Jurassic Park was a masterpiece. It had the acting, the script, the graphics, and originality. Before Michael Crichton's first sequel, The Lost World, came out, it was already destined to be a movie. However, Spielberg realized that the effect Jurassic Park had upon the audience would not work a second time around. So, instead of trying to make a really good sequel, he tried to give the audience what he thought they were now craving, a senseless action movie with more dinosaurs, more deaths, and more suspense. He did so but the outcome wasn't exactly the greatest.

The Lost World was not the best book. Most of it was boring, scientific rambling and most of it was nothing new compared to Jurassic Park. However, it did introduce some new views, such as how tyrannosaurs raised their young and whether they had feathers or not. None of this was in the movie. From beginning to end, everything was different, and no matter how hilarious the San Diego scene was, it was incredibly lame. They did keep the trailer scene, which was the best one in the movie. If people thought the first movie swayed from the book, they would be bewildered by this one.

There were also problems with the characters. First, I know that Malcolm survives in the first movie but doesn't he die in the book? How was Crichton able to write him into the sequel? Anyway, that aside, Jeff Goldblum's performance was sort of disappointing, though it was probably more of a scripting matter. All his lines were short and stereotype, and he also whispered every word. And, in the book, there were two children that stupidly played stowaway. In the movie, they only kept the girl, changing her to Malcolm's daughter, and this was another upset. She provided nothing for the movie, except for when she kicks the velociraptor out the window by doing gymnastics, which, by all means, was a waste of film time. They should have left her out of the movie altogether.

The Lost World was a pretty pathetic movie compared to the original but if you go there just to see people running from dinosaurs then you might find the movie partway redeemable. No matter how idiotic it is, I don't see how anyone couldn't like the San Diego scene.

Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.