The Lost World: Jurassic Park

This was the only Jurassic Park franchise movie I had never seen, and now that I have, I can easily state it's my least favorite. It's the only one I outright dislike.

My problems are many. First, this is gonna sound dumb, but the movie is too violent. Especially compared to the first film. There's actual gore, and it's gross and upsetting. I can't believe this got a PG-13 rating instead of an R like it deserved. Another of the thousands of available pieces of evidence that the MPAA is unfathomably corrupt.

Second problem is huge. The characters are too dumb. Outside of Ian Malcolm, nobody impresses me. By the end Sarah made some good choices, but really everyone else is stupid. And you can say that's not outside of a horror film, but it's outside of the first one, where a BUNCH of the characters were surprisingly resourceful. I would use that word to describe every survivor there (and even some that didn't). And it's more impressive there because those were a bunch of scientists, parks operators, technicians, and kids. These are actual big game hunters and supposed professional mercs and the dumbass is listening to his headphones while the guy's taking a leak and getting killed by dinosaurs while screaming for help. I don't care if the movie is from 1998. I'm still tired of that crap, no matter when it was made.

And the T-Rex in downtown San Diego turned the entire premise in a farce. How am I supposed to approach the coming horror of Jurassic World: Dominion while this movie is treating dinosaurs running amok in suburbia as a huge joke? I seem to recall the movie got a LOT of crap for the dinosaur eating the dog and it's easy to see why. In a different film, with more credibility banked, I'd think that was a bold move. In a movie that is losing me more and more by the minute, it's essentially the last straw.

That bugged the crap out of me. I think the best thing Steven Spielberg did for this franchise is step aside. His second and final effort is pretty terrible. *1/2.