Movie Title: King of the Lost World
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Writer: Carlos De Los Rios, David Michael Latt and Leigh Scott (Allegedly based on the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle novel)
Starring: Bruce Boxleitner, Jeff Denton, Rhett Giles, Sarah Lieving, Christina Rosenberg, Steve Railsback, Chriss Anglin, Amanda Ward, Boni Yanagisawa, Andrew Lauer
Review: The survivors of a plane crash desperately search for rescue as they avoid deadly insects, hostile natives, and a giant ape in one of the most ridiculous, confusing, and baffling movies that somehow claims to be based on the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's action-adventure classic.
King of the Lost World is what I like to refer to as an "And then..." movie. That's to say that it's a movie that has a premise more than a plot and is just an assembly of scenes where one thing happens and then this happens and then that happens and then... and so on and so forth for no real reason other than to fill the run time. There isn't much of a story to get invested in and the characters are so bland that they come and go without you even caring or noticing.
The special effects are beyond terrible. From the big bugs to the gigantic ape, these CGI characters are so bad and on-screen so quickly that you're not sure if it was just poor editing or a way to only show the bad effects enough that you kind of get what to filmmakers were going for, I'm not sure.
Bruce Boxleitner looks like he's trying, but wishes he was in a better movie and Steve Railsback looks as if he's not sure what the heck is going on. The rest of the cast is interchangeable and forgettable. Oh, and there's a nuclear bomb that becomes a threat later on in the movies for some reason. And there's deadly island natives that threaten the lives of our heroes for about 10 minutes and then leave the movie, that's what happens to all of the various obstacles that face our stranded survivors. This whole thing is a mess.
King of the Lost World is not a "good-bad" movie, it's just bad. I would rather be lost in a jungle than watch this again. What a waste of time.
Fun Fact: The movie was released on December 13th, 2005 to capitalize on King Kong (2005), which was released in the U.S. one day later on December 14, 2005.