Good but not amazing Sequel

Rating: 7/10 (12 January 2012)

The film is very flawed in places especially by silly parts of the story, for example the San Diego scenes at the end and leaves many unanswered questions like: why is Ian Malcolm's daughter black? and how what happened on the transport ship to San Diego (trying to avoid spoilers) actually happened?. I also generally dislike the character of Ian Malcolm, having grown up as a bit of a dinosaur nerd and a nerd in general I was always a big fan of Dr. Alan Grant but find Ian Malcolm on occasion funny but mostly slightly irritating.
It does however have some very good points one of these for me was Pete Postlethwaite's character named Roland Tembo. The character he plays is an obsessive hunter who refuses a fee for helping Ingen's mission on site B and only requests that he gets to hunt a male Tyrannosaurus Rex. Roland Tembo realises the foolishness of his boss who suggest placing their camp in the middle of an area frequently visited by carnivores and says "I've been on too many safaris with rich dentists to listen to any more suicidal ideas, OK?" which is possibly the best line in the film. The later Velociraptor scenes are also good but with some slightly silly parts especially for younger viewers who will be especially worried when Ian Malcolm is hiding in a car while a raptor slowly edges its way through the window. The scene where Malcolm's group have there camp attacked is also a particular highlight and by far the best scene of the film with the hanging over the cliff scenes incredibly tense.
The film provides both intensity and often good quality light humour but it is nothing on the original. The lack of Dr Grant ( who it should be noted is not in the book that the film is based on), the chaotic plot and also the irritating character of Malcolm's daughter combine to make it an inferior sequel but not an above average film. It is especially superior to Jurassic Park III and doesn't take long to get into the action but its flaws mean it will always be recognised as inferior to the original Jurassic Park