I hate it then I like it then I go back again

Rating: 8/10 (29 August 2008)

Sequels as most anyone can tell you are tricky businesses. Either filmmakers try to repeat the success of the first one by just giving the same thing but on that "bigger and better" scale but it just doesn't have the magic as the first. Or you get into rare sequels like Terminator 2 and my favorite Aliens which surpass the original. Here, it's likable but then you find reasons to hate it. Ian Malcolm has spent the last 4 years telling people who will listen the horrors that happened at Isla Nublar but no one will believe him, including when some big conglomerate bigwigs step in. He meets with Jurassic Park founder and former Ingen boss John Hammond who informs him of Site B, a kind of pre-breeding ground before being shipped to the park. But in order to not have Ingen take the dinosaurs away from the island, he sends a reluctant-but-then-determined Malcolm to the island, especially when news that his girlfriend Sarah is on the island alone. So coming along with Malcolm is Nick, a photographer and Eddie, a field equipment expert and Malcolm's stowaway adopted daughter Kelly. Only they run into Ingen's team who wants to take the dinosaurs away back to the States. After a rather harrowing(and suspenseful) incident, they team up to try to escape the island, which then leads to dinosaur vs. city at the end. Steven Spielberg when he does blockbuster films is best when it gets your heart pounding and gets the suspense going. The raptor in the kitchen scene or when T-Rex escapes are some of the better suspenseful moments from the first one. Oddly enough, there's 2 here. Inside a trailer that's being tipped over a cliff, Sarah falls but hits a sheet of glass which is steadily cracking. The other is when T-Rex pokes its head through a tent cause it smelled dried blood. But oddly enough they're just not that suspenseful as the first. Another thing is that you start to question certain actions. Like when the trailer tips over, all of Ingen's men are there despite the fact 2 T-Rex's were just there. T-Rex's can't hear apparently? There's many others in the film but then you just forget about them afterwards. In terms of CG it's still impressive. Unlike CG "father" George Lucas, Spielberg knows how to blend CG with live action unlike Lucas who goes really overboard with CG. Many of the dinosaur shots are actually big ass puppets. But then the next cut will be a CG and you wouldn't even notice the difference. It's more complex then the first but it doesn't have that "wow" factor. One of Steven's lesser titles like Amistad or the Terminal but it's still entertaining in certain respects.