Watched again. Comes in third after 1 and 3.

Did a run of these films again recently and the second one really stood out as the odd boy.

It just doesn't quite feel on target for the majority of the film with only a few scenes really standing out.

For a start the film looks surprisingly cheap. It's painfully obvious that the jungle bits are in a studio and it gives the majority of the film a very sterile feel. The CGI doesn't look half as good as the first film either and a lot of the camera angles seem quite awkward too which doesn't give a nice sensation.

Some points of the film which motivated the story were extremely flimsy too. The convenient second island, the fact that his girlfriend just happened to be into dinosaurs. It's just didn't wash. I found the daughter to be completely irrelevant as well as she was just there to be a forced worry.

The film really missed Alan Grant as well. Jeff Goldblum can easily play a leading man but the problem is that Ian Malcolm just isn't a leading character and to make matters worse in this film he's a different man to the cheeky, cocky person we fell in love with in the first movie.

The end felt like a monumental King Kong rip off too and the end was far too abrupt.

Of course it's Spielberg so it's not a bad film by any means. The director really pulls out his trademark tension flare with the cliff and the tent scene which are excellent and although he's playing a subdued version of the character there are a few masterful lines delivered by Goldblum. Julianne Moore was really good as well.

I think the third film is a far better adventure than this although it lacks that Spielberg touch it had Alan Grant back who was a better character to helm the film.

The Lost World is one of those rare so-so films by Spielberg which is surprising considering how masterful the first one was.