Neglify said:

I have a very similar origin-story as you do. I fell in love with JP when it came out, read the book when I was 13, read Lost World as soon as it came out, saw the movie and was disappoint, etc. I actually like the book The Lost World better than Jurassic Park. It's a smaller story, which meant more depth into characters and less sub-plots to keep track of. The first book gets really convoluted and messy, especially in the finale. The movie is far superior in terms of plot and structure.

While I'm not sure if I like it better or not, The Lost World is surprisingly good for a sequel, and is no less than equal to its predecessor. It's a shame the movie decided to rewrite so much of the story. The only fairly close match in scene was the trailer/cliff scene, which is also probably the main scene I like. Even then, that particular scene upsets me because two characters are so determined to save the baby dinosaur, then the guy who comes to save them and works so hard at it is the one who ends up in a dino belly for all his hard work.