To be clear, “Jurassic World,” for all its box office glory, paled in comparison to Steven Spielberg’s 1993 masterpiece that set this whole franchise in motion. When “World” rebooted the dormant world, it did so without much creativity, relying on hokey more than thrilling, formulaic in place of clever. At least “Fallen Kingdom” goes its own way, despite its many, many hiccups at every turn.

Owen (Chris Pratt) comes between a T. rex and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) and Franklin (Justice Smith) in “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” the latest installment of the dinosaur saga. (photo © Universal Pictures/courtesy of Universal Studios and Amblin Entertainment, Inc. and Legendary Pictures Productions, LLC)

The once thriving Jurassic World attraction that introduced the world to animals “65 million years in the making” has remained vacant of guests following a parkwide animal breakout. Humanity seemed fine to leave them be, but a volcano on the island threatens to send the dinosaurs back to the stone age. Animal preservationists like Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), once an employee of the park, want world leaders to step in and save the creatures. They’re the last of their kind, after all.

One rich man comes to the rescue: Benjamin Lockwood (James Cromwell), former partner of John Hammond, who brought Jurassic Park to life in the original films. Lockwood hopes to save as many species as possible and relocate them to an isolated island free of human interference. Too bad his estate manager Eli Mills (Rafe Spall) has different plans for the dinos.

After conning Claire, wearing appropriate footwear this time around, and ex-boyfriend/velociraptor whisperer Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) into aiding the rescue and acquiring Blue, the last raptor in the world, the remainder of the film revolves around thwarting a black market sale. Apparently escaping a volcano isn’t enough. A “Jurassic” film always needs obnoxious opportunists.

“World” set new records, grossing $1.6 billion worldwide, and despite negative early reviews, “Fallen Kingdom” is still on track to pass $1 billion in a week or so. In the ways that matter to Universal, it’s already a success. But it could’ve been more than a cash grab. From Eli Mills to mercenary Ken Wheatley (Ted Levine), who of course takes dino teeth as trophies from helpless animals, the human characters are so phoned in. And dino-villain, another genetically modified terror, appears far too late in the film.

Not even Pratt or Howard’s characters have much to do. Their previous chemistry neutered, the pair spend the entire film focused on the mission, only a couple lines of a witty banter peppered throughout. Where’s the fun? And newbie Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon in her first feature film), who fills this entry’s child character quota, has an outlandish backstory that nearly jumps the shark considering how little lip service it receives.

For all its absurdities, at least “Fallen Kingdom” reprises something lost in “Jurassic World”: suspense. Rather than spend all screen time with a slew of CGI-laden sequences more interested in destruction (don’t worry, plenty of those occur), director J.A. Bayona (“The Orphanage,” “A Monster Calls”) puts his horror chops to work. He doesn’t quite recapture the kitchen scene in “Jurassic Park,” but at least the daughter of Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum, who cameos here as well), doesn’t use gymnastic moves to kick a raptor in the face (see “The Lost World” for that gem).

“Fallen Kingdom” burns down any previous boundaries limiting these films in the past. In theory, that’s a great idea: shatter audience expectations. Frankly, the next films could go completely dystopian, depicting a world near overrun by once extinct species, some folks living in harmony with the creatures, riding them like horses, while others declare war with pterodactyls controlled by drones.

We could actually get an armor-plated T-rex with machine guns mounted on the side. Why should “Transformers” have all the fun? It’s a shameless thought, but that’s what happens when a franchise refuses to die. Life finds a way, and the only way forward is something that keeps upping the stakes. So, here’s to a future Jurassic Mad Max adventure. Just stay away from water, that’s where Sharknados form.