Good dino action, but flawed by some lame scenes

Rating: 6/10 (7 October 2006)

Lost World delivers audiences what they obviously wanted from a Jurassic Park sequel: more dinosaur action and violence. It offers some new spins on the dinosaurs running amok motif, approaching the idea now from a hunter's point of view.
It is very generous with the blood and gore, that's for sure. T-Rex and its mate are on the prowl again, as are a roving band of sadistic Velociraptors. Both are heard in the forest first stalking their prey, before they are seen in their night time attacks. The raptor attacks are suitably terrifying, as they ruthlessly and systematically wipe out their victims. Other new dinos come along, and one nerd falls victim to a herd of itty-bitty creatures. There's a great scene with a car hanging on the edge of disaster, and these things are all done well.
But there are many flaws. First, most of the original cast have throw-away roles, or they're not here at all. Only Jeff Goldblum is featured, and he does do a good job as the lead. But now we also have his insufferably irritating daughter (who somehow stows away on a scientific expedition-an idiotic premise), and a woman he once had a relationship with (not the brat's mother), who is even stupider than the kid. She's a vet or something, and moronically operates on the broken leg of a baby T-Rex, inviting the wrath of you know who. As usual, in a Spielberg flick, the brat is an obnoxious snot, and the ex has an attitude. These two just get on your nerves.
There's one scene where a T-Rex pokes his head into a tent. This utterly stupid and embarrassingly contrived encounter reminded me of a 3 Stooges episode. But other scenes are sufficiently logical enough to be scary; the cave sequence comes to mind.
Then there's that lamentable scene in San Diego. The only good thing about this portion of the movie, (which is a lame rip off of King Kong to begin with), is the mysterious ship that seems to be sailing in an erratic manner at the very beginning of it. After that, you would swear the film makers are either trying to be funny or they completely lost their minds. It is just a heap of mindlessly campy slapstick nonsense, that makes the cheapest of the B-movie drive-in movies look intelligent by comparison.
Apparently, they were trying to give the viewers their money's worth with plenty of screen time for the dinosaurs. In some scenes like the ending, they needed better scripting. Overall, the movie has enough good scenes to be watchable, but it's a far cry from the original.