Exciting sequel

Rating: 9/10 (7 June 2000)

A lot of people may not have liked "The Lost World: Jurassic Park", but I'm not one of them. This is Steven Spielberg's very exciting sequel to his 1993 box office smash. It doesn't quite top the original, but it comes close. "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" is a much darker adventure. This time the action takes place on a different island 80 miles from where the first movie took place. Dinosaurs are roaming around and about on this island with no electric fences to block their way like on Jurassic Park. Jeff Goldblum returns as Dr. Ian Malcolm, who goes to this place when he finds out from Dr. John Hammon (Sir Richard Attenborough) that his girlfriend Dr. Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore) is already there. Once Dr. Malcolm gets there, along with a photographer (Vince Vaughn), a field equipment expert (Richard Schiff), and his daughter (Vanessa Lee Chester), he reunites with his woman and tries to warn her of the dangers that lurk around. Then more trouble comes. A second expedition steps foot on the island and what they plan to do is take the dinosaurs off the island to a theme park on the U.S. mainland. Things don't go as planned for either expedition when the dinosaurs begin to wreck havoc. The special effects are just as impressive as they were in the first film, with some new dinosaurs that weren't featured in "Jurassic Park". The sound effects are loud and scary as you would expect. But then again you would expect "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" to be a triumph in the technical departments. If there is one weakness here its with the human characters. The characters are a bit weaker than the characters from the first movie. The cast here is a good one though not as good as the cast in the original. One might expect Sam Neill or Laura Dern to drop in. Nevertheless, "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" is a lot of fun, and I enjoyed my time with it.
***1/2 (out of four)