The Jurassic Park franchise - while beloved, doesn’t exactly have the greatest of batting averages. While it started with one of the greatest action-adventure films of the 90’s in 1993’s Jurassic Park, the installments which followed have been less than stellar, 1997’s flawed The Lost World: Jurassic Park and 2001’s abysmal Jurassic Park III.

Fourteen years later, Universal Pictures has brought us a fourth installment of the dinosaur franchise, and I’m very happy to say that while imperfect, Jurassic World is an absolute theatrical thrill ride, and a joy to watch…even if it doesn’t stand up to analysis afterwards.

Set twenty-two years after the original film (and apparently ignoring the events of the two sequels), Jurassic World sees the dream of the late John Hammond realized. Funded by billionaire Simon Masrani (Irrfan Kahn), Jurassic Park has become the full-blown “Jurassic World", an immense theme park located in Isla Nubar. Overseen by Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard, not Jessica Chastain) the park has been an incredible success - but attendance has started to stagnate. In turn, the park, alongside genetic manipulation partner InGen, decides to develop a brand new dinosaur - a fierce creature called an Indominus Rex.

Of course, since this IS a Jurassic movie, things go terribly wrong - and it’s on the same day that Clare’s nephews, Zach and Grey (Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins) are in the park! Our only hope? Ex-Navy dinosaur trainer Owen Grady (Chris Pratt, who continues to have the coolest career path ever), who, along with his team of trained raptors look to stop the I-Rex and save the day before thousands are killed!

The stakes are high - and thankfully for Summer movie fans, the action completely delivers. Jurassic World, perhaps more than any other installment in the franchise, is build entirely around incredible dino action, and each set piece is more and more fun, silly and ridiculous than the last. You’ll pop out of your seat, you’ll laugh, and you’ll cheer as Pratt and co battle their way through sheer paleolithic pandemonium.

The movie isn’t without its bumps and bruises of course - certain characters feel completely inessential to the film, and there are a good two or three plotlines that are left open or unresolved. Heck, even the main cast isn’t as fleshed out as the cast of the original film, with most actors admirably filling the shoes of different archetypes, such as “Alpha Male", “Overworked Strong Female", “Cool Older Brother" and “Weird Younger Brother". The notable exception to this is New Girl’s Jake Johnson, who plays a Jurassic Park fanboy who also doubles as one of the park’s operators in a sarcastic, silly version of Samuel L. Jackson’s role in the original Park.

In other films, this archetype heavy structure would be a problem, but it may be a part of the overall meta-commentary of the film, which seems to point a finger at movie audiences thirst for sequels from frame number one. “Corporate felt genetic modification would up the wow’ factor.“ is a quote which probably describes both the movie-making process for Jurassic World and the plot-line here, but even with that self-awareness, Jurassic World excels as a thrilling, Summer romp.

Director Colin Trevorrow may only be making his second film with World, following the quirky-indie film Safety Not Guaranteed, but he proves as a solid not-quite-Spielberg here, with the movie feeling large in scope, but personal in nature. You can really feel the majesty of the park in each shot, and you are thrust into the fear of our heroes when things break bad.

Starting with many corporate sponsors, a little bit of back story, and then a whole bunch of excitement, Jurassic World fits perfectly as an amusement park ride of a movie. The film may not be as great as Jurassic Park was (the movie even seems to agree with this idea during its third act), but it’s certainly worth taking a trip to.

Jurassic World is in theaters now, and is already available for pre-order on Amazon.com and iTunes.