John Hammond: “All major theme parks have delays. When they opened Disneyland in 1956, nothing worked.”

Ian Malcolm: “But John, if the Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don’t eat the tourists.”

Going to a theme Park is a transcendental experience. Whether it’s Disneyland, Universal Orlando, Six Flags, or just a Hollywood studio tour, each is unshackled by the constraints of reality, allowing us to blend into the minutia of another world populated by imaginary characters and fantastical settings (along with overpriced food and beer).

Part of Jurassic Park’s original allure was how it let us explore an island teeming with creatures from 65 million years ago. When Spielberg took this fantasy to the next level by making the park’s creators forget that their attractions were still dangerous animals that shouldn’t be put on display and monetized, we watched in horror as the fences separating the humans and dinosaurs gave way and the film devolved into panic and chaos.

While its first two sequels, The Lost World and Jurassic Park III, sidestepped the major themes of the first movie to delve into the horror survival genre, Jurassic Worldreturns to the spirit of the original, spending a big chunk of its runtime building up the believability of a dinosaur-centered theme park. It gains a lot of good will by playing off our nostalgia for the first film as it shows us why children would justifiably beg to visit these creatures in their habitat.

As John Williams’ iconic score crescendos and the characters first arrive at the park, director Colin Trevorrow successfully recreates the sensation we got so many years ago when we first caught a glimpse of Jurassic Park’s sick Triceratops or when Dr. Grant cradled a newly hatched Velociraptor.  Jurassic World unabashedly echoes the first movie, but also justifies its own existence by recreating our childlike wonder of strolling through an amazing theme park complete with a dinosaur petting zoo and glass enclosed rides that put us face to face with the largest predators on the island.  

Through their adaptation of unused elements from Michael Crichton’s novels, (the Mosasaurus, a giant aquatic dino that feeds on great white sharks especially stands out as an audience favorite), Jurassic World’s plot and dialogue feel less polished, as if they’re an afterthought in the filmmakers’ attempt to perfectly recreate the amusement park atmosphere. When the new, genetically-engineered Indominus Rex eventually breaks loose and wreaks havoc on the park, it gives us many appropriately scary moments, but the latter half of the film devolves into a series of set pieces based around different dinosaurs.

The film’s biggest drawback is its weak dialogue and terrible character interactions. Chris Pratt is a serviceable leading man, even if he’s just a watered down version of Starlord, his reluctant protagonist in 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Bryce Dallas Howard fares less well as Clair, whose most memorable attribute is her ability to run from dinosaurs in high heels and a tight dress.

The most egregious part of the plot, however, revolves around Vincent D’Onofrio’s character Vic Hoskins, who believes that the dinosaurs can be weaponized for military purposes. Vic’s motives are so vague that they become nonsensical, a hodgepodge of “evil military” clichés that give the film an alternate antagonist who can become human fodder for the Indominus Rex.

There’s also a broken-home subplot involving Clair’s two nephews, a strange addition that ultimately doesn’t take us anywhere. But curiously, the mandatory children-in-danger storyline isn’t all that excessive or annoying beyond a few of Spielberg’s overly sentimental touches.

Ultimately, if you overlook Jurassic World’s lazy writing and questionable acting, Trevorrow and Spielberg keep the film moving at a brisk pace and dish out enough fan service to keep us from noticing the film’s rough edges. Where the original Jurassic Park satirized the theme-park mentality, Jurassic World is a true Hollywood creation: an amusement park ride that’s slick and fun and without any real substance. But this film is also a well-oiled machine stocked with a few good scares and legitimate moments of wonder, and it seems to have successfully reenergized a long-dormant franchise.