It was 32 years ago that Steven Spielberg wowed audiences with his blockbuster mega-hit “Jurassic Park”. Since then it has been an interesting road for the Jurassic franchise. Spielberg returned to direct the sequel “The Lost World” but not the third film, “Jurassic Park III”. Both movies made money, but they didn’t reach the heights of the original. The series was relaunched in 2015 with “Jurassic World”, followed by two underwhelming but wildly profitable sequels.

Now the dinosaurs are back for a seventh time in “Jurassic World Rebirth”, a standalone sequel that follows “Dominion” while in many ways wisely distancing itself from it. Gareth Edwards was brought in to direct and David Koepp (the writer of the 1993 film) was hired to pen the script. The result is a story that tries a little too hard to follow Spielberg’s original recipe. Yet in the process it delivers an improvement over its most recent (and ultimately forgettable) predecessors.

“Rebirth” is slow out of the gate as it sets up its story and moves its characters into place. As humans and dinosaurs are still trying to co-exist, people have grown tired of their massive planet-mates. Many of the earth’s climates aren’t fit for the dinosaurs, leading the massive creatures to migrate towards the equator which causes all sorts of headaches around the globe.

As frustrated mankind focus on this problem, Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend), a noticeably slimy pharmaceutical rep, has his eyes fixated elsewhere. He and his company have developed a new miracle drug that has the potential to cure heart disease. They’ve yet to bring it to trial because they’re missing key blood samples. Those samples are from the three largest living dinosaurs which reside on an outlawed island in the Atlantic. Once he secures the samples Martin’s company can begin testing and then secure a patent which will be worth billions.

Martin approaches a former special ops soldier turned mercenary, Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) with a lucrative offer to lead a team to the forbidden island. Accompanying them is Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey), a good-hearted but naive paleontologist who dreams of seeing living dinosaurs in their natural habitat. Zora charters a ship belonging to her old friend Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali) who plots their course and leads the team to the island.

Elsewhere a father Reuben (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), his daughters Teresa (Luna Blaise) and Isabella (Audrina Miranda ), and Teresa’s deadbeat boyfriend Xavier (David Iacono) are on an ill-advised sailing trip across the Atlantic when their boat capsizes after an encounter with a massive Mosasaurus. Zora and her team rescue the family, but not before the Mosasaurus run’s Duncan’s ship on shore of the forbidden island.

From there the movie splits the story into two tales of survival. After some rather obvious casualties, the survivors are forced into two groups – the frightened family trying to find their way to a village and Zora’s team who set out to complete their mission. Of course both groups encounter an array of prehistoric dangers, eye-popping wonders, and unexpected secrets. The story has a predictable trajectory, but it remains entertaining.

The movie works in large part due to the thrilling set pieces. It takes a while to get to them, but the big screen payoff is pretty satisfying. The dinosaurs look great and Edwards manages to create some pretty good tension. The characters don’t hold up as well. It’s not hard to root for the heroes and the villains are appropriately vile. But none feel fully fleshed out despite the strongly committed performances from the sizable cast.

“Jurassic World Rebirth” does its best to bring the series back to its roots and it mostly succeeds. And while it may rely a little too much on nostalgia, Edwards and company deliver the kind of big screen summer spectacle than fans will be drawn to. The early box office returns have been huge which equals a big win for Universal. It also all but assures another dino adventure in the not too distant future. “Jurassic World Rebirth” is in theaters now.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS