After the initial chaos, Jurassic World has run safely for a decade as a resort theme park off the coast of Costa Rica. Needing more visitors, the owner (Khan) pushed his top scientist (Wong) to create a bigger, scarier species, the Indominus rex. Park chief Claire (Howard) is mildly concerned, but her dino-handler Owen is furious when he finds out. Sure enough, as Claire's nephews (Simpkins and Robinson) arrive, the I-rex proves herself too smart to contain, breaking free and menacing the 20,000 people in the park. So Owen rallies his loyal velociraptors to help.

The film has the same "don't tamper with nature" message as before, although the genetic twists here add an enjoyably unpredictable sense of impending doom. There's also the standard unnecessary subplot about a meathead (D'Onofrio) who wants to put dinosaurs to military use and rather enjoys the escalating mayhem. More interesting is the film's relatively subtle exploration of one of the primary laws of nature: the food chain.

At the centre, Pratt is a superb action man, diving into the chaos with sardonic wit and bravery tempered with intelligence. He of course has spiky chemistry with Howard, who also gets to handle some big action, all of it in high heels. Meanwhile, Simpkins and Robinson offer some energetic adventure movie beats of their own as the resourceful brothers. D'Onofrio and Khan are the requisite idiots obsessed with violence and money, respectively. And the likeable Johnson, Sy, Wong, Greer and Lapkus add plenty of texture.

Through everything, Trevorrow maintains a sharp sense of humour, catching us off guard with witty gags and references to a range of classic movies. He also makes sure the film fits neatly within the Jurassic Park timeline, mixing Michael Giacomo's score with John Williams' soaring theme. And it hardly needs to be said that the effects are simply spectacular, especially on an Imax screen in 3D. Although as we've learned from Marvel, massive climactic battle sequences that are almost entirely animated are a bit of a letdown.

themes, language, violence

9.Jun.15