The Lost World: Jurassic Park (PG-13)
Amblin; IMDb; Jurassic World; old official website; Rotten Tomatoes; TV Tropes; Universal; Wikia; Wikipedia
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This is came out in 1997; it's the second movie in the Jurassic Park franchise. I couldn't say with any certainty whether or not I saw it prior to watching it on DVD in 2015. Before watching the DVD, I thought I'd probably seen it, but I wasn't sure, and after watching it... I still wasn't sure. Nothing about it triggered any specific memories, but still... maybe I did. Anyway, it's not important. Um... also, I should say that while I put my review of the original movie under science fiction, I didn't feel any desire to do the same with this movie. This was straight up action/scary, though ultimately I categorized it as a "giant monster" movie. (Dinosaurs are actually smaller than the monsters in most giant monster movies, but beyond a certain point, it doesn't really matter. And the bigger dinosaurs are just barely big enough to qualify, I think.)
Four years after the original movie, a wealthy family are on a cruise, and stop off on Isla Sorna, aka "Site B" of John Hammond's scheme to build Jurassic Park. It's actually the breeding ground of dinosaurs that were originally to be moved to Isla Nublar (Site A). For reasons that I don't understand, the fact that this family discovered the island allowed Hammond's nephew, Peter Ludlow, to take control of Hammond's company, InGen. For the past four years, Hammond has been preventing the company from using Site B for financial gain; he just wanted the dinosaurs left alone. But now, Ludlow has plans of his own. So Hammond recruits a four-person team to go to the island and document things, in order to gain public support against Ludlow. The team includes a photographer and environmentalist named Nick Van Owen (Vince Vaughn) and an equipment expert named Eddie Carr, as well as a paleontologist named Dr. Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore). Hammond wants Ian Malcolm (the only major character from the first film to play a major role in the sequel) to become the fourth member of the team. At first he refuses, what with not being insane, and all. But when he learns Dr. Harding is already on the island, he decides he has to go... because she's his girlfriend, and he doesn't want her to die. So, he joins Van Owen and Carr when they go to the island. And his daughter, Kelly (from a previous relationship), sneaks aboard the boat that takes them to the island. (Tim and Lex make a brief appearance in the movie, but they don't go to the island, and obviously the movie needs a cute kid, because... I guess no one cares if adults are in danger of being eaten by dinosaurs?) And she's cool, especially in one scene that I don't want to spoil.
Anyway, um... not too long after Ian and the others arrive on Isla Sorna and meet up with Dr. Harding and start documenting the dinosaurs, Ludlow shows up with a team from InGen. The team is led by a game hunter named Roland, who wants to hunt a T. Rex. Ludlow plans to capture some dinosaurs and bring them to San Diego, to open a zoo there (which would be much more feasible than Hammond's original plan of opening a park on a remote island). And... there's not much more to say, except that of course both teams end up being hunted by various dinosaurs. Eventually Ludlow's team does manage to get a T. Rex to San Diego, at which point the movie put me vaguely in mind of "King Kong" (but not really). And um, I think the fact that there's a dinosaur loose on the mainland is the one thing that really seemed even vaguely familiar to me, to make me think maybe I really did see the movie at some point. (But I'm still not sure.) And that's actually not a very long part of the movie.
Well, the movie isn't as good as the original, but it's not actually bad. I mean, if you're just interested in seeing some dinosaurs menacing some people, the movie definitely works on that level. And there are a few decent bits beyond just that, I guess. It's a reasonably fun movie, if not really necessary.
Followed by Jurassic Park III