Tags:
Film: The Lost World
Year: 1998
Director: Bob Keen
Writer: Jean LaFleur and Léopold St-Pierre
Starring: Patrick Bergin, Jayne Heitmeyer and Julian Casey
Review:
This film begins in a cave on the side of a plateau. We have a scientist who is starting to celebrate his discover. He pops champagne and puts on a Beethoven record; he is played by Jack Langedijk. With him his is native explorer, played by Russell Yuen. This plateau is in the middle of Mongolia. We learn that on top of it is an isolated, lost world where there are dinosaurs living. Langedijk doesn’t realize that there are aggressive bats in the cave and they attack him for the noise.
Langedijk makes it out of the cave, but he is dying. He asks about his assistant and ends up meeting with a follow scientist and friend, played by Patrick Bergin. Langedijk gives him his journal and wants him to show his discover.
Bergin holds a conference to relay the findings. He is discredited by a group of scientists. He decides that he wants to host an expedition to this plateau to prove what he says. Michael Sinelnikoff is a zoologist and his biggest detractor. He is informed that he will go along on this expedition. When the issue of funding comes up, a Lord played by James Bradford will take full financial responsibility it.
Also coming along on this expedition will be a hunter, played by David Nerman. The daughter of Langedijk, played by Jayne Heitmeyer as well as a news reporter, played by Julian Casey round out the rest of the crew. They do meet up with Gregoriane Minot Payeur and her brother, played by Yuen as well. They will be the native guides as well as they want to seek out their missing brother who was with Langedijk.
Their trip is eventful as their transportation continues to break down and they have a volcano erupt behind them. We also see a tiff between Bergin and Nerman over Heitmeyer.
They have to abandon their vehicle before they want to, as well as supplies that Sinelnikoff brought. Most of it is trivial for this journey anyways. They do however run into a group of natives that seem to be protecting the plateau. They kidnap Heitmeyer and hoist her into the air. They do save her and kill many of them. She stops them though, knowing that they do not understand what they are doing.
They have to flee them while they’re in hot pursuit. They end up using a balloon to get them to the top. Yuen’s brother doesn’t make it inside and has to hang on. They are attacked by pterdons and he falls to his death.
They crash land and now need to find a way back down. There are more of the natives on this plateau as well as other dinosaurs. There are tiny raptors, a tyrannosaurs rex that is patrolling the area among others. Can they find a way down and survive? Nerman doesn’t make it a secret that he is out to prove the dinosaurs exist, but at what cost? Heitmeyer along with Payeur also begins to translate what the hieroglyphics are saying in a cave they are hiding out in. There are booby-traps set up that they must avoid as well.
The first thing that I want to give this film credit for is making the dinosaurs look more realistic than other versions of this film, especially the T-Rex. The acting isn’t all that bad for this film. I’ve seen Bergin in a few things and he is quite intense. I also thought that Nerman was a solid choice as the hunter. I also found that using Mongolia to be an interesting choice for this lost world. The plateau has to be quite high for it work, but I know there isn’t a whole lot in Mongolia so I thought it was a good choice. This film is also being included into the horror film research due to the fact that we have people trapped on a plateau and being chased by dinosaurs and natives that want them dead or gone.
Now I do have to say that I felt this film was a little bit boring. The story doesn’t do much that hasn’t been done by other versions of this film. I did find it interesting that they started to do things, expecting anyone who has seen the other versions will think is going to happen and then ruin it. I’ll give that a plus. I did have an issue with the raptors being so tiny. I’m used to Jurassic Park films where they are bigger than man. I will say that this film did something else good as this plateau has required the dinosaurs to continue to evolve, so that could be a reason as well.
Now with that said, I would avoid this version of the film. There are much better ones out there. This film does have some good acting, but a story that has been done before. It does try to change some of it, but not enough to make it stand out. This film does portray T-Rexes more realistically than previous versions, but again, this isn’t enough. I would recommend seeing the Jurassic Park version, the original or the 1960s for a better take on this classic story.
My Rating: 4 out of 10