Not as good as the first one

Rating: 6/10 (4 June 2014)

This version of the Jurassic Park franchise had good CGI special effects. The dinosaurs were spectacular, and that is what we all flocked to these movies to see. As expected, there were several elaborate nail-biting scenes with characters in extremis because of the various carnivorous and vicious dinos. At times, the jungle scenes were even beautiful and evocative (I'm thinking now of the tiny dinosaurs scampering through the sun-lit riverbed).
I enjoyed the first movie much more. This sequel lacked the magical quality of the first blockbuster. This sequel emphasised more how dangerous the dinosaurs are. "Don't f*ck with mother nature because mother nature will f*ck with you." In a way, the JP series evokes 19th c. notions of humanity's dominion over the earth, especially once the T-Rex starts roaring. In a movie like this, we revert to hunter-gatherers huddled around our safe fires while the megafauna roam dangerously about. "Kill the evil dinosaurs!"
However, the exposition at the start was too long and most of the dialogue was not well written. There were various plot developments that seemed contrived or didn't seem right for other reasons. (For example, the ship ending exactly at the appointed spot despite having no crew.) Annoyingly, characters did obviously stupid things in various scenes (eg walk off from the group for some distance just to take a wee). The writers tried to make environmentalism a theme here, but this crashed and burned once the T-Rexes and velociraptors started doing their thing. The end game in San Diego should have gone into a separate movie.
The acting by Goldblum and Moore was fine. They each have their own distinctive styles, which they brought to their parts. But to be honest of these actors are too good for a movie like this. Goldblum was stuck in his "nature will find a way" mode; Moore was his "let me pet the baby dino" foil. Moore was 37 when this was shot, but looks younger. Goldblum was significantly older. I didn't really see the two of them together, so their arguing scenes felt off to me. Kelly's character (the black daughter) didn't work for me at all.
These two Jurassic Park movies were released in the mid-1990s, when America was the sole-standing superpower reaping the benefit of winning the Cold War, 9/11 hadn't happened yet, and the financial troubles to come were barely even on the horizon. American was on a high, and everyone was raking it in. Those were the days! Our troubles were confined, although if this movie is to be believed they had already been loose and were ready to destroy San Diego. I suppose we have this movie and its predecessor to thank for the endless parade of giant lizard monsters that we have to endure in the cinema nowadays (Pacific Rim, Godzilla, the new Transformers, and so on).
I would give this movie an 8.5 on the basis of the CGI effects; however, the rest of it drags it down to a 6.5 or so. In the end, my gut feeling is to round that down to 6.