SPOILERS DOWN THE PATH; THE DISCUSSION BELOW WILL NOT BE COMPREHENSIVE WITHOUT IT.
TREAD CAREFULLY. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.
THIS MOTION PICTURE IS OFFICIALLY AN AFFILIATE OF THE FILMMAKING PARAGONS.
How do you even top a top film? Well, if you're Steven Spielberg you can! From the hands and minds that made the 1993 blockbuster, The Lost World returns to the land of dinosaurs glory once again! Whenever it regards to sequels, makers would try to play safe and repeat the same formula. Jurassic Park II is a totally different feature compared to its predecessor, and major props to the filmmakers for that alone! Let's be honest, we all go to this movie to see dinosaurs. Sure enough, we got to witness loads of them, new ones at that too! Apart from T-Rex, Brachiosaurus and Velociraptors, never-before-seen additions such as Pteranodon, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Pachycephalosaurus, Mamenchisaurus and Compsognathus were exciting!
Someone saw the potential of casting Jeff Goldblum's Dr. Ian Malcolm as the protagonist and we couldn't be more grateful! The charismatic actor totally deserved to be the main lead! It's hard to bring a character like him who has seen nightmare come to life in the past to experience it all over again! Therefore, the story written expanded naturally from the original characters we've travelled with in the first movie. John Hammond's (David Attenborough) dream hasn't truly die. One of the latest crew members the man has sent to Isla Sorna happened to be Ian's girlfriend. In a mission to escort her back alive, our hero has no choice but to go through an extremely life-threatening ball of events! As mentioned in Jurassic Park, Ian has had a lot of ex-relationships and it's cool to explore this side of him as well.
The Lost World's loaded with thrills! If you make an all-time best action sequences list, the trailer truck saving scene would definitely be on top of that tabulation! What a remarkably nail-biting episode it was! With the parents Tyrannosaurus pushing the trailer down the cliff, Sarah (Julianna Moore) lying flat on top of a shattering glass window facing the rocks beneath with a satellite phone about to drop from atop anytime soon and Eddie's (Richard Schiff) persistent rescue attempts, it's impossible to not have a panic attack! Raptors ambush in long grass field, Compies surrounding the small girl, ship approaching harbor in flank speed, T-Rex sniffing inside camp and humans digging underneath wooden door for an escape as the dinosaurs were doing the same on the opposite before appearing to surprise on this end were equally terrifying! However, admittedly, the gymnastic bit was silly and Carter wasn't the only soldier available out there to act as Stark's (Peter Stormare) saviour.
Writing wise, the theme of man versus nature was crystal clear with faithfully adhered proceedings. It's important to mention that there were a couple of plot transitions in the screenplay which felt abrupt or broken. One would be the advent of second Ingen team into the picture, as the story beforehand was a little directionless, having nowhere to go after the principal characters have reached Isla Sorna. Although the move from Isla Sorna to San Diego faced the similar issue, the whole showdown was heart-stopping fun! Great dialogues and humorous monologues were keen outcomes. Vince Vaughn as Nick was a likable supporting character, and Roland played by Pete Postlethwaite was an antagonist with honour whom you'd love to hate! Spielberg absolutely nailed when it came to giving us baddies whom we would pay to see dinosaurs chomping on! Vanessa Lee Chester as Ian's daughter can get annoying at times though.
The first two Jurassic Park films were landmarks in technical achievements! Stan Winston's groundbreaking animatronics were touched up with perfection by the visual effects team from legendary Industrial Light & Magic! When the baby T-Rex's crying and wailing in pain, there'll never be a second that withdraws you out of the Willing Suspension of Disbelief. It's a heartbreaking sight on a side note! Speaking of crying and wailing, the way Spielberg has used sound design to instil fear in you while roaming inside this forest with these characters was simply brilliant! John Williams' score is evergreen, having a fair share in contributing to the scares, horror and terror! In classic Spielberg style, cinematographer Janusz Kamiński teased suspense by zooming in on facial reactions! Michael Kahn's scene transition edits were exceptional, especially the first screaming to yawning match cut! Other technology created specifically for the movie such as jeeps with extendable seats were feasts!
The makers already had a winner in place the moment they thought of inviting a T-Rex into metropolitan city! Kid waking his parents up to see a dinosaur drinking water from swimming pool at the backyard and it causing a havoc at traffic were too enjoyable to watch! We were expecting for these anyways from the villain's initial plan layout. If it was any other director, he or she would have killed off the T-Rex. But since it was Spielberg, a humane ending was achieved and we left the dark screening halls with joy-filled hearts!