Pales in comparison to the original

Rating: Null/10 (23 April 2000)

'The Lost World' is nowhere near as fun, impressive, or as well done as it's ground breaking predecessor, 1993's Jurassic Park, but on it's own terms, it is still an okay time passer. To watch it at home, especially on VHS with a limited sound system (it isn't even out on DVD yet), is an absolute waste, to fully appreciate what there is to appreciate, you must see it in theaters.
The characters are paper-thin, and the dialog they are given is often very unrealistic. In the first movie the script was witty, and fun, in this it is an absolute bore. Jeff Goldblum isn't the best lead, Sam Neill would've been better, but he does a good job with the extremely limited material. As Goldblum's daughter, Vanessa Lee Chester is likely one of the worst actresses to appear in a Spielberg film. Even so, it isn't all her fault, it's mostly the script. The producers made a horrible choice when they decided to ignore Michael Crichton's bestselling novel of the same name, and come up with their own story line, as the one featured in this movie is a small step above horrid.
Likely the film's best quality, John Williams somehow created an all-new soundtrack featuring excellent music, similar to the original and just as good.
This is probably Spielberg's worst film, and it actually might be a good thing that he bowed out of the third film, at least as far as directing goes.
On it's own, 'The Lost World: Jurassic Park' is an okay film, not very deep, but quite flashy on the surface with the wonderful dinosaur special effects. Don't rent it on video, even on DVD, once it comes out on it, instead (only if you haven't seen the movie, and live in a city of 1,000,000+) wait for it to be brought back to the theaters, it was a big enough hit to be resurrected for a showing or two.
5/10