Jurassic Park II: The Lost World

The Jurassic Park Series

As a kid I loved the movie Jurassic Park. Later I read the book written by Michael Crichton and then the sequel, Lost World. I went on to read most of Michael Crichton's books, but that's another story. A few weeks ago my wife and I introduced our kids to the original Jurassic Park movie (as of this writing there are five Jurassic Park movies). Our kids loved it so of course we had to continue watching all of them!

Jurassic Park II: The Lost World

I thought the book was great, but the movie was only okay. It didn't live up to the same level as the first Jurassic Park. Don't get me wrong, the movie had a lot of great dinosaur scenes with your typical 1990s action, but much of it seemed too predictable. You could tell immediately who was dying and who was going to survive. Jeff Goldblum does a great job, but I refuse to believe his daughter (not his real daughter) in the movie was able to sneak on board and join the crew to the island. This was a mission with high level equipment to an island of dinosaurs the general public doesn't know about and we are to believe a young child is able to sneak on board with no one noticing. No one did a double check before taking off? Not buying it.

Although much of the movie was predictable, there was one surprise regarding one of the characters.

Vince Vaughn Appearance

Jurassic Park II brings us a young Vince Vaughn who is part of the team traveling to the island. He plays the role of the cocky, athletic "strong man" brought along to take pictures and look pretty. Eventually he sacrifices himself to save the others and we see him carried down river being torn apart by a group of pterodactyls. That's the end of Vince Vaughn until he suddenly appears at the very end, having somehow been rescued by...who knows who. He's lying in the helicopter, injured, but in good spirits and clearly in non-critical condition. Um...no. It makes no sense.

Bad Science

Well, there are full sized dinosaurs roaming the island, so there's some bad science. The entire explanation of how DNA was discovered and dinosaurs were re-created is completely bad science, but without the bad science you don't have Jurassic Park, so I'll forgive Michael Crichton. We also now know most dinosaurs were likely covered in feathers. So there's that too.

Conclusion

Despite the problems I mentioned above, I did enjoy Jurassic Park II, but not to the same level as the original. My kids, however, loved it. Next up: Jurassic Park III.