Pales in comparison to the first, and even to the third.

Rating: 5/10 (31 May 2008)

If looked at alone, this Jurassic Park, is a technical marvel. The computer generated dinosaurs are fantastic looking, and even better are the animatronics that seem as real as any human character here. The direction is about as good as it can be, and obviously Steven Spielberg knows how to direct a good flick. However, in the future maybe he should spruce up the script a bit before filming just anything. "The Lost World" Jurassic Park" tries to have a heart as big as the first movie's, but when your whole story is based around an uncaring sarcastic comedian, it's kind of hard.
Dr. Ian Malcom (Jeff Goldblum), the character who worked so well in the first movie but falls flat here, is back for more crazy adventures. John Hammond (Richard Attenbrough), creator of Jurassic Park reveals to him a second island full of dinosaurs, and Malcom goes to the island to retrieve his annoying girlfriend Sarah (Julianne Moore), and ends up meeting some dinosaur poachers. The climax of the film involves a tranquilized Tyrannasaurus Rex being brought to San Diego, and of course escaping and causing chaos.
Ian Malcom was great in the first Jurassic Park but not so great here...why is this? In the first movie, we had a wide range of characters with different personalities to root for or against. Here, we have him, his girlfriend, his stowaway adopted daughter, and the one dimensional poachers who everyone could care less about. Not much to choose from in the character department. The heart that we got to see from the first movie, particularly in the extremely sweet ending, is missing completely. This movie is all talking and action. And the action scenes are fantastic. The T-Rex going around San Diego is a great scene. The raptors trying to dig into a building is somewhat pulse pounding, as is the scene where men try going through tall grass inhabited by raptors. One scene involving an RV looks great, and in this way I can say this entire movie was built to be a roller-coaster ride film. And it would have the same thrills from the first film, if only it had some likable characters. Even the third film succeeds in that department.
If this is looked at as anything but nonstop scenes of dino action, it's bad, and in the end, this was a very mediocre film.
My rating: ** out of ****. 123 mins. PG-13 for violence