The fifth installment in the Jurassic Park film series arrived this summer, eerily entering theaters with the title “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.”

A smash hit in 2015, ‘Jurassic World’ awakened a sleeping giant that brought out fans in historic numbers. The film grossed over $1.5 billion worldwide.

Undoubtedly one of the coolest parts of these sequels is the homage they have paid to the first films in the series. Both of these sequel films have taken us back at times with hints to the cathartic first time we saw the initial installments, very particularly Spielberg’s 1993 original.

Now set three years after the events of ‘Jurassic World,’ ‘Fallen Kingdom’ finds a split up Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), who reunite for a rescue operation on the fictional island of Isla Nublar to attempt to retrieve several species, including Blue the velociraptor.

Meanwhile, the island grows closer each day to its once again active volcano exploding and wiping out all remaining life on it, causing worldwide political debate and uproar from animal rights activists.

Twists and turns lead us to discover more about the shocking and surprisingly dark heritages of these recreations.

However, the plot falls down far too many dead ends to keep it interesting. Our intrigue is entirely too dependent on many of the action-packed sequences, which don’t quite bring as much heart as the previous film.

It ultimately turns the movie into an action horror with the creation of the Indoraptor, a cross between last film’s deceased Indominus Rex and the blood of Blue, the most intelligent velociraptor on the island.

The poorly written dialogue, at times mixed with grandiose shot sequences, as well as the pacing of this film, constantly feels like it dives into major points far too quickly with only little to no buildup. That leads to a lot of action that you’ll quickly forget.

While it doesn’t really add anything wildly new to the franchise, it didn’t necessarily need to. A pair of great character performances by Pratt and Howard along with a solid direction provided from J.A. Bayona make this film into a nice addition for the franchise.

As a result, it serves essentially as a plot continuation that leaves many interesting possible directions for a finale to travel.

Alex Novak is an entertainment reviewer. Contact him at [email protected].