StreamingSoundtracks - StreamingSoundtracks.com - Lost World, The: Jurassic Park - John Williams

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Williams meets Goldsmith

By:	tudor_19071990
Date:	4 Nov 2011
Rating:

It's been four years since "Jurassic Park" dazzled audiences with it's captivating story and groundbreaking visual effects. After it became a critical and financial success, thus becoming one of the most famous films ever made, a sequel was really predictable. So, Michael Crichton, the author of the "Jurassic Park" novel was pressured not only by fans, but by Spielberg himself, to write a sequel. When the book was published in 1995, the work began on the sequel. Steven Spielberg once again took the director's seat in this film, a film that had a totally different approach. While the idea of the first film was a theme park ride and an awe upon seeing the dinosaurs coming alive on the screen, this sequel abandoned the theme park ride "Jurassic Park" and became more like a jungle adventure and a surviving film. The critical reaction was mixed but the film still managed to bring in plenty of cash in box-office, becoming the second most successful film of 1997, behind "Titanic".

With Steven Spielberg as director, it was everybody's guess who will the take the scoring assignment. And they were right. The task was handed over to John Williams, thus marking his 17th collaboration with Steven Spielberg. Williams decided to abandon the theme park sound of the first film and chose to create a totally new sound for "Site B". For this, he came with a Goldsmithian approach, consisting mainly of percussion and low brass action music, delivering one of the most aggressive scores of his career.

Williams wrote a new theme for this one, which is dark and performed mainly on brass. We hear it straight from the beginning of the album, in "The Lost World", a concert suite that was used in the end credits. The theme was featured pretty much in the film but not as much as, let's say, the main theme of "Hook". One of the most disappointing aspects of this score is that Williams chose not to write a sequel score and use the themes from the first movie. The only one that is used, even if sparingly, is the brassy "island theme", with the menacing four-note "raptor theme" appearing briefly in "The Raptors Appear". The rest of the themes are used in "Finale and Jurassic Park Theme" but that one cannot be taken into consideration because it wasn't used in the film, it is more of a concert suite than a cue from the film.

Apart from the main theme, the soundtrack has nothing else excitable to offer. Sure, there are a few tracks that can be quite enjoyable, such as the jungle rhythms of "The Hunt" and "Rescuing Sarah"; "The Stegosaurus", which is the closest resemblance of the marvel of "Jurassic Park". "A Visitor in San Diego" also has to offer a quite good 7 minute action cue. Other than these, the rest of the soundtrack is mainly background music, with some tracks reaching five minutes and they become quite dull at times. And, by the end of the album, Williams abandoned even the new title theme.

Overall, if you take "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" as an individual soundtrack, it is quite satisfactory but as part of trilogy, it is quite disappointing. It is understandable that Williams was willing to move the series forward but the fact that he abandoned the themes from the first film is disturbing, even though there were scenes where they could have been used. However, it would be malicious to say that "The Lost World" is a bad score. Williams' approach to Jerry Goldsmith's style of writing action music is quite commendable and for action music fans this could be a must-have. But for mainstream film score fans, they could easily stick for the first movie's soundtrack, which easily remains one of the finest of Williams' career.

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