Dinosaurs Good, Story...Not as Good
The second half of the double feature, as hinted in my final paragraph yesterday, is the 2001 TV miniseries version of The Lost World.
There were four reasons I wanted to check out the 2001 TV miniseries of The Lost World. One, it would allow me to do a double feature with the Irwin Allen version (and make a retrospective of sorts when you throw in the 1925 version); two, Peter Falk was in it; three, the poster made it look like at least half the expedition would be made up of old men, which could be either amusing or surprisingly awesome; and four, it was free on Amazon Prime. While the first reason still stands, the other three turned out to be more of a mixed bag, leading to a viewing experience that wasn’t bad…but was also occasionally baffling.
This version of the story is set back in the early 1900’s, with the narrator/focal character being Edward Malone (Matthew Rhys), a newspaperman who wants to get his big break. He gets it when, while attending a lecture on dinosaurs hosted by Professor Summerlee (James Fox), another professor, Professor Challenger (Bob Hoskins) bursts in and presents scant but semi-compelling evidence that there’s a place in the Amazon where dinosaurs still exist. Eventually, an expedition is formed, consisting of Challenger, Summerlee, Malone (his paper having been given exclusive rights to the story), and adventurer Lord Roxton (Tom Ward). Arriving in South America, they eventually pick up two more members; an Englishwoman named Agnes (Elaine Cassidy) who’s been living in the Amazon most of her life, and Reverend Theo Kerr (Falk) a missionary who’s also what we’d call a Creationist nowadays. Most of the first episode is dedicated to the setup and travelling to the plateau of the dinosaurs, with just enough material in the last half-hour or so to satisfy the people who tuned in to see prehistoric creatures. Then we get to the second episode, and I’m going to have to both go on a brief tangent and warn for SPOILERS.
As I said, I watched this movie via Amazon Prime, and was initially under the impression that it was a full-length movie, albeit a TV movie that was just 55 minutes long. When I started watching it, it opened in a campsite of the “Hollywood depiction of jungle natives” variety, and I assumed this was a case of opening in media res. But after several minutes passed and there was no indication of any flashback, I paused the movie and did a little poking around. It turns out that what I thought was a movie was actually a two-part miniseries, and that only Part Two was available for free. I could watch Part One, but I’d have to buy it. Since the dinosaur animations looked good and I wanted to see Falk and Rhys (who I have a lateral affection for because he’s good friends with Ioan Gruffudd, my favorite actor), I was willing to invest the money. It was only after finishing Part One and re-starting Part Two that I realized that I still didn’t have the complete story; for reasons I can’t fathom, the first fifteen or so minutes of Part Two are missing. Part One ends with Malone and Agnes falling into a pit while on the run from an Allosaurus, while Amazon’s Part Two starts with the whole expedition in the native camp, even though we hadn’t been introduced to the natives in Part One. While I could have acquired the missing fifteen minutes, it wasn’t worth the money and hassle (for even more inexplicable reasons, the Part Two that’s packaged with Part One is Part Two of a completely different miniseries, meaning I’d have had to buy Part Two off I-tunes for even more money than Part One), and since I could pick up most of what I missed from context clues, I was willing to just make do.
I bring all of this up both to warn people who try to watch this movie via Amazon, and also to explain that one of the most baffling elements of the miniseries for me might be tied in to those missing fifteen minutes. Part One established that in addition to dinosaurs, there are also ape men who are probably meant to be a sort of missing link between primates and man. In Part Two, some of these ape men have been captured by the natives, who would normally kill them but who have been persuaded to spare them by Challenger, who they think is a god. Whenever we see the ape men, they come across as mostly sympathetic figures. Sure, they’re still somewhat wild and the significant closeups on one of them suggests that he’s got a vendetta against Roxton (presumably from something in those missing fifteen minutes), but since they’re being kept in a cage and we haven’t seen them do anything actively bad, you kind of feel sorry for them. This is further emphasized by a scene where they lose a baby and tearfully bury it, complete with reaching through the bars of their cage to try to pick a flower. But then, a few scenes later, they all start howling, then fall silent, then cover themselves with excrement and sit very still. Moments later, two Allosauruses attack the camp, and both Challenger and Roxton come to the conclusion that the ape men called them, presumably in an attempt to exact revenge on their captors. So far, this isn’t too bad; you can see it as a lesson about how the rules of civilization are different to the rules of the jungle, or how appearances can be deceiving in multiple ways. It was a bit deeper than I expected the movie to go, but that’s generally not an unwelcome thing.
Then it all falls apart. During the Allosaurus attack, Agnes and Malone (who are unaware of what the ape men did), try to free the ape men. In the process, one of the Allosauruses comes close to the cage, and the ape men grab Malone (Agnes left to help someone else), cover him in excrement, and hold him down, thus saving his life until the dinosaur passes by. And after that, the ape men pretty much disappear from the story, except for the one who hates Roxton, and even he only gets another minute or two of screentime. So I’m left wondering what their purpose was, and how we’re supposed to feel about them. Since they’re sympathetic ninety percent of the time, why do they call the Allosauruses there?* Are we supposed to be siding with Roxton (who thinks they’re dangerous) or Challenger? In the end, they seem to exist only to advance the plot and add conflict, which is never a mark of good storytelling.
SPOILERS OVER. Other than what I just outlined, I enjoy a good chunk of the movie/miniseries. Pretty much all of the major characters are likeable, or at least entertaining to watch. While the special effects for the dinosaurs are noticeably fake in some places, they’re still pretty good. I kind of like seeing Summerlee and Reverend Theo arguing evolution vs. creationism in the 1900’s context, when Darwin’s theories were still relatively new. And I appreciate that Malone is allowed to not be manly without condemning him for it. After all, he’s a newspaperman-traipsing around the Amazon isn’t exactly in his normal line of work. All of this was enough to keep me watching, despite the roundabout ways I had to go to to watch.
At the same time, there are other elements that fall flat, and probably would have fallen flat for me even if I’d been able to watch the movie normally. A love triangle developing between Agnes and two of the men in the expedition is pretty much to be expected, but it’s not necessary, and is definitely one of the low points of the story. While I like the concept of Reverend Theo and his character arc, it’s not fully developed, and Falk doesn’t get nearly as much screentime as I’d been hoping for. A semi-mystery involving some snakes is never actively answered, although I do at least have a strong suspicion about what was going on. Above all, the ending bugs me in multiple ways. First, it’s the perfect setup for a meta moment, and they don’t go for it. Second, it leaves some unanswered questions, one of which could take a turn for the unpleasant if you think about it too much. And third, it ends with a visual that goes against what we saw earlier in the movie, and makes me feel like Admiral Plot Device was involved. There were ways they could have made that ending work, but the filmmakers either couldn’t manage it, or didn’t think of them, and that’s always frustrating, especially when you can see the potential.
Would I recommend seeing this? Ultimately, probably not. Even leaving aside my viewing issues, there’s just enough awkward writing in the second half that it brings down the whole experience. If you’re curious, see if you can find a few clips online to at least get a sense of the dinosaurs, but then leave it at that. Unlike the Irwin Allen version, I wouldn’t say this is one world that deserves to remain lost, but it’s not one that needs to be explored too thoroughly, either.
*The summary on Wikipedia suggests that it was accidental, that the ape men were doing a mourning ritual for the dead child, but it really doesn’t feel that way when you’re watching it.
There were four reasons I wanted to check out the 2001 TV miniseries of The Lost World. One, it would allow me to do a double feature with the Irwin Allen version (and make a retrospective of sorts when you throw in the 1925 version); two, Peter Falk was in it; three, the poster made it look like at least half the expedition would be made up of old men, which could be either amusing or surprisingly awesome; and four, it was free on Amazon Prime. While the first reason still stands, the other three turned out to be more of a mixed bag, leading to a viewing experience that wasn’t bad…but was also occasionally baffling.
This version of the story is set back in the early 1900’s, with the narrator/focal character being Edward Malone (Matthew Rhys), a newspaperman who wants to get his big break. He gets it when, while attending a lecture on dinosaurs hosted by Professor Summerlee (James Fox), another professor, Professor Challenger (Bob Hoskins) bursts in and presents scant but semi-compelling evidence that there’s a place in the Amazon where dinosaurs still exist. Eventually, an expedition is formed, consisting of Challenger, Summerlee, Malone (his paper having been given exclusive rights to the story), and adventurer Lord Roxton (Tom Ward). Arriving in South America, they eventually pick up two more members; an Englishwoman named Agnes (Elaine Cassidy) who’s been living in the Amazon most of her life, and Reverend Theo Kerr (Falk) a missionary who’s also what we’d call a Creationist nowadays. Most of the first episode is dedicated to the setup and travelling to the plateau of the dinosaurs, with just enough material in the last half-hour or so to satisfy the people who tuned in to see prehistoric creatures. Then we get to the second episode, and I’m going to have to both go on a brief tangent and warn for SPOILERS.
As I said, I watched this movie via Amazon Prime, and was initially under the impression that it was a full-length movie, albeit a TV movie that was just 55 minutes long. When I started watching it, it opened in a campsite of the “Hollywood depiction of jungle natives” variety, and I assumed this was a case of opening in media res. But after several minutes passed and there was no indication of any flashback, I paused the movie and did a little poking around. It turns out that what I thought was a movie was actually a two-part miniseries, and that only Part Two was available for free. I could watch Part One, but I’d have to buy it. Since the dinosaur animations looked good and I wanted to see Falk and Rhys (who I have a lateral affection for because he’s good friends with Ioan Gruffudd, my favorite actor), I was willing to invest the money. It was only after finishing Part One and re-starting Part Two that I realized that I still didn’t have the complete story; for reasons I can’t fathom, the first fifteen or so minutes of Part Two are missing. Part One ends with Malone and Agnes falling into a pit while on the run from an Allosaurus, while Amazon’s Part Two starts with the whole expedition in the native camp, even though we hadn’t been introduced to the natives in Part One. While I could have acquired the missing fifteen minutes, it wasn’t worth the money and hassle (for even more inexplicable reasons, the Part Two that’s packaged with Part One is Part Two of a completely different miniseries, meaning I’d have had to buy Part Two off I-tunes for even more money than Part One), and since I could pick up most of what I missed from context clues, I was willing to just make do.
I bring all of this up both to warn people who try to watch this movie via Amazon, and also to explain that one of the most baffling elements of the miniseries for me might be tied in to those missing fifteen minutes. Part One established that in addition to dinosaurs, there are also ape men who are probably meant to be a sort of missing link between primates and man. In Part Two, some of these ape men have been captured by the natives, who would normally kill them but who have been persuaded to spare them by Challenger, who they think is a god. Whenever we see the ape men, they come across as mostly sympathetic figures. Sure, they’re still somewhat wild and the significant closeups on one of them suggests that he’s got a vendetta against Roxton (presumably from something in those missing fifteen minutes), but since they’re being kept in a cage and we haven’t seen them do anything actively bad, you kind of feel sorry for them. This is further emphasized by a scene where they lose a baby and tearfully bury it, complete with reaching through the bars of their cage to try to pick a flower. But then, a few scenes later, they all start howling, then fall silent, then cover themselves with excrement and sit very still. Moments later, two Allosauruses attack the camp, and both Challenger and Roxton come to the conclusion that the ape men called them, presumably in an attempt to exact revenge on their captors. So far, this isn’t too bad; you can see it as a lesson about how the rules of civilization are different to the rules of the jungle, or how appearances can be deceiving in multiple ways. It was a bit deeper than I expected the movie to go, but that’s generally not an unwelcome thing.
Then it all falls apart. During the Allosaurus attack, Agnes and Malone (who are unaware of what the ape men did), try to free the ape men. In the process, one of the Allosauruses comes close to the cage, and the ape men grab Malone (Agnes left to help someone else), cover him in excrement, and hold him down, thus saving his life until the dinosaur passes by. And after that, the ape men pretty much disappear from the story, except for the one who hates Roxton, and even he only gets another minute or two of screentime. So I’m left wondering what their purpose was, and how we’re supposed to feel about them. Since they’re sympathetic ninety percent of the time, why do they call the Allosauruses there?* Are we supposed to be siding with Roxton (who thinks they’re dangerous) or Challenger? In the end, they seem to exist only to advance the plot and add conflict, which is never a mark of good storytelling.
SPOILERS OVER. Other than what I just outlined, I enjoy a good chunk of the movie/miniseries. Pretty much all of the major characters are likeable, or at least entertaining to watch. While the special effects for the dinosaurs are noticeably fake in some places, they’re still pretty good. I kind of like seeing Summerlee and Reverend Theo arguing evolution vs. creationism in the 1900’s context, when Darwin’s theories were still relatively new. And I appreciate that Malone is allowed to not be manly without condemning him for it. After all, he’s a newspaperman-traipsing around the Amazon isn’t exactly in his normal line of work. All of this was enough to keep me watching, despite the roundabout ways I had to go to to watch.
At the same time, there are other elements that fall flat, and probably would have fallen flat for me even if I’d been able to watch the movie normally. A love triangle developing between Agnes and two of the men in the expedition is pretty much to be expected, but it’s not necessary, and is definitely one of the low points of the story. While I like the concept of Reverend Theo and his character arc, it’s not fully developed, and Falk doesn’t get nearly as much screentime as I’d been hoping for. A semi-mystery involving some snakes is never actively answered, although I do at least have a strong suspicion about what was going on. Above all, the ending bugs me in multiple ways. First, it’s the perfect setup for a meta moment, and they don’t go for it. Second, it leaves some unanswered questions, one of which could take a turn for the unpleasant if you think about it too much. And third, it ends with a visual that goes against what we saw earlier in the movie, and makes me feel like Admiral Plot Device was involved. There were ways they could have made that ending work, but the filmmakers either couldn’t manage it, or didn’t think of them, and that’s always frustrating, especially when you can see the potential.
Would I recommend seeing this? Ultimately, probably not. Even leaving aside my viewing issues, there’s just enough awkward writing in the second half that it brings down the whole experience. If you’re curious, see if you can find a few clips online to at least get a sense of the dinosaurs, but then leave it at that. Unlike the Irwin Allen version, I wouldn’t say this is one world that deserves to remain lost, but it’s not one that needs to be explored too thoroughly, either.
*The summary on Wikipedia suggests that it was accidental, that the ape men were doing a mourning ritual for the dead child, but it really doesn’t feel that way when you’re watching it.