Jurassic World is the fourth installment of the film franchise that began with Steven Spielberg’s classic sci-fi adventure film, Jurassic Park (inspired by Michael Crichton’s bestselling novel of the same name), way back in 1993. Directed by Colin Trevorrow and written by Trevorrow, Derek Conolly, and the husband-and-wife team Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (co-writers of the two latest Planet of the Apes films), with Spielberg on board as the executive producer, Jurassic World finally shows us how awesome that dinosaur theme park John Hammond tried to build two decades ago could actually be.

Two kids, Zach and Gray (played by Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins, respectively), attend the park while their parents are going through divorce hearings. The brothers’ aunt, Claire Dearing (played by Bryce Dallas Howard), is the park’s operations manager, ensuring that the dinosaurs keep getting bigger and badder, thereby bringing in more customers. Unfortunately, the latest genetic hybrid, the Indominus Rex, escapes from containment, nearly killing Velociraptor trainer Owen Grady (played by Chris Pratt, who seems to be carving out a niche as a comedic action hero in the vein of Indiana Jones, and yes, I’ve heard the rumors). Owen teams up with Claire to find Zach and Gray and save the park’s patrons from being eaten by killer dinosaurs.

Obviously, the plot isn’t all that complex; much more focus is put upon the effects, which are hardly groundbreaking but still manage to be impressive. There are a few side characters, such as Vincent D’Onofrio’s performance as greedy security chief Vic Hoskins, who, surprise surprise, wants to exploit the dinosaurs for his own gain (this has certainly never been done before in a Jurassic Park movie, right?), but they’re mostly serve as raptor fodder rather than interesting characters. However, the four leads do have good chemistry, even if the inevitable romantic subplot between Owen and Claire is too brief and the story of the kids’ parents’ divorce just kind of fades into the background.

However, the story and characters are more interesting than The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and things make more sense in the film than in Jurassic Park III, so despite its flaws, Jurassic World is the best sequel in the franchise.