Rating- * (1/5)
This one was doomed from the start. First, they couldn’t find anyone to direct it, and for good reason. Why would any self-respecting director try to proliferate this series after the awful first attempt, Jurassic Park: The Lost World, which is in contention for the worst movie of the ‘90s? Well, apparently one guy actually liked The Lost World, or didn’t see it, and that guy, Joe Johnston, signed on to direct the biggest sure-fire flop since Springtime For Hitler. While the special effects are decent, they are nothing you haven’t seen before in the original film. There are a few cheap scares thrown in thanks to the sometimes frozen, sometimes alive, genetically altered, talking Raptors. This movie has none of the good things about the original Jurassic Park; it gives up its scientific basis for a more convenient, sci-fi storyline; it destroys the best monster in recent film history in favor of a new one that turns out to be much less impressive and not very cool looking either. The acting is decent, at least for the characters that aren’t killed off in the first ten minutes of the movie, with William H. Macey and Tea Leoni playing the dimwitted, rich couple trying to save their stranded son, and Sam Neil reprising his role as the brilliant paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant from the first film. The characters, however, are totally unbelievable and make stupid decisions that not even the dumb horror film babysitter would make. The screenwriter’s final insult comes when the characters find themselves in a situation that they can’t seem to find a way out of. Oddly enough, it seems the screenwriter couldn’t find a way out of it either and simply pulls a random ending out of thin air. This is a bad, bad movie and the only enjoyment you could possibly get out of it is sitting around with your friends making fun of it. However, as bad as this movie is, it is still better than Pearl Harbor. Why? It is considerate enough to be only an hour and a half.