'Anybody hear that? It's an impact tremor, is what it is.' That's right, stomping into view and devouring all in its path is the latest behemoth from the Jurassic Park franchise, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. By the fifth instalment in any series, what is on offer should be pretty apparent. So here we have, as before, big scaly beasts with lots of teeth, ruggedly handsome chaps with good hearts, corporate goons with secret evil plans, and questionable science to make your inner geek weep. It all feels rather predictable, but sometimes that's all you really want from a film like this.

Set three years after the dinosaurs broke out and caused havoc in Jurassic World, they face being wiped out by a (newly active) volcano on the Isla Nublar. So it's up to Owen and Claire, plus a mysterious new benefactor, to return to the island and save as many species as they can. But soon there is treachery and genetic misdeeds afoot.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom feels like a mash-up of two films. The first half speeds through the rescue and destruction of Isla Nublar (not really a secret as the marketing reveals this proudly). This segment has epic set pieces, but also suffers somewhat from its own propulsion, rushing through a setup to reach the big trailer moment (a T-Rex roaring in front of a backdrop of an erupting volcano). It is in the film's second half that film becomes an interesting prospect, with proceedings focusing in on a single location, reducing the threat to a new beasty. The film becomes positively gothic, highlighting director J.A. Bayona's horror roots (his debut was the sublime The Orphanage).

In fact, a lot of where this film works is in how Bayona frames proceedings. He shows a greater awareness of how to build up an atmosphere, with several scenes standing out and touching the original film for tension. I particularly loved the opening scene, which proved an exciting, engaging, funny, and deliciously horrid way to begin the film. Where the film is let down is in a questionable script that clunks when it should flow, gets bogged down in exposition when it should be light and propel the film forward.

The cast is fine, with Chris Pratt charming his way through his scenes and Bryce Dallas Howard having a smidge more to do this time. I quite enjoyed the presence of new sidekicks Justice Smith and Daniella Pineda, and there is good villainy from Toby Jones and Ted Levine. But none of these new inclusions have much that rises beyond a few brief character notes. I still can't quite work out what is going on with turtleneck wearing 'scientist' BD Wong, and the less said of Jeff Goldblum's brief appearance the better. Goldblum's role here has been misleadingly hyped in the press in a not dissimilar fashion to Bryan Cranston's in Godzilla. If you are expecting a lot of Goldblum, his role is reduced to a singular scene. The real standout here is Isabella Sermon as a young girl whom Owen and Claire have to save in the film's second half. She is a light, charming presence, and plays the more horror-tinged moments well.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is a ridiculous prospect with the kind of science that feels, at best, muddled. But it is also a hoot, improving on previous sequels without touching the original. Director Bayona is a welcome addition to the franchise and the film is at its best when his voice comes through, with tinges of the gothic horror a Jurassic Park could become.

Birds are descended from dinosaurs. Proof is in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Not from any feather-in-amber evidence, but from the ‘dino a dino’ fight on the roof of a stately home. You know how it is when you’re trying to sleep and two crows are making a racket above your bedroom. It’s a shame that the Jurassic franchise should come to this: a fallen kingdom indeed.

A few years after Jurassic World (2015) a volcano is about to devastate the Jurassic theme park island of Isla Nublar making dinosaurs extinct yet again. Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) wants to return to the island on a rescue mission to save as many species as possible. Money man Eli Mills (Rafe Spall) offers to fund her scientific venture and, as she’s obviously never seen King Kong, she’s soon on her way with a tooled-up gang of dodgy-looking heavies. But not before she’s persuaded her former amour Owen Mills (Chris Pratt), a buccaneer with a heart of gold, to return with them. As the island goes bang, and the duo seeks to save Blue, their raptor from Jurassic World, Mills’ evil mission is revealed. But can he be stopped?

Spanish director J.A. Bayona comes to Fallen Kingdom from the critically acclaimed A Monster Calls and The Orphanage, a fantasy and a horror movie, both artfully and thoughtfully done. Maybe executive producer Steven Spielberg thought the director could bring a fresh perspective to the franchise. In fact, he does anything but. Fair play, the lush landscapes of Isla Nublar are ravishing, and the eruption of the volcano is breathtaking. The stampede for the dockside is edge-of-the-seat stuff. And the image of a forlorn dinosaur fatally engulfed in clouds of volcanic smoke is genuinely affecting. It’s a beautifully judged moment, showing flashes of the director’s better self.

Alas most of Fallen Kingdom is by-the-numbers, at best. 'Let’s make it seem like Jurassic Park', they must have said. A cameo, then, for Jeff Goldblum. Oh, and it worked when we had a grey-haired patriarch figure: Richard Attenborough’s park-creator John Hammond died a few films back, so let’s have James Cromwell, inheritor of Hammond’s legacy. We need kids though – so better have one of those (in fact a rather excellent Isabella Sermon). And someone for the young adults to root for as well as Claire and Owen for the mums and dads. And villains – the sort of people who would sell dinosaurs for military purposes.

The action though? On the island, fantastic. But soon as the creatures are shipped back to the US mainland, locked in the fortified basement of a stately home, the film’s kinetic possibilities shrink drastically. That was the hook of Fallen Kingdom: we’ve been on the island, now let them come to us. But here too, the film falls into Jurassic clichés. At the end of Jurassic Park, Spielberg has his T-Rex roar like the devil, as streamers and banners fall around its head: it’s a funny, knowing and cathartic moment that sends you out in a haze of joy. Here, Bayona’s dinosaurs do the signature roar thing every five minutes – once even against the moon. It’s as frequent as Chris Pratt’s signature look which the camera loves; the volcano’s not the only thing that smoulders.

But all these nods to the original serve only to remind you what you’re missing. Sure there’s a rollercoaster film going on. But it’s a fun-fair ride, not Alton Towers. A dinosaur belts hell for leather down a corridor; it swings off a roof and in through a window. Everyone remembers the hide-and-seek kitchen scene in Jurassic Park – tension, claustrophobia, giggling at the great game of it. In Fallen Kingdom it’s just plain ridiculous.

High points are Rafe Spall in a peach of a part. And the feisty, up-yours attitude of the young animal doctor Daniella Pineda. Great too, in their way, are the prosthetic teeth of Toby Jones, looking for all the world like the love-child of a velociraptor and a Weeble. The King Kong reboot, Kong Skull Island, was inflected with visionary brilliance and humour. An old story can be given new tricks. Sadly, on the basis of Bayona’s movie, the Jurassic franchise deserves to become extinct.