Some passages in
The Lost World are compositionally
brilliant but totally unlistenable, the percussion and woodwinds of "The
Compys!" leading that group. The shrieking woodwinds in the highest
ranges of their capabilities are difficult to tolerate, and they do
expose one of the score's major problems: its mix. The rambling
percussion, both in the specialty instruments and the timpani, are
presented in a vibrant, engaging form. The orchestra, however, seems
muddy and distant by comparison. The Los Angeles recording for
The
Lost World is substandard in its flat performances, and it fails to
take advantage of the wide soundscape in the extreme bass and treble
that Williams had written on paper for the score. That's why some
listeners may prefer cues prominently featuring the percussion rhythms
nearly alone. The other, more disappointing aspect of
The Lost
World, without question, is the lack of loyalty to the themes of the
first film. With so much great material to adapt and expand upon here,
Williams chose to ignore much of it due to the perceived notion that too
much about the narrative of this movie was different. Spielberg indeed
created a darker atmosphere for this film, but that did not preclude
better, more obvious disintegration of the prior film's shiny thematic
identities. Both main themes in
Jurassic Park are reprised, but
only the secondary, brassy adventure theme for the park's concept is
adapted beyond token placements. This identity receives its first full
performance in "Revealing the Plans" without much alteration and becomes
an echo of the past in "Spilling Petrol and Horning In," "The Trek," and
"Finding Camp Jurassic" before peppering the film's climactic cues
("Monster on the Loose" and "Visitor in San Diego") with sharper
reprises. Naturally, it anchors the closing scene of uninhibited
dinosaur life and the first half of the end credits, too. Only in the
final moments of the story does Williams allow a fully rendered
performance of the actual main theme from
Jurassic Park that
represented the dinosaurs' resurrection with beautiful harmony in that
story. It appropriately accompanies the scene involving the Hammond
character from the prior film advocating on television for the dinosaurs
to be left alone. This lovingly tender piano performance has an
accelerated conclusion in "Tranquilizer Dart" to accommodate the "Life
Has a Way" quote's immediate transition from Hammond into the adventure
theme from the first film that opens the credits.
The suite that Williams wrote for the end credits of
The Lost World, as only heard on album, is based on the prior
movie's material, even resurrecting the mystery theme on horn at its
outset. But the main theme is accelerated in pace to such an extent that
it's almost ruined. After returning to the adventure theme in the "End
Credits," Williams does close out his new arrangement with the crescendo
of brass and timpani heard during the first film's great T-Rex finale.
This suite was not utilized in this film and would instead come to
represent
Jurassic Park itself in concerts for years to follow,
unfortunately with the consequent pacing issues and lack of choir. The
only closure for the new main theme of
The Lost World within the
film's story comes in "Tranquilizer Dart," where it receives a soothing
adaptation. The album's suite variation of the theme exists over the
second half of the end credits, however. Incidentally, the rising,
four-note dinosaur theme receives an eerie electronic performance at the
end of the "Tranquilizer Dart" cue's original recording that was cut
from the film. Of the two memorable secondary motifs from
Jurassic
Park, the churning high-wire suspense motif is completely gone and,
more surprisingly, the descending raptor and T-Rex horror theme is
confined to the latter half of "Reading the Map," where the sakauhachi
gives it superb, ghostly treatment. That rhythmic killing theme from
Jurassic Park was so effective that its comparative absence from
The Lost World is a massive detriment. While it's understandable
that Williams was attempting to move the series forward to fit
Spielberg's monster/jungle sensibilities, the lack of sufficient use of
these existing themes in fragments or in whole is inexcusable,
especially with several logical opportunities to do so. As such,
The
Lost World is arguably the composer's most disappointing sequel
score outside of
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York and, for some
listeners,
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. The original 1997
album for
The Lost World did not contain most of the score's
second quarter and some highlights, however, so listeners should seek
out the additional 40 minutes of material provided in 2016 by La-La Land
on a limited set along with
Jurassic Park. This fine product,
outside of its obnoxious artwork errors and copies sent to collectors
without a booklet, does especially remarkable justice to
The Lost
World, illuminating additional thematic references but also exposing
other material that drags down the middle portion of the presentation
with its discouragingly bland personality.
On the 2016 set, outside of portions of "Rescuing
Sarah," there is 25 minutes of newly released material between "Big
Feet" and "Reading the Map," some of which interesting ("Reading the
Map" is recorded beautifully) but other parts, such as "Up in a Basket"
and "In the Trailer," lacking any points of interest. The additional
cues on the second CD of the product are more appealing in their
development of the score's secondary motifs. The rising, four-note theme
of dinosaur rebellion is revealed with much greater clarity in the
expanded presentation, especially in "High Bar and Ceiling Tiles" and
"Ludlow's Speech." An alternate recording of the main new thematic suite
for
The Lost World is thankfully included on the 2016 set as
well. Its opening includes robust low brass accompaniment to the timpani
rhythm that sets the stage for the theme. Interestingly, it would seem
that the exact arrangement of the film's transition between the various
end credits recordings might remain unreleased, especially with its
softer opening of the new main theme. The 2016 set's sound quality is
outstanding, alleviating the need to retain the crappy legacy bootlegs
of
The Lost World, many of which containing sound effects. That
said, the orchestra's mix is still far flatter here than the exotic
woodwind and percussion layers, a problem that did not seem to exist as
obviously in
Jurassic Park. The set, despite multiple packaging
errors by the label, improved the standing of
The Lost World as a
composition, exposing more of Williams' expected intelligence in the
revealed cues, but it makes for a better experience off-screen than in
context. A poorly distributed, solo re-issue in 2023 adds four
additional alternate takes that are interesting but not necessary.
Overall,
The Lost World would be a satisfying venture as a
stand-alone score, easily earning four stars to conclude this review.
But as part of a franchise, it fails extend the musical narrative in a
satisfying fashion, a byproduct of Spielberg's errors with the movie. It
was long rumored that either Williams or James Horner would score the
belated
Jurassic Park III, but Don Davis eventually earned the
job and he ironically returned to the original film's material to a
greater extent than the maestro had in the prior entry. Michael
Giacchino offered a few reprises of Williams' themes as well in 2015's
Jurassic World, but it, too, failed to do justice to the original
themes of
Jurassic Park. As for
The Lost World, fans
should be prepared for a highly mixed experience. While it's fantastic
to hear Williams persist in any franchise, the score's emphasis on
cliched, old-school monster horror and needless dismissal of the
predecessor's themes can leave a lastingly sour aftertaste.
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