FIRST LOOK: Dinosaur Insurrection Reigns Amuck in "Fallen Kingdom"

It's run Raptors run for  "Jurassic Park Fallen Kingdom."  You too Mr. Tyrannosaurus. You're cooler and more ferocious than  the Indominus rex,  velociraptor,  Indoraptors  and familiar Brachiosaurus and  Pachycephalosaurus.

Spanish director J.A. Bayona reshapes the former tourist theme park into a lava threatened island where evading a second extinction leads to  story arcs that recall "King Kong" and "Noah's Ark."

With the massive lizards (and cute little Bue) are under attack by a bureaucratic decision, the humans (good , bad and indifferent) must avoid  saliva dripping mouths and wide thundering pedi-claws.

Since Owen (Chris Pratt)  did not exhibit rogue wrangler tendencies, he's not automatically as fast thinking, sturdy or as confident as  park CEO Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), who romped herself through the brushy edges of  "Jurassic World" in high heels. Those business pumps remain on the mainland, but Claire has retained strident stubborn determination and adapts well to more rough and tumble demands than riding in a park cart and avoiding dino waste.

The film's opening volley on the island has Clare taking to the chopper just fine, thank you , with Owen barely grabbing hold in time. He lacks her high strung passion for dino rescue. His "back for more," wry comment to Claire reminds me of laid back Matthew McConaughey's then half-hearted overtures toward Matthew Fox for an assistant coach in "We Are Marshall."

It's the sales instinct of a business woman that applies pressure to a wavering Owen that "Blue," a young dinosaur whom he trained and bonded in the earlier film, "is alive and you raised her." The DNA experimentation reaches a poignant fruition when Zia (Daniella Pineda ) , a young paleoveterinarian (dinosaur vet) utters, "she's beautiful. I never thought I'd see one in real life," regarding the ailing "Blue" whom she must under threat of death keep breathing. 

"Fallen Kingdom" races past the earlier film's death defying hide and seek chases, instead, multiple layers of action and thrills dominate. One of its best scenes has the quartet of good guys and gals trapped in a pod on the rapids facing toothy jaws and prospects of drowning. 

Director Bayona mixes atmospheric island panoramas and perfectly executed extreme (crunch) close ups on the lava enveloped island, then, in the culmination of the mercenary conspiracy portion  set at benevolent billionaire (James Cromwell) West Coast estate relies on light and shadows for suspense heightening wrings more suspense than the raging caged rescued carnivores unknowingly objecting to their sale to the highest bidder for unique weapons of war. They're  like the jungle to civilization roars of  a chained Kong exhibited in NYC times how many species survived.

Bayona could have used a little of the short melodic "Jaws" theme for scare intensity increases, but "Fallen Kingdom" has its twists and a preachy warning about man-made cataclysmic alterations tempting both the Almighty and hounds of Hades. Cynically toying, avoiding,  and embracinng genre cliches, Bayona pulls off a very good Spielberg imitation, except neither Pratt nor Howard fall into deep peril (not even a twisted ankle) and Pratt's mischief mouth wanes once back in the states. 

Lest one forget, it's been 25-years since Spielberg first  turned loose the biting, hungry intensely realistic   computer generated creatures that set the pathway for the multitude of  accelerated C.G.I. advances taken for granted in superhero or outer space franchises of this century.