Verdict: four stars.

Dir: Colin Trevorrow

With: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Judy Greer

Runtime: 124 minutes

AT the start of Jurassic World, one character makes a bold declaration - no-one is impressed with dinosaurs any more. The filmmakers, Colin Trevorrow directing and Steven Spielberg executive producing, clearly considered this a declaration of war, because over the course of the next two hours they throw everything, including more than a few nods to the original 1993 movie, into making the beasts awesome again. Why mess with a winning formula after all?

Strictly speaking, Jurassic World is Jurassic Park 4 and follows the underwhelming Lost World of 1997 and Jurassic Park 3 of 2001. Really, it is more of a love letter to Jurassic Park, a movie that left even the most jaded of souls saucer-eyed with wonder. That first sight of the dinosaurs, sailing through the landscape like galleons. A T-Rex chasing a car in the manner of Jeremy Clarkson after a hapless producer. The tethered goat. The bouncing water. It was all there, and all breathtaking.

Cinemagoers of a certain age will find some of those wow moments reprised in Jurassic World, but perhaps the biggest kick of all will be seeing a whole new generation go googly-eyed over big lizards and giant, hairless chickens. No-one is impressed with dinosaurs any more? Let's see.

Jurassic World opens two decades after that original unpleasantness involving a T-Rex and mass carnage. The park is running like a well-oiled money-making machine. It even has a Starbucks, prompting one to imagine the velociraptors, having famously learned how to turn door handles, grabbing a skinny latte and surfing the net once all the visitors have gone home.

New owner Masrani (Irrfan Khan) thinks of himself as a conservationist as well as a businessman, so the park has a research side to it. It is the men and women in white coats who have come up with the park's new, genetically engineered attraction, the one that will have visitors flooding in again. Hark, is that a warning bell I hear?

Overseeing operations is park manager Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), a career woman from the tips of her immaculate bob to the sole of her designer heels. There to remind her that all this is founded on wild, unpredictable creatures is Owen (Chris Pratt), an ex-military man turned animal behaviourist.

Pratt's casting is a thing of beauty, with the Parks And Recreation actor doing for Jurassic World what he did for The Lego Movie and Guardians Of The Galaxy - giving the picture a heart, a head and lion-like courage in the action scenes. From laughs to frights, action to romance, he shows that he can do it all. Ditto Dallas Howard, only she, like Ginger Rogers to his Fred, gets to do it all in heels. Between them, the sparks and quips fly. Without them, the picture would not be half as good.

The plot, centred on two children lost in the park, has more than a whiff of deja vu about it. The same goes for some of the characters, including the boorish security chief (Vincent D'Onofrio), but there are a couple of bright new additions in Jake Johnson and Omar Sy (The Untouchables) to liven up the mix.

Let us face it, though. As impressive as Pratt and company are, what the audience has come to see are the dinosaurs. Twenty years on, with all the progress in special effects that brings, these look more amazing than ever, especially in 3D close up, and at times one feels close enough to smell their goaty breath. Trevorrow, helmer of the low-budget but highly inventive time-travel comedy Safety Not Guaranteed, knows how to use the creatures to best effect in the action scenes, providing plenty of heart-in-the-mouth moments besides some nifty, humorous twists.

All concerned bring a lot of love to proceedings, both for the original movie and for creature features from King Kong onwards. Perhaps the Jurassic series had to wait until the generation which first saw it grew older for there to be a fitting follow-up. Whatever the reason, the old magic is back.