The Lost World Essay, Research Paper

Jurassic Park – The Lost World

Comparison ? Contrast

The Lost World as a novel is very different from its film version. The most

contrasts are found in the beginning of the story. For instance, the novel

starts off with Ian Malcolm giving a detailed lecture on extinction theories at

the Santa Fe Research Center. Where as, the film starts with a wealthy British

family vacationing on Isla Sorna, an island of Costa Rica. On this island the

tiny dinosaurs called compys attack a young British girl. As you can see the

beginning of the novel is completely different from the beginning of the film.

As a matter of fact, the novel and the film do not begin to have any

similarities until the characters get to Site-B, an island off of Costa Rica

where the dinosaurs where bred.

The characters in The Lost World did have a lot of similarities as well as

differences. One major character is Ian Malcolm, a forty-year-old man who was

one of the early pioneers in the Chaos Theory. Malcolm also featured in the

first Jurassic Park. Even though he was in both the novel and the film, his

characteristics were different. In the novel his leg was hurt from his previous

expedition in the first Jurassic Park, but in the film he seemed to be perfectly

healthy and uninjured. Another character that plays a major roll is Richard

Levine, an arrogant thirty-year-old man. In the novel Levine plays as a wealthy

paleontologist in search of Site-B. As for the film, Richard Levine plays a

completely different roll. In the film he is the nephew of John Hammond, the

creator of the dinosaurs. He also has no association with being a

paleontologist; his interests in the movie are for making money off the

dinosaurs by creating an amusement park that features the dinosaurs on the main

land. Sarah Harding plays a big part in then novel and as well as the film. In

the novel Harding plays a rather young biologist, which has a relationship with

Ian Malcolm. The only difference with Harding between the novel and the film is

that she plays a biologist in the novel and a paleontologist in the film.

Another two characters that play a major roll in the novel are Kelly Curtis and

Arby Benton. Kelly is a thirteen-year-old seventh grader, who has an interest in

paleontology, not to mention that she idols Sarah Harding. Arby is an

eleven-year-old African American seventh grader; he has been skipped up a grade

because he is so intelligent. In the novel the two children sneak on to the boat

is on the expedition to Site-B. In the film there is only one child, a young

African American girl named Kelly that is related to Ian Malcolm by adoption,

which also sneaks on to the island.

The most similar of the novel and film is probably the terrain of Costa Rica.

This is probably because the terrain is a known fact that cannot be changed. In

both the novel and film, the terrain is covered with rocky cliffs and volcanic

ridges. Ravines, tall grasses, and very dense overgrown jungles also flourished

the island. Considering the dense overgrown jungles it was very hard for the

characters to see the buildings and roads from the air, which made it difficult

to find a good place to land. One thing that made it difficult to travel,

besides the dinosaurs hunting them, was the gusty winds with updrafts.

The dinosaurs were obviously similar in the novel and film. The only thing

that contrasted the two is the fact that the novel had more of a variety of

dinosaurs than the film. There were three dinosaurs that were mainly featured in

the novel and film. Among the three, was the famous Tyrannosaurs Rex, which

caused the most damage and casualties. The T-Rex reaches about twenty to

twenty-five feet in height and has gigantic bone crushing jaws with flesh

tearing teeth. Another one was the Velociraptor, more commonly known as the

raptor. The raptors were probably the smartest of the dinosaurs. The raptor

reaches about ten to fifteen feet in height, has a long snout, and long deadly

claws that would tear an animal or a human apart. The Compys were definitely the

creepiest because of how they kill their prey in packs. Although they look very

innocent and harmless they can kill their prey in an instant. The Compy was

about one to one and a half feet tall. They pretty much looked like a miniature

raptor.

The Lost World from the novel to the film definitely had a high number of

contrasts. The beginning as we know completely had no similarities at all. The

novel and the film did not start to have comparison until the characters arrived

on Site-B. The characters did have some similarities, but mostly differences.

More or less, the names were what made them similar more than anything. There

rolls in the novel and film were what differed the most. Nonetheless, the novel

and film did seem to have very similar parts in one area, which was the setting

of the islands. The terrain in the novel was practically identical to the one in

the film. The dinosaurs as well had many similarities, except for the fact that

there was more of a variety in the novel than there was in the film. In the end,

both version of the great story were spectacular.