Synopsis:

At the conclusion of Jurassic Park everyone got off the island safely and returned to relatively normal lives in the states. The lysine contingency would prove to be the fatal answer to the dinosaur problem encountered within Jurassic Park.(just in case you wondered what happened to the dinos once our band of heroes left the island.) John Hammond however, had other plans for his creations. Jurassic Park it seems was not his first attempt at bringing dinosaurs back to life. Site B was an island Hammond tested the dinos on initially. When the project took flight, Jurassic Park was born. Subsequent to the destruction of Jurassic Park, Hammond fell back on Site B for the fulfillment of his plans for the "perfect biological preserve and theme-park", only this time "all would be in perfect readiness". This time his idea is for scientists to observe the animals in their native habitats. As there were no paddocks established on Site B, the Dinosaurs have been roaming freely throughout the island. Each staying within its own group. It's Hammond's belief that if the animals can be documented in their habitats, humanitarian efforts will prevail and they will be safe from those who would plunder his latest attempt at perfection.

Here's the problem. Jurassic Park and Site B were funded by profits from INGEN, his conglomerate. With the lawsuits piling up from their first foray into the bio-engineering field, the stockholders have submitted a vote of no confidence in Hammond and have turned over control of the Corporation to Hammond's greedy nephew. His nephew's concept on Site B is one of exploitation. His plan is to remove the animals from the island and bring them to a location stateside where, Jurassic Park can be maintained, controlled and most importantly marketed.

Fearing the total loss of his creations, Hammond enlists Ian Malcolm, Ian's scientist girlfriend and a "naturalist" intent on saving the lives of the animals. His nephew on the other hand has enlisted the best big game hunters money can buy and has set them loose on the island to catch what they can for shipment to San Diego, California. The newest site for Jurassic Park.

With screams and thrills galore, JP: The lost world is a pretty decent return to the land of "living" dinosaurs

Audio/Video:

The audio much like JP is thunderous in it's presentation. The center is perfectly delineated and the fronts/rears generate tremendous surround effects. Additionally, the LFE/Sub Woofer is generously used throughout the whole of the film. There are certain standouts in this one as well and they are, the Rex on board the vessel, The dual Rexi with the Mercedes, and the ship running aground just to name a couple of the instances.

The video seems a little cleaner in it's presentation than JP. I found the colors to be rich and full, the fleshtones accurate and not even a hint of pixealltion in the print. The blacks were incredibly deep and the picture on the whole is very impressive.

Extras:

Here again, Universal pulled all the stops and put together a #1 effort for this disc. The extras are:

The Making of The Lost World

This may have been the best part of the extras in that this material to my knowledge was never before released. It runs about 45 minutes and goes over all of the pre/post production problems/situations that arose in the making of the film. It's very well done and full of really interesting material.

Deleted Scenes

There were no deleted scenes included on the JP disc however, for The Lost Word, there are a fair amount included. Actually included as part of the "Making-of" segment, these scenes involve a stockholders meeting at INGEN and background information on The Game Hunter's leader. The scenes play one after the other and are very well done. IMHO, they could have been made a part of the film very easily. They added a fair amount of information and were actually interesting as opposed to the usual boring deleted scenes that deserved to be cut from the film.

Storyboards, Production Photos, Design Sketches and Conceptual Paintings

Very self-explanatory. Essentially, these are preliminary designs and sketches as well as the publicity materials and set/creature designs established for The Lost World. Nothing fancy just scrolling through the information. Neat to have but, nothing really different in the way of presentation from the JP disc.

Theatrical Trailers

Here, the trailers for Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III are included. Again, the same trailers that were on the JP disc. Full frame presented in Dolby 2.0 and all but the third were compiled from scenes in the films. Jurassic Park III has had no principal photography shot as yet so in it's place, they use island shots, thunder and lightening and dino growls to whet your appetite.

Dinosaur Encyclopedia

Again, it's the same as the information on the JP disc. Six dinosaurs from the Compys to the Rex are included. Information on their habitats as well as where they lived and died is included. Additionally, the roars/growls/sounds created for them for the feature are used when a particular Dino is selected.

Production notes, Cast and Filmmakers info and DVD ROM features

Lastly, these features including a live link to the Jurassic Park online event are included. The production notes, cast and filmmaker information is general static information as always.

Overall:

There are elements of this film that are great however on the whole, the picture never lived up to the awesomeness of the original. And really, how could it? JP2 has it's moments but for the most part it seems somewhat rushed. Whether that's true or not, it definately seems as though the filmmakers wanted to cash in on the tremendous success of the first film by bringing about a sequel intended to engender the same response. However, without the first film's "groundbreaking" intensity and scripting, JP2 had mediocre written all over it. I do like JP2 very much but, it's just not as good as the first. It's definately not a bad film it's merely a not quite what was expected. All in all though, I think you have to have both of the films to re-create the full effect and impact they offer. For the content and the audio/video it's easily collector's edition material. The one thing that both films are missing however is, Steven Speilberg's commentary. It would have been really neat to have his thoughts on the scenes as they unfolded. Maybe in the next "definitive edition" we can look to hear the maestro describe his Directorial considerations, while shedding light on JP, JP2 and JP3 from his POV(point of view)! Collector's Edition