Last weekend I attended a screening of Harry Hoyt's THE LOST WORLD that offered the one- hour version. The quality of the image was great and the score was performed live. And I only had the obvious reference of it: Willis H. O'Brien, who was responsible for the special effects in KING KONG (the original 1933 version certainly), worked here, doing the stop-motion material as well. I'm pretty sure I'll write *King Kong* a whole lot more in this commentary since this is similar to "Kong" in many ways. I was actually very surprised because of that fact; I, certainly, expected similarity to "Kong" but really nothing more than something technical oriented.
Actually, I would say THE LOST WORLD is pretty much KING KONG. It doesn't have, however, a very iconic character (nor a sad ending); after all, it isn't titled after the name of a specific creature (here we have dinosaurs of all kinds). But don't let this confuse you dear reader since "Lost World" does features iconic scenes. In other words, the dinosaur here (the one that suffers a similar denouement to the one Kong had) doesn't climbs a famous London building, equivalent to New York's Empire State (yes, this film, or better said, the last part of it is set in London, England), but we do enjoy a really wonderful scene featuring the dinosaur at a London landmark. Needless to say, this was made eight years before "Kong".
THE LOST WORLD is one of those films that are worth watching not just because they were influential. I mean, this is so much FUN! Unlike many films of this kind, it never hesitates when it comes to show you its main attraction (the dinosaurs of course) – we get to watch lots of fights between them (great and fun material) and some heart as well (there's a crazy ape- man too). I'm willing to seek the DVD of it and hopefully I get to watch the full (or just longer) version. Meanwhile, this one-hour piece was a blast and a perfect Saturday night movie! Watch it, even if it's the online version that IMDb is offering now for free.
*Watched it on 25 August, 2012
Actually, I would say THE LOST WORLD is pretty much KING KONG. It doesn't have, however, a very iconic character (nor a sad ending); after all, it isn't titled after the name of a specific creature (here we have dinosaurs of all kinds). But don't let this confuse you dear reader since "Lost World" does features iconic scenes. In other words, the dinosaur here (the one that suffers a similar denouement to the one Kong had) doesn't climbs a famous London building, equivalent to New York's Empire State (yes, this film, or better said, the last part of it is set in London, England), but we do enjoy a really wonderful scene featuring the dinosaur at a London landmark. Needless to say, this was made eight years before "Kong".
THE LOST WORLD is one of those films that are worth watching not just because they were influential. I mean, this is so much FUN! Unlike many films of this kind, it never hesitates when it comes to show you its main attraction (the dinosaurs of course) – we get to watch lots of fights between them (great and fun material) and some heart as well (there's a crazy ape- man too). I'm willing to seek the DVD of it and hopefully I get to watch the full (or just longer) version. Meanwhile, this one-hour piece was a blast and a perfect Saturday night movie! Watch it, even if it's the online version that IMDb is offering now for free.
*Watched it on 25 August, 2012