Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Jordan, Amberly


It's been a while since I've been through these ones. But we watched the first last year and needed to finish off the series.

The second film follows the funniest character back to a different dinosaur infested island. Jeff Goldblum has his usual idiosyncratic speech pattern going to full comic effect here. Add to the mix Julianne Moore, Vince Vaughn, Peter Stormare and the late great Pete Postlethwaite and, as usual in a Spielberg cast, you have a winning team.

This one also has one of my all time favourite action set pieces ever, the T-rex attack on the two trailers over the cliff. The way it builds the suspense throughout and some iconic images it creates makes it very memorable. I'm thinking specifically of Julianne Moore lying on the glass plate as it cracks. That is so great, it feels like the kind of thing I would imagine up as a little kid playing with toy cars and blocks and plastic animals.

The Raptor attacks in the long grass are simple, scary and effective. And the little Compy's eating Peter Stormare is a nice new element in the series.

What I don't like about the film is the third act, moving the action over the San Diego feels a little gimmicky to me, even though it's a nice visual.

This one's all about family, the characters relationships nicely mirrored with the T-rex family. It doesn't have the same wonder and awe that the first one does but the action and effects are still great.