I also like that the film didn't borrow too much from its predecessor in that the shark is shown A LOT. The shark served more as a presence in the first movie just before it's finally revealed near the end.
See that's why Jaws (the original movie) is just so damn good... all the horror is inside our head. We know how a shark looks like and we know they are very dangerous animals so we pictured all kinds of gruesome details.
I don't subscribe to modern day filmmaking where very last detail has to be shown.. leave something to the imagination.
The same principle applied to Alien.. we rarely see it but when we do it's scary as hell.
Jaws 2 was just a lame ripoff without the class of the original as it's almost always the case with sequels.
You know what other film did that rather successfully, and feel free to laugh, but Larry Cohen's 1974 movie, It's Alive.
While the movie is fairly campy with an outrageous premise about an infant born with fangs and claws that kills, you never really get a good look at it - probably due to the fact that we'd see how fake the puppet looked, but it gave the film a level of tension that wouldn't be there if we were given a full on look at it.
On the Jaws 2 DVD, there's a great 60 minute documentary on the making of the film. The director, Jeannot Schwarz (sp?) talked in great detail about whether they should show the shark or not.
Originally, it was suggested to never show the shark, but he felt that the shark should be shown a lot because that scene when the shark is first revealed in the original film, it's already happened. They couldn't duplicate that. Have to say, I agree. So, what did they do? They scarred the shark early in the film by having half of its face burned, "scareface the shark," as put by Carl Gottlieb.
Jaws 2 is one of my favorite sequels. As it was said before, it was as good as a it could be as a followup, but beyond this, it should not have continued. They tried a few different things and did a good job of it.
You would expect, given the premise, for it to almost duplicate the original, and while certain elements from the first film are carried over, but it stands on its own.