The Jurᴀssic Park franchise delivered its best sequel nearly three decades ago, and it is time for it to get the love it deserves. The Jurᴀssic Park movies continue to prove the audience’s love of dinosaur action but while the new installment, Jurᴀssic Park Rebirth, has some fun moments, the series peaked with the first movie.

Steven Spielberg’s 1993 original movie debuted the magic of bringing dinosaurs back into the modern world. It is a perfect blockbuster, with thrills, heart, and great characters. However, it has proven difficult for any of the other movies to capture that same magic feeling.

That is not to say there haven’t been highlights in the Jurᴀssic Park franchise since 1993. In fact, there is one Jurᴀssic Park sequel that still remains a great movie decades later, even if it cannot quite match what comes before.

The Lost World: Jurᴀssic Park Is An Underrated Sequel

The First Follow-Up Was Dismissed Too Quickly

The Lost World: Jurᴀssic Park remains the best sequel of the Jurᴀssic Park series, far outpacing the other movies that followed. The film elevates Ian Malcolm to the lead role, as he heads to Isla Sorna, the second site for the dinosaur habitats, on a rescue mission that turns into another fight for survival.

The sequel was a box office hit, but the reception was significantly less enthusiastic than the original. The movie earned a 56% on Rotten Tomatoes and was seen as a dramatic step down from the original. However, it also had the poor fortune of being the next movie in the franchise and suffered in comparison.

With such a perfect first movie, some people were quick to make out the flaws in The Lost World bigger than they were. In particular, two sequences from the sequel are highlighted as silly and something that would never be seen in the original film.

Admittedly, the scene of Malcolm’s daughter fighting off raptors using gymnastics is an easy target for critics. However, the scene of a T-Rex loose in San Diego is great fun and the kind of thing the franchise has tried and failed to pull off many times since then. However, people use these moments to suggest the whole movie is disappointing.

The Lost World Isn’t As Good As Jurᴀssic Park, But It’s Still A Good Movie

The Movie Should Not Be Punished For Not Being A Classic

The truth is that none of the Jurᴀssic Park sequels were ever going to top the original movie. The scene of Alan Grant and the audience seeing a dinosaur on the island for the first time is a truly iconic cinematic moment. The same is true of the moment the T-Rex steps out onto the road during the storm.

Jurᴀssic Park gave audiences something they had never seen before, and the sequels can replicate that. All they can do is try to deliver some similarly thrilling moments, tell a worthwhile story, and populate it with some fun characters. The Lost World: Jurᴀssic Park at least accomplishes this.

This is the only other movie in the franchise that Steven Spielberg directed, and he is not a filmmaker to approach a sequel lightly. He returns to the franchise to challenge himself, showing more dinosaurs and more of them in the daylight. The Lost World‘s opening sequence, showing a little girl attacked by dinosaurs, is bolder than the original.

The movie is a more action-packed and gruesome ride, with some of the most memorable deaths of the Jurᴀssic Park franchise. From the heroic demise of Eddie Carr to Dieter being eaten by a pack of tiny dinos, fans who love seeing people get eaten will walk away satisfied.

There are some that suggest that Jurᴀssic Park should’ve remained a standalone film and never needed sequels. As untouchable as it is as a piece of blockbuster filmmaking, it would be a shame if The Lost World: Jurᴀssic Park was never made, as it delivers exactly what fans of the first movie want, which not all the sequels can claim.

How The Lost World Compares To Other Jurᴀssic Park Sequels

Steven Spielberg Made The Best Jurᴀssic Park Sequel By Far

Steven Spielberg’s direction is obviously the thing that separates The Lost World: Jurᴀssic Park from the other sequels. Even when he is not making his best work, Spielberg still knows what makes for a great movie and will leave the audience spellbound at some point. Luckily, The Lost World has several of those moments.

The scene of the heroes trapped in an RV as it hangs over the edge of a cliff is one of the best set pieces in any Steven Spielberg movie. The T-Rex attacking the campsite, the raptor attack in the long grᴀss, and the waterfall sequence are all excellent moments that are better than anything seen in the sequels.

Spielberg is also clearly not overwhelmed by the iconic original, something that the other sequels struggle with. The Jurᴀssic World movies, in particular, are burdened with callbacks and references to the original. Ironically, they only serve as reminders of the superior movie.

The Lost World feels like it is a truly new story built on the foundation of the first movie, but not beholden to it. Other sequels in the franchise also insisted on pushing forward the themes of irresponsible science, creating more ᴅᴇᴀᴅly dinosaurs through genetic mutation, and not understanding that regular dinosaurs are exciting enough.

The Lost World understands that bringing dinosaurs back to life was as far as the science needed to go. It focuses more on the consequences and harsh reality of humans and dinosaurs existing in the same world.

Modern Jurᴀssic Park Sequels Have Forced A Reappraisal Of The Lost World

The Lost World Is Looking Better And Better Over Time

Jurᴀssic World Rebirth has obviously renewed interest in the Jurᴀssic Park franchise while also highlighting that there has not been a great movie in the series for some time. The Jurᴀssic World movies were mᴀssively successful, but even the first film, released in 2015, has not held up well in recent years.

This has led a lot of people to reconsider The Lost World: Jurᴀssic Park and realize that it is a lot more fun than it has been given credit for. While it might have seemed like a major step down in 1997, decades later, we can now realize how good we had it with this exciting follow-up dinosaur adventure.

Had the rest of the franchise had this level of excitement, strong characters, and heart, the Jurᴀssic Park franchise would have a much better reputation as a solid series of movies. In fact, The Lost World: Jurᴀssic Park could have ended the franchise, and fans would now look back on it as a great pair of movies.