Horrendously lame

Rating: 3/10 (6 February 2000)

Steven Spielberg directed this pointless and half-hearted screenplay? Astonishing. Derivative from the get go this film is a structureless, plot less and meaningless regurgitation of tired old Hollywood dinosaur and monsters on the loose movies and the pacing and suspense here is just dreadful. How much more can you do to showcase Dinosaurs in the wake of the first film, which at the time had a thin story but after this seems like it should have won best screenplay of the year. There was a scientific and ethical point the first film was making but here there is nothing more than mindless action sequences strung together with little cohesion and no attention paid to characterization. In "Jurassic Park" we at least came to know the characters enough to care for them for the duration of the piece. Ironic that the most annoying and noxious character in that film played by Jeff Golblum is the only holdover and goes on to prove
in "The Lost World" that he was completely unnecessary in "Jurassic Park". The screen writing here is at fault and the writers fail at every turn to deliver a logical continuation of the Jurassic Park story. The onus on a second island is completely ill-thought and absolutely unneeded following the scene in Jurassic Park where Wayne Knight loses the shaving cream can containing the dino DNA he was trying to smuggle out before being eaten alive in his jeep. Couldn't and shouldn't that have been the basis for the sequel? I could have written a half decent screenplay around that premise.
The biggest and most surprising disappointment in this mess is Spielberg's involvement as director. Obviously after the titanic success of Jurassic park a sequel was always in the cards, but didn't Spielberg make demands on the screenplay? I can't believe he would accept this project without massive rewrites unless he was only fulfilling contractual agreements. With "Amistad" and "Saving Private Ryan" already on his plate at the time it's no small wonder that this picture is as flat and ridiculous as it is.
A quasi-remake of the original "The Lost World" which is an unintelligible mess with poor acting and poor execution. After seeing how badly "Congo" was adapted for the screen, it's hard to comprehend Spielberg didn't think he was making a bad picture. He was due an outright lemon in his career and this one is it.