Movie Review: The dinosaurs of “Jurassic World” roar again in “Fallen Kingdom”

When one considers a dinosaur movie these days, immediate thoughts generally run to the films in the “Jurassic Park” series.

Released in 2018, “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” – which FX shows Thursday, Aug. 8, and Friday, Aug. 9 – carried the Steven Spielberg-produced franchise into its fifth chapter. That might suggest that you’d already seen a lot of what that film has to offer, but even so, there’s still no denying the special thrill of seeing prehistoric creatures and their genetically enhanced descendants in action in modern times.

Their renewed existence is threatened, though, by a volcano on the island where the Jurassic World theme park existed. Some bigwigs have vested interests in moving the creatures away to another location before the lava starts flowing, and the characters played by Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard are enlisted to help in their positions from the previous movie.

Surprise, surprise: All is not what it seems, and those who have been acting in the best interests of the dinos find they’ve been duped into assisting with an evil scheme. If you think they’re not happy about it, wait until you see the reactions of those whose names end in “-saurus” and “-raptor.”

B.D. Wong and Jeff Goldblum both return from earlier “Jurassic” editions, with Rafe Spall, Toby Jones, James Cromwell and Ted Levine among notable cast additions here.

It goes without saying, but we’ll say it: “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” is what it is, and that’s not necessarily a putdown. By the fifth movie in a series, you know what to expect, though one would hope for more that feels fresh. At the same time, you can understand what the filmmakers are working against, and that includes the memories held by those who were in the theater seats for any or all of the previous four times.