Lost World, The: Jurassic Park

Based on Michael Crichton's novel The Lost World and sequel to the huge blockbuster hit Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park is an edge-of-your seat adventure filled with bigger, louder and more ferocious dinosaurs. Jeff Goldblum reprises his role as Ian Malcolm, leading an expedition to the island of Isla Sorna, where dinosaurs have survived to roam in their natural environment. Malcolm must put a stop to a team of money-hungry mercenaries, led by Pete Postlethwaite, who plan on shipping the dinosaurs to the mainland. (Gary Reber)

Special features include deleted scenes (SD 07:09); an all-new documentary with two of six parts on this disc: Return To Jurassic Park: Finding The Lost World (HD 27:40) and Return To Jurassic Park: Something Survived (HD 16:30); the following archival featurettes: The Making Of The Lost World (SD 53:14), Original Featurette On The Making Of The Film (SD 13:17), The Jurassic Park Phenomenon: A Discussion With Author Michael Crichton (SD 15:27), and The Compie Dance Number: Thank You Steven Spielberg From ILM (SD 01:38); "Behind The Scenes," which includes "ILM & The Lost World: Before And After The Visual Effects" (SD 20:44), 12 storyboards, and the following under "Production Archives": Production Photographs, Illustrations And Conceptual Drawings, Models, The World Of Jurassic Park, The Magic Of ILM, and Posters And Toys; the theatrical trailer; D-BOX™ Motion Code™ and BD-Live. A digital copy is also included.

First reviewed as a LaserDisc in Issue 27, The Lost World picture, matted at 1.85:1, featured exemplary quality throughout, with extremely sharp and detailed images. Color fidelity was very natural, with rich and warm colors, natural fleshtones, and deep, solid blacks. Contrast and shadow detail were exceptional. There was no noise or artifacts, for a visually stunning experience throughout on the LaserDisc format. The anamorphically enhanced 1.85:1 DVD picture reviewed in Issue 43 exhibited sharp and detailed images, with excellent definition and clarity. Colors were nicely balanced with natural fleshtones, rich hues, and deep blacks. Shadow delineation was superb, with the darkest scenes revealing of good visual information. Some scenes appeared overly contrasted. Occasional edge enhancement and pixelization were apparent, but distractions were fairly limited. Intermittent source element artifacts were sometimes large enough to distract. Overall, the picture was impressive for the DVD format, but not pristine. The new Blu-ray Disc 1.85:1 1080p VC-1 picture is comparatively exceptional in picture quality. As with Jurassic Park, every visual parameter is remarkedly superior in quality, with the Blu-ray presentation the undisputable absolute reference edition. (Gary Reber)

The LaserDisc's discrete 5.1 soundtracks, Dolby® Digital and DTS® Digital Surround, reviewed in Issue 27, rendered a wider soundstage with aggressive split surround effects, though, the PCM matrix soundtrack was not dramatically different. Dialogue often sounded natural, with excellent spatial integration, though, in some scenes the ADR-produced dialogue was obvious. The music score was wonderful, dynamic, and expansive, with excellent soundstage depth. The low-level ambiance effects were incredible, especially finely resolved soundfield delineation on the DTS version. The low-frequency effects were impressively harmonic and powerful, especially in the DTS and Dolby Digital versions. Issue 43 DVD's Dolby Digital 5.1-channel discrete soundtrack was even better. The low-level ambiance effects were incredible, and the low-frequency effects were impressively harmonic and powerful. Dialogue often sounded natural, with excellent spatial integration, though, in some scenes the ADR-produced dialogue was obvious. The music score sounded wonderful, dynamic, and expansive, with excellent soundstage depth. The new Blu-ray Disc lossless DTS-HD Master Audio™ 7.1-channel soundtrack is repurposed as a completely new sonic experience that fully energizes the experience. The added two channels enhance the dimensional depth and spatial acoustic reality. As with the Blu-ray Jurassic Park, the dynamics are dramatically engaging and significantly add to the exhilarating excitement. The .1 LFE channel is effectively engaged throughout, with pulse-pounding sub-25 Hz bass that will challenge many home theatre systems. John Williams' orchestral music score is beautifully recorded, with a very wide and deep soundstage presence that extends aggressively into the other surround channels. Atmospherics and sound effects are riveting, with superb low-level resolution and dynamics, as well as directionality. Dialogue, however, is noticeably less integrated spatially, with ADR sounding "produced." Still, this is a very engaging holosonic® soundtrack experience! The D-BOX Motion Code execution is first-rate, with gut-renching vibrations and thumps that perfectly enhance the frightening sense of danger and terror. (Gary Reber)