in rain, the jungle lit by headlamps and lightning, so the animals arrive out of black. Rick Carter’s research vehicle, two trailers joined by a concertina passage, is the film’s best prop, and Spielberg spends a quarter of an hour taking it apart. Two tyrannosaurs shove it towards the edge of a cliff, and Moore ends up lying on a pane of glass above the drop, watching it crack beneath her. We gripped the armrest and did not let go. Michael Kahn gives every fracture in the glass its own shot, and the sound of it is worse than anything the dinosaurs do. Goldblum, promoted to lead, does the whole thing in a sardonic mutter, and does it well. Pete Postlethwaite is the best thing here: a hunter who has come for one animal and cares nothing for the money, played with a stillness the others lack. Vince Vaughn’s Nick Van Owen is a saboteur written as a hero, and the film never notices that nearly every disaster follows from something he did. Vanessa Lee Chester’s Kelly is on the island because the script needs a child there. Koepp’s screenplay is a chain of reasons for people to be in the wrong place, thinning as it goes. The sequence in the long grass, where a line of hunters is taken from below one at a time, is beautifully staged and means little, because we have not met most of the men being eaten. The film’s case for leaving the animals alone is made by Hammond in a speech and never shown. John Williams writes a darker, more percussive score than before, drums and low brass, and uses the old theme sparingly. It never stops in daylight to simply look at the animals, and we missed that. The last half hour takes the film somewhere we will not describe. It is bold and silly, and we watched it with weary disbelief: not frightened, not thrilled, just aware that an expensive machine had run out of road and kept driving. Against Spielberg’s own record this is a professional’s sequel, the work of a man who could do this in his sleep and, for stretches, did. See it for the trailer, for Postlethwaite, and for the little dinosaurs on the beach. Watch it at home, where the night scenes are easier to read and the ending can be switched off. It runs 129 minutes and reached UK cinemas on 18 July 1997. *Fi1m score 64, published 19 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics come down in favour, though not by much, and the praise is nearly all for the dinosaurs. The effects are called an improvement on the original, the set pieces tense and precisely built, and Spielberg’s direction more relaxed and self-aware than before. Goldblum’s performance and John Williams’s score get their mentions. Several later writers make a case for the film’s mean streak, arguing that its cruelty is the point and that this is the closest Spielberg has come to a horror film. The reservations cluster on the script: a thin rescue-mission plot, weak human characters and an ending that stretches belief. The 1997 notices are the coolest, with RogerEbert.com, Time Out and Total Film all finding the wonder of the first film gone and formula in its place. The reappraisals, from Vulture to Collider, are markedly warmer. The spread is wide, running from outright dismissal to something close to a rave. ### Reviews we read (14) - **Vulture**, Bilge Ebiri (85/100, inferred): The critic celebrates the film as Spielberg’s nastiest, a demented horror-like sequence of action set pieces with technical skill and cruelty, highlighting its mean streak and parental themes amid the carnage. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2020/08/the-lost-world-is-spielbergs-nastiest-film-and-i-love-it.html) - **The New Yorker**, Terrence Rafferty (80/100, inferred): Spielberg brings visual wit and relaxed, self-aware showmanship missing from the first film, turning the creature-feature into playful entertainment that amuses even as it manipulates. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1997/06/02/1997-06-02-091-tny-cards-000149513) - **The AV Club**, Mike D'Angelo (75/100, inferred): The critic finds it a lot of fun as a straightforward monster movie with improved effects, strong Goldblum performance, and precise set pieces, free of the original's pretensions. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/could-the-lost-world-actually-be-better-than-jurassic-p-1798268511) - **The New York Times**, Stephen Holden (75/100, inferred): The sequel is a fast-paced adventure film that excels at spectacle and lifelike dinosaurs, especially the smaller compsognathus, though messages are less neatly packaged than in the original. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/23/movies/a-jurassic-romp-of-parental-mayhem.html) - **Little White Lies**, Josh Slater-Williams (65/100, inferred): The piece highlights how a particularly brutal T-Rex attack scene in the film shocked the writer as a child and changed their view of cinema's capacity for cruelty. It positions the movie as a cynical, macabre follow-up to the original that abandons wonder for darker tones, though it stops short of calling it a classic. [Read](https://lwlies.com/in-praise-of/the-lost-world-t-rex-death-scene) - **Variety**, Leonard Klady (65/100, inferred): Dinosaur effects are improved and credible, delivering visceral thrills, but the schematic script and thin plot make it a standard chase film that relies on manipulation over substance. [Read](https://variety.com/1997/film/reviews/the-lost-world-jurassic-park-1117329752/) - **Empire**, Ian Nathan (50/100, inferred): The sequel falls short of the original but delivers strong set-pieces and technical spectacle with more and better dinosaurs. It suffers from a thin story, disjointed structure and a silly ending that stretches credibility. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/jurassic-park-lost-world-review/) - **Time Out** (40/100, inferred): The review finds the sequel suffers from déjà vu, with diminished wonder at the dinosaurs and set-pieces that feel like more of the same. It criticises contrived story and characterisation while noting the eco message feels thin, concluding it delivers exactly what one would expect and no more. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-lost-world-jurassic-park) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (35/100, inferred): The film lacks awe and wonder about dinosaurs, feeling like a perfunctory monster-movie sequel driven by formula rather than imagination. Technical effects are strong but human characters and plot are weak and unconvincing. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-lost-world-jurassic-park-1997) - **Total Film** (30/100, inferred): The dinosaurs and effects remain impressive and integrated into the action, but the film is let down by a monotonous, predictable and pointless story with poor acting, dialogue and pacing. It fails to recapture the awe of the first film. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/the-lost-world-jurassic-park-review/) - **Den of Geek**, Simon Brew (75/100, inferred): The critic argues that The Lost World is a better sequel than generally credited, praising its tense set pieces, detailed direction, and John Williams score while noting some bloat and a flawed ending. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/why-the-lost-world-jurassic-park-deserves-more-credit/) - **The Ringer**, Miles Surrey (75/100, inferred): The critic views the film as mean-spirited and darker than its predecessor, embracing horror over wonder, but appreciates its craftsmanship and Spielberg's willingness to try something different. It is seen as entertaining despite flaws and comparable to the director's own King Kong. [Read](https://www.theringer.com/2022/05/19/movies/the-lost-world-jurassic-park-25th-anniversary-steven-spielberg) - **Collider**, Daniel Boyer (70/100, inferred): The piece defends the sequel as underrated, highlighting Spielberg's direction, the darker tone, expanded themes of man vs. nature, strong visuals, and compelling characters like Roland Tembo. It argues the film is the best after the original despite not matching it. [Read](https://collider.com/the-lost-world-jurassic-park-underrated-reasons/) - **NME**, Victoria Luxford (70/100, inferred): The Lost World is a good film undermined by following a great one, with strong sequences but diminishing returns overall as it settles into a rescue mission story and a bold but uneven third act. [Read](https://www.nme.com/features/film-features/jurassic-park-movies-ranked-3477717) ## Details - **Director:** Steven Spielberg - **Director:** Steven Spielberg - **Screenplay:** David Koepp - **Novel:** Michael Crichton - **Cinematography:** Janusz Kamiński - **Editor:** Michael Kahn - **Music:** John Williams - **Production design:** Rick Carter - **Producer:** Gerald R. Molen, Colin Wilson - **Cast:** Jeff Goldblum as Ian Malcolm; Julianne Moore as Sarah Harding; Pete Postlethwaite as Roland Tembo; Arliss Howard as Peter Ludlow; Richard Attenborough as John Hammond; Vince Vaughn as Nick Van Owen; Vanessa Lee Chester as Kelly Curtis; Peter Stormare as Dieter Stark - **Runtime:** 2h 09m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG-13 - **Release (the US):** 23 May 1997 - **Genres:** Adventure, Action, Science Fiction - **Budget:** $73 million - **Box office:** $619 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtfwgaHD5_w ## Where to watch in the US - AMC+: streaming - Hulu: streaming, uhd, leaving 2026-10-01 - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - Disney+: add-on, uhd - Apple TV: add-on, hd - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd, leaving 2026-09-22 - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $14.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-19.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, AZ, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, SK, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1998: Best Visual Effects (nominated) ## If you liked this - *Jurassic Park* (1993), Fi1m 91: The original: one idea, that the animals are real, and everything built on it — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/jurassic-park.md) - *King Kong* (1933), Fi1m 88: The lost island, the hunters, the crated beast; Spielberg was plainly taking notes — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/king-kong.md) - *The Valley of Gwangi* (1969): Cowboys rope a Harryhausen allosaurus; daft, sincere and rather lovely - *Aliens* (1986), Fi1m 91: The other sequel that swapped wonder for firepower and got away with it — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/aliens.md) - *Godzilla* (1954), Fi1m 88: A monster film that means every word of its warning, and shows it — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/godzilla.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. 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