The Lost World: Jurassic Park1997

63/100 After the success of Jurassic Park, Steven Spielberg was approached to direct a sequel. Predictably enough, the movie isn't as good as its predecessor, but remarkably enough, I thought it wasn't half bad. However, the film still has its fair share of issues. Starting off, the characters themselves are a mixed bag. I do like Jeff Goldblum returning as Ian Malcolm, and I like that his arc kind of echoes Grant's from the first movie. Roland Tembo was also a fantastic new edition, well-acted and well-written, delivering the best line in the whole film near the end, as he sees how this is going to play out and leaves. However, it is a bit telling that my two favourite characters in the movie are the ones that actively want to stop being a part of it. Nick Owen and Eddie Carr weren't too bad either, but everyone else is flat and unlikeable. The character of Burke only exists to exposit paleontology, and in a much less interesting way than how the first movie handled it. Julianne Moore's character, Malcolm's girfriend Sarah Essen, is actively the worst here, annoying me through most of the movie with her smug claim of being an expert while actively making mistakes all the way throughout, wandering through the jungle smelling like T-Rex blood with no thoughts as to the consequences. This is also not mentioning Malcolm's daughter, who is clearly just put in the film to be in danger and be saved, with the exception of one scene, which we will get to later. Credit where it's due, Spielberg still does some fantastic directing here. The plot is somehow even more formulaic than the original, but it doesn't matter because the only reason it's even there is as a vehicle to get to the action scenes, which are as good as ever. This movie is filled to the brim with great action scenes. My favourite was the trailer sequence, and it barely even features dinosaurs, only using them as an inciting incident to put our characters in danger. So much tension is spent not from dinosaurs, but from the danger of cracking glass and a collapsing trailer. Another great action setpiece is the scene in the tall grass, with a great classically Spielbergian shot showing raptors trailing through the long grass like sharks through water. Whenever this movie starts the action, it hits hard as easily the best part, helped along by great dinosaur effects just like the first movie. However, there still is some dumb stuff here, especially in my least favourite scene, where Jeff Goldblum's kid does a gymnastics routine before karate kicking a Velociraptor through a window. This is a dumb scene, especially since it makes the Raptors look incompetent and stupid, which is something the previous movie avoided. The stupidity comes to a climax in the finale, as a T-Rex is set loose in San Diego. While I do appreciate Spielberg essentially cutting loose, I'd argue this is way too ridiculous of a finale. Part of the appeal of the island is it's secrecy, and it feels somewhat shattered now, turning this into basically a Godzilla movie. The worst part is that we still have a good climax on the island, only to lead into this unnecessary city rampage, which I didn't like. Overall, The Lost World: Jurassic Park is a movie I liked...somewhat. There was a lot to appreciate, but almost as much I didn't like, leading to something I feel could've been good if handled correctly, but was mismanaged just enough to be average overall.