Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) Review

             Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) is the sequel to the original Jurassic Park four year earlier. This time, the dinosaurs have been free to roam around an island off the Pacific Coast. Unfortunately, John Hammond loses control of his company InGen to his nephew where he wants to bring the dinosaurs back to the mainland to restore the company and bring up its revenue, so John decides to send an expedition to reach the island before InGen's team does. One of the people he asks is Ian Malcolm from the first film (played by Jeff Goldblum). He initially refuses, but decides to get involved after hearing that his girlfriend (played by Julianne Moore) is part of the group, so he tries to get her to safety.
             Is this movie as good as the first movie? No, but I don't exactly get the hate for it either. It's actually a pretty decent sequel if you can believe that. Just like the first one, it uses robotics and computer generated imagery for the dinosaurs, and it still looks really damn impressive. There were a couple of moments where humans are carrying an injured baby dinosaur (who's a robotic), and even though it was fake, it looked so believable and real. I actually felt for the little guy.
             Also, just like the original movie, there's a lot of great tension where there were moments where I was on the edge of my seat. In particular, there's this amazing sequence where a T-rex brings a trailer off a cliff, and Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, and Vince Vaughn have to hang on to dear life for safety. It was a really exciting scene! Another scene I loved was where Julianne Moore's character was sleeping in a tent, and we can see the shadow of a T-Rex, and she has to try to hide her sleeping bag so she can't be seen. There were plenty of thrilling moments that kept me entertained throughout.
             I'm really glad we get to know more about Jeff Goldblum's character since he was more of a side character in the original. This movie delves into his personal life to an extent involving his girlfriend and his daughter (played by the talented Vanessa Lee Chester), and we get to see more depth to him as a result, which I very much appreciated.
             As far as flaws go, I really found Pete Postlethwaite and Richard Schiff pretty boring in their roles. They felt kind of lifeless to be honest. Also, the way the movie sets up to the very last action sequence at the end felt very abrupt. I was like, 'Wait. What's going on again?' It felt awkward. Maybe if they added scenes near the last part of the movie, it would've more effective, at least for me.
             Do you feel like you can't get enough of Jurassic Park after just seeing the first one? Definitely watch this movie for sure. It was a lot of fun, and it's one of Spielberg's more underappreciated works.
             I give "Lost World: Jurassic Park" (1997) directed by Steven Spielberg an 8 out of 10.