I actually liked this film a lot as a kid. Helps that it brought back my favorite character, Alan Grant, and it pretty much codified the now-ubiquitous Spinosaurus as the T-Rex's arch-rival. I think most kids identified with Eric Kirby, thinking we'd be the badass kid who could survive all alone on a dinosaur-filled island for weeks. I think it was also the first movie in the series to use flying dinosaurs as a legitimate danger instead of just skybox setpieces.
I remember changing my ringtone to "♪♫♪ Kirby Paint & Tile Plus in Westgate! ♪♫♪" after downloading it from some shifty 90s website, haha