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| Williams |
The Lost World: Jurassic Park: (John Williams) It
had been four years since Steven Spielberg's
Jurassic Park
dazzled audiences with its thrilling premise, tight execution, and
awe-inspiring special effects. By 1996, however, blockbuster movies had
exhausted the usual array of disaster scenarios with the same style of
visual effects, and
The Lost World: Jurassic Park had to rely on
another compelling idea to continue interest in the franchise.
Unfortunately, when author Michael Crichton was hired specifically to
write another book that would inspire the sequel to
Jurassic
Park, he fell into the trap of conventional, formula-driven
narratives. Unlike the first film, when the purpose of the horror was to
question whether or not the likable characters could live long enough to
escape the island,
The Lost World: Jurassic Park is nothing more
than an exhibition for cheap terror tactics and a blatant rip-off of
King Kong by the end. Shallow characters, familiar rainy
nighttime settings, and a lack of logical continuity with the first
film's story caused the film to sink with critics. Audiences still went
to the spectacle and made it successful, but they typically didn't go
back for another viewing. Spielberg looks back at this 1997 attempt to
create a noir-like tribute to classic films involving monsters on remote
islands with lament, recognizing that the end result was a sequel
clearly inferior to its predecessor. Of the souring aspects of the
successor, none was as surprising as the rather forgettable score by the
usually reliable John Williams. The maestro had gone since
Jurassic
Park without an action, adventure, or fantasy entry in the interim,
and his fans were extremely eager to hear him expand upon the popular
previous entry. Williams' work for
Jurassic Park has historically
been diminished in stature by some film music critics and collectors,
but it remains an extremely intelligent balance between magnificent,
accessible beauty and technically masterful terror. Several themes and
motifs of significant strength graced
Jurassic Park, filling
every moment with a unique musical identity that kept the score from
ever losing its appeal. For
The Lost World, Williams, like
Spielberg, lost focus and failed to provide the same level of
accessibility.
It's easy to get the impression that Williams was making a
concerted attempt to create a completely new thematic and textural
landscape for "Site B" in
The Lost World. This second island in
the overarching story is treated by Williams to almost a completely
separate set of instrumental rules and identities. Understandably, the
sequel score is much darker than the original, shedding most of the
fantasy element. It's a far more brutal and violent score in every
sense, leaving behind the charm and dreamy mystique of
Jurassic
Park and exploring frightfully atonal suspense for extended
sequences. Williams' primary theme for the sequel is its only really
well-developed idea, which is a major surprise considering the melodic
complexity of the first score. This alone isn't a disappointing factor;
Williams has often integrated one or two new dominant themes into the
fabric of a prequel's material. But two aspects of the incorporation of
themes into
The Lost World are somewhat disturbing. First, the
title theme for the sequel is nowhere near the usual standard of
excellence that Williams fans had come to expect. The heavy emphasis on
exotic percussion rhythms is promising, and they do go on to define the
score. But the theme itself, with its slowly developing progression and
stagnant personality, fails to create an atmosphere of convincing fear
or intrigue. It plods through its phrases with the standard assistance
of Williams' smart counterpoint and orchestrations, but it's not a
particularly malleable theme with which to mold an entire score,
reminding of old-school monster themes that are reprised repeatedly in
identical form throughout a score. As expected, it only receives
interesting treatment in "Malcolm's Journey" (otherwise known as "To the
Island"), "The Hunt," and "Heading North" outside of the finale and
concert suite. The general rhythms performed by a variety of
medium-range drums and slapping metallic percussion, often aided by wild
woodwind accents, are the better definition of the score's personality.
The score's greatest asset are the many cues that make use of these
relentless, primordial rhythms, and Williams often accentuates them with
sakauhachi flute (returning from the prior score), conch shells, and
brass howling at a distance. For a fan of percussion,
The Lost
World is a dream come true. Williams' use of both the percussion and
ethnic effects here would prepare him well for the early portions of his
upcoming score for
Amistad.
Outside of the major performances of the new jungle and
monster-inspired main theme and the lengthy sequences of powerfully
percussive rhythms,
The Lost World offers surprisingly little to
get excited about. There are several periods of rhythmically dissonant
underscore that fail to extend the music's larger narrative to any great
degree, some of which go on for five-minute intervals. Cues like "On the
Glass" and "The Long Grass" are sufficient mood-setters but little more.
Unlike the first score, there are sections of
The Lost World that
are somewhat non-descript and oddly boring, including "The Island
Prologue" ("The Island's Voice"), "The Trek," and "Finding Camp
Jurassic." The lack of enthusiasm in the details of these cues is a
surprise given Williams' tendency to fill every moment of his scores
with some form of meaningful forward development. There are a few
individual cues of unique merit for discussion, however. The jungle
rhythms in "Rescuing Sarah" are merged with some outrageously
rambunctious brass bursts that eventually lead to a conclusion of the
cue that introduces a theme singular to this scene. It's among Williams'
most heroic bursts outside of his
Star Wars scores and causes a
bit of head scratching due to its singular appearance. An attractively
stomping revenge theme for the T-Rex is developed with timpani and
cymbal-crashing authority in "Monster on the Loose," "Visitor in San
Diego," and "Ludlow's End." Meanwhile, "The Stegosaurus" is the score's
only slight return to the sense of ponderous wonder of the original.
Also of note is "The Raptors Appear," which adapts some musical ideas
from the late moments of the raptors' battle with the T-Rex at the end
of
Jurassic Park. In between obnoxiously shrieking piccolo lines,
the tonal fantasy highlight of the entire score exists in eight seconds
starting at 2:40. That's it... eight seconds. And these eight seconds
are among the few in which you'll hear a choir (real or synthetic) at
any time during the length of the album. There's a brief reprise of the
idea in full, along with several overlapping fragments of the motif, in
the latter half of "High Bar and Ceiling Tiles," complimented by
enhanced tuba presence. The progression is actually a rising four-note
response to the descending raptor and T-Rex horror theme in the previous
score. Introduced in "Fire at Camp and Corporate Helicopters," this
ascendant theme often accompanies moments when the dinosaurs take
control against their corporate masters, evolving significantly during
"Ludlow's Speech" and "The Wrecked Ship."
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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- Music as Written for the Film: ***
- Music as Heard on the 1997 Album: ***
- Music as Heard on the 2016 and 2023 Albums: ****
- Overall: ***
| Bias Check: |
For John Williams reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.68
(in 91 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.54
(in 363,495 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The 1997 MCA album is packaged with a paper and cardboard 3-D pop-up format that is
extremely annoying. It does not contain the standard note from Spielberg for a Williams
album, nor does it even provide the usual recording credits expected on any soundtrack
album. The extensive booklet of the 2016 La-La Land product contains detailed information,
though some sets were shipped from the label without a copy of the booklet, and original
pressings contained inaccurate artwork. The booklet of the 2023 set reprises much of the
same information.
