In preparation for going to see Jurassic World tonight, we watched Jurassic Park II (or really The Lost World, but nobody calls it that) last night.

In short it was really awful.

I don’t think I’ve seen it again since I saw it at the cinema when it was released. I was a child then, and I remember having enjoyed it. But revisiting it was not really that good an experience.

• The story just isn’t compelling. SInce it’s based on a novel, I get that that isn’t necessarily the filmmakers’ fault, but it still wan’t a good movie.
• Lots of cheesy lines, and episodes of seemingly-deliberate bad acting. Worked in the first one; not so much here.
• Much of the movie relied on depictions of awful cruelty to animals. Yes, they are fictional, brought back after millions of years of extinction, not in any way real, but they are presented as real animals; not monsters. And in fact the premise of the movie is a group of scientists going to observe these animals in their natural habitat, and then, of course, being disturbed by a hunt. In particular the scene of the young Tyrannosaur being chained down and used as bait to lure its mother to her intended slaughter was distressing.
• The ‘dinosaur loose in San Diego’ was absurd to the point of not being enjoyable, and the scene with the Japanese businessmen running in fear was just racist tbh

However a couple of positives:

• It’s an old-ish movie, and I really enjoyed the absence of green screen. The sets were all real, the special effects were all old-school. It fely really good watching that.
• Jeff Goldblum has really long legs, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say I didn’t enjoy watching those.
• I liked the images of humans being completely incapable of survival.

Overall: a pretty awful movie. I have higher hopes for Jurassic World tonight. I may report back, I may not.