He’s also read both Grant and Malcolm’s books and knows enough to bond with Grant by trashing Malcolm. This kid was like Alan Grant’s wet dream.
Actually, the kid I hated most in all the JP movies was Ian’s daughter. She was more annoying than a whole carful of Tims and Lexes, and the whole “let’s defeat the raptor with GYMNASTICS!” thing was just…ugh.
While we’re on that subject, and please forgive me if this is politically incorrect (I want to have my ignorance fought here–I genuinely don’t know)–but one of the things that gave me a lot of trouble with my suspension of disbelief in *Lost World *was Kelly (the daughter). She was supposed to be Ian’s biological child, but she was played by a very dark-skinned African American actress. Even if Ian’s wife was also very dark-skinned, what would the odds be that their daughter wouldn’t have at least a couple of Ian’s traits (lighter dark skin than her mother, for example, or somewhat more mixed-looking features)?
Don’t get me wrong–the reasons I found her annoying had nothing to do with her race. She would have been just as annoying no matter what color she was. 
But I just had a hard time finding her believable as Malcolm’s daughter.
Well Goldblum is of somewhat dark complexion. Olive-skinned I guess. Maybe her mom was African? 
But yeah, she was annoying too. I guess kids in the Jurassic Park movies just suck ass in general. Well, Tim was cool. He was the only kid in the movies portrayed realistically… though I’m starting to warm to Lex after the other posters’ arguments.
So I guess it’s Newsflash: The Jurassic Park sequels sucked.
So, wow, 9 posters liked Roland more to 45 who prefer Muldoon. Maybe we should identify ourselves and start a support group. Then again we might risk ostracism from the rest of the board.
Risk? It’s already begun. We know who you are. Like so many raptors we’ve lured you into making your presence known.
The kids didn’t bug me so much. I had read the book about a year before the film hit theaters, so I was a bit surprised they reversed the ages, but looking back I think it was a good decision. Lex was now old enough to have a crush on Grant, and Tim was young enough to have that childhood excitement and obsession with dinosaurs.
My favorite exchange with the kids was when Grant pretended to get electrocuted by the fence they had to climb. The both scream. Lex: That was not funny. Tim: (laughing) That was hilarious. (or did he say “that was cool.”?)
Agreed with Infovore on both counts:
The T-Rex scene is one of the best scenes in a movie, ever. And still holds up to today.
and
Ian’s biological child not offering any resemblance to himself, totally took me out of the movie. All I could do as I sat there watching their scenes was wonder how there’s not any hint of european features in her. Nothing racist at all, just very very unlikely. Then she started using gymnastics to fling velociraptors to and fro, and I think I had a very small aneurism.
I don’t think they ever noted that his daughter was biologically is. In theory he and his wife could have just adopted a black child.
Kamchatka Surprise! “Clevah girrrrrl…”
Damn, I can’t remember… I’d have to see the movie again, but I thought it was pointed out that she wasn’t an adoption. My only real reasoning is, is that’s the first thing I wondered, and if that’s the case, then why do I get hung up on that minor thing every time.
Has ANYTHING I’ve ever written on this board led you to believe I would respond to this in any way other than putting your assassination in motion?
I remember when Nick and Eddie see her, they say something like, “Uh do you see any family resemblance here?” But Ian doesn’t say anything about why he has a black daughter.
I wouldn’t have either. You don’t imagine that Ian have already heard the question a thousand times and been tired of it? Most likely he was happy they had the class not to be nosy.
I’m black, and I have seven siblings. My skin is a little darker than hot cocoa. My mother was about my complexion; my father is a little darker, but not much. My oldest brother is light-skinned enough to pass for white (and in fact I rather suspect he does just that); one of my sisters is black is midnight. So the little girl in the second movie didn’t bother me a bit.
And I liked her gymnastics too.
According to Wikipedia, she’s his biological daughter. Apparently the reason she’s black in the movie (she was white in the book) was that she’s an amalgamation of two book characters–Kelly herself and a boy named Arby Benton, who is black. (I have vague memories of this–I did read the book, but I generally prefer the movies to the books for JP stuff.)
ETA, after seeing Skald’s post: Okay, ignorance fought then! I still don’t like the character, but it was far more about the gymnastics and just the fact that she was there at all (it’s hard for Malcolm to be edgy and cynical when he has to be protective) than about the race thing.
I also read that Spielberg met the actress who played Kelly on the set of a Little Princess and really liked her. So it seems less that they had this idea that she “should” be black but more that the actress he liked happened to be black, which always seemed kind of cool to me.
My problem with Roland is that he was created specifically to be this badass dinosaur nemesis. He is to the T-Rex as Moriarty was to Data. And he’s really just Muldoon 2.0. It would have been Muldoon himself, probably, if the first movie didn’t kill him off.
On the off chance anybody gives a flip, I’ve started an IMHO thread about resemblances between parents and children, based on the sub-discussion here about Ian and his daughter.
Muldoon’s badass, even in those stupid shorts. He’s the original JP badass, he’s in the first and better movie, he’s paired with better dinosaurs, and he doesn’t have heaps of lines or screen time.
It’s really an unfair comparison. Tembo is in a crap movie and written by someone desperately trying to write a badass and failing. Spectacularly.
Unsurprisingly I agree with this.
But could Muldoon fight a guy with one hand literally tied behind his back?
Perhaps not, he’s a lover not a fighter. But I’ll bet he sure as hell could kick some dino ass on the uneven bars with one hand tied behind his back (AND stick the landing).