1995 novel by Michael Crichton
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I've just finished rereading both of the original novels for the first time in probably ten or so years, and I had some thoughts I wanted to share, and hopefully start a discussion in the process.
To start off, I see people (and I'm sure I've done it as well) complaining about how much Spielberg changed from the novel or just didn't use, but after rereading the novel, I totally get it.
The novel has very little to do with actual dinosaurs until somewhere around 2/3s of the way through it. With the exception of a couple of very quick passages not having any interaction with live dinosaurs at all, or merely commenting on their behavior or having characters watch them over a camera network, or from the high hide.
This doesn't work for a movie, we already had Jurassic Park, we've felt the "wonder" of the the dinosaurs existence and relying on that trick to draw us in and then shut off the dinosaur stuff for an hour wouldn't work for the sequel like it did for the original.
There are only five human kills in the book, and four of them are characters you don't really care for, the one you do care for is killed off in one sentence.
Malcolm is even more preachy this time around, but this time, hes got Levine who is also just as preachy, and their opposing viewpoints are the major feature of nearly 3/4 of the book. Them just explaining and arguing evolution. It is interesting, but it would not make for a good film.
I don't think audiences would have enjoyed a more faithful version of TLW, because everything that happens in the book, happens in the last thirty or so minutes of a movie with not much prior buildup, stuff just goes wrong because it needs to go wrong or Malcolm would be wrong and Malcolm can't be wrong.
The book did have some more interesting plot lines in my opinion. Stuff like the prion disease, the slovenly, violent raptors (especially when compared to JP's wild raptors being extremely attentive parents).
I think the larger Ingen expedition from the movie was a good change for a movie, it allowed a "reuse" of the original wonder scene from JP, this time with the vehicles moving through the herd, and allowed us to sympathize with the animals, something the book does not do.
The Tyrannosaur trailer scenes are largely similar but Sarah and the glass window was a great addition from Spielberg. I also think the Tyrannosaurs continuing to stalk the expedition was kind of contrived, because someone as experienced as Sarah Harding would 100% realize she needed to ditch her jacket after coming to the realization that by moving the infant tyrannosaur, they had redefined the Tyrannosaurs perceived ranges. That was just added in to have an excuse for the Rex attack on the sleeping hunters, and to then have Tembo tranq it for the climatic San Diego scenes.
Speaking of, Roland Tembo is an awesome character, probably the most interesting in the movie.
Nick Van Owen is a terrible character, and is the reason for basically every human death in the movie up until his exit from it.
The raptors in the field scene is iconic and was a good addition. The stuff that came next, wasn't as much, I get that it was an attempt to do something similar to the novel, but it came off a little goofy.
I'm not a huge fan of the Rex in San Diego stuff, its another case of "Malcolm needs to be right, so make the story make Malcolm right", and I would have rather seen the Carnos from the novel replace the Tyrannosaur in the canyon, invisible carnos killing hunters in the night would have been an awesome scene, and you could end with a reformatted version of the raptors in the workers village scene we got, but draw it out and make it less pulpy action, more survival horror.
I do really enjoy TLW movie, its maybe my favorite in the franchise, but it could have been better. If it had followed the book, it possibly could have been much worse too.
TLDR: The Lost World novel wouldn't make a good movie, Spielberg did some strange stuff, somewhere in the middle is a better movie.
You guys know on the new reprints of the lost world where it’s grey with green text, and has the actual formed dinosaur roaring, not just a skeleton? is that supposed to be an allosaurus or what? wish we could just attach photos to our posts in this sub.