It tries too hard to become more serious, thus losing its adventurous tone and ultimately becoming a lackluster sequel. The Lost World - Jurassic Park may have some of the impressive visuals from its 1993 predecessor, but the dull narrative and less-than-effective edgier tone ultimately leads to the film's mediocre result. 2.5/5

With a darker tone and no shortage of fast-paced action thrills, Spielberg's 1997 follow-up to his original dino-classic manages to be a an underrated gem that is very much worth checking out for action junkies. Personally, I am shocked at the amount of hate this sequel has gotten over the years. While far from a cinematic masterpiece, it is levels above the abominable "Jurassic Park III" and in some respects a bit of an improvement over the original. One aspect that the sequel improves upon are the characters. Although far from spectacular, they posses a lot more charisma and a bit more layers than the first batch. Ian Malcolm, who was regulated to the sidelines in the original, is given center stage and the film is all the better for it, especially given Jeff Goldblum's more dynamic portrayal. Julianne Moore and Vince Vaughn also give decent supporting performances but Pete Postlethwaite steals the show as the thrill-seeking hunter Roland Tembo (also has probably the most fascinating character arc out of all the cast). Even the dinosaurs are given more characterization than the first, especially the velociraptors and the T-rexes. It's also a plus that the dialogue and banter yield a bit more emotional meat outside of just providing clunky exposition. The visuals and action are just as spectacular as the first and Spielberg follows the "Aliens" template of giving the audience more dinosaurs. My favorite sequences include the nerve-racking breaking glass sequence and anything involving the velociraptors (tall grass sequence). As far as plot goes, it does lack some originality (it's pretty much Spielberg's big budget remake of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Lost World") along with containing a few plot contrivances and ridiculous moments (Ex. velociraptor killed by gymnastics). Although to be fair, it's not like the first movie was lacking in ridiculous moments either. The closing San Diego sequence, while thrilling, did feel overall tacked on. Almost as if Spielberg desperately wanted to make a mini-Kaiju movie in the vein of Godzilla and he saw this flick as his only chance to do so. Ironically, the sequence ended up being a much better and more faithful representation of Godzilla movies than the crap-storm Roland Emmerich version that came out a year later. On a side note, John Williams provides the score once again but unfortunately the music feels phoned in and lacking in memorable ques. It doesn't end up being as moving as the first one. It's far from a masterpiece or a significant highlight in Speilberg's long and prestigious career, but it's a nice guilt-free slice of action/adventure fun nonetheless.