JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM

DIRECTOR J.A. Bayona

CAST Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rafe Spall, James Cromwell, Jeff Goldblum, Justice Smith, Daniella Pineda

PLOT When Isla Nublar’s volcanic foundations become active again, Jurassic World’s former manager Claire Dearing (Howard), now a dinosaur rights activist, reunites with Owen Grady (Pratt) for a rescue mission. “DO YOU REMEMBER the first time you saw a dinosaur?” asks Claire Dearing (Howard) in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. We do. When Steven Spielberg’s photoreal prehistoric predators hit multiplexes in 1993, they changed cinema forever. And they were terrifying. But in the three films since, the original’s perfectly tuned moments of pure suspense (the tapping velociraptor claw, the water rippling in a T-rex footprint) haven’t been matched. Enter The Orphanage director J.A. Bayona.

But Bayona’s film isn’t just limited to the white-knuckle frights — he also goes bigger than any other Jurassic film. Where The Lost World and III struggled to deliver convincing motivations for characters to return to dino-filled terrain, Bayona and Colin Trevorrow (director of Jurassic World, who co-writes here) have cracked it: Isla Nublar’s no-longer-dormant volcano is about to blow, which sends the park’s former operations manager Claire — now campaigning for dinosaur rights — and Owen Grady (Pratt) on a rescue mission.

The island is where Bayona’s disaster movie credentials come into play as he invokes the relentless intensity of

The Impossible’s harrowing tsunami in a stampede sequence as the volcanic eruption escalates. Such mass destruction is a new flavour for the Jurassic series, and the bombast is wisely punctuated with human-scale peril — an underwater sequence in a sinking gyrosphere is a breath-holding highlight.

While the Isla Nublar action is cranked up to 11, on the mainland Bayona holds a tight focus on the creepy mansion home of John Hammond’s ex-business partner, orchestrating precision-tuned scares with his scaly new star: the Indoraptor. With such hissable baddies as Ted Levine’s trophy-collecting mercenary Ken Wheatley and Toby Jones’ Trump-wigged auctioneer Gunnar Eversol on site, watching it wreak toothy havoc is a scream.

As for our heroes, Howard and Pratt’s characters are developed beyond the archetypes of last time. Claire 2.0 is far more sympathetic — and yes, now wears sensible shoes — while Owen’s chauvinistic edges are rounded off. The pair have real chemistry, best evidenced during a hugely entertaining sleeping T-rex sequence that delivers laughs, gasps, and top-notch animatronic effects. You wanted more ‘real’ dinosaurs this time? You got ’em.

There are niggles — one character’s mysterious identity is telegraphed far too heavily, Goldblum’s cameo is well-conceived but extremely brief, and Michael Giacchino’s score underuses the John Williams fanfare. But despite some familiar echoes of The Lost World, Fallen Kingdom also takes irreversible strides, deriving tantalising logical conclusions from Michael Crichton’s original premise and setting up a brave new World for this trilogy’s final chapter. BEN TRAVIS

VERDICT A Jurassic sequel that plays it both adrenaline-pumpingly huge and thrillingly small. A summer ride that will drive kids out of their minds, and maybe even give parents nightmares.