The “Jurassic” movie franchise hasn’t exactly given us a lot of time to miss it.

“Jurassic World Rebirth” stomps into theaters this week, arriving on the big heels of 2022’s “Jurassic World Dominion.”

The latter, a guilty pleasure if ever there was one, served as a conclusion to the trilogy begun with 2015’s “Jurassic World” and, given its inclusion of major players from the movie that started it all, 1993’s “Jurassic Park,” played like a thanks-for-the-memories celebration of the entire franchise.

That’s not to say we thought we’d never again see a big-screen affair with “Jurassic” in the title — we’re not that naive — but three years isn’t exactly enough time for the heart to have grown all that much fonder.

Of course, you understand why the studio behind the films, Universal Pictures, would be happy to jump right back into the dino game given the successes of the earlier entries — each of the ‘World” flicks surpassed $1 billion at the global box office.

And you can’t exactly blame prolific screenwriter David Koepp, who co-wrote “Jurassic Park,” for getting excited when he got a call from that film’s acclaimed director, Steven Spielberg, who wanted to chat about ideas for a seventh film.

It is not Spielberg directing “Rebirth” from Koepp’s screenplay but instead Gareth Edwards, who counts 2014’s “Godzilla” among his credits and has spent time in a galaxy far, far away. (However, the picture of exactly how much of the directorial credit he deserves for 2016’s “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” remains muddy all these years later).

Edwards and Koepp (“Spider-Man,” “Black Bag”) have delivered a competently and even frequently thrilling adventure, but one that lacks a compelling story and boasts only run-of-the-mill characters.

At its best, “Rebirth” is an homage to movies including Spielberg’s just-turned-50 classic “Jaws,” “Alien” and the “Godzilla” series.

Set 32 years after human shenanigans led to the return of dinosaurs to the planet and five years after the events of “Dominion,” the new movie throws together a bunch of fresh faces.

For starters, there’s Scarlett Johansson’s Zora Bennett, a covert operations expert; her pal and boat captain Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali); a paleontologist, Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey of “Bridgerton”), who’s, like, bummed out by the recent waning of the public’s interest in dinosaurs; and Rupert Friend’s Martin Krebs, who represents Big Pharma and has put the team together to capture DNA from three large dinosaur species to create a powerful, and no doubt prohibitively expensive, drug to treat cardiac disease.

Along their way to a tropical island — finding most of the earth inhospitable, dinosaurs have congregated along the equator, where humans are barred from traveling — the crew rescues a family whose boat runs afoul of prehistoric aquatic creatures. Ruben (an enjoyable Manuel Garcia-Rulfo of “The Lincoln Lawyer”) had been desperate to spend some quality time with his young daughter, Isabella (Audrina Miranda) and her big sister, the college-bound Teresa (Luna Blaise). Ruben’s biggest problem is no longer the laziness of Teresa’s regularly shirtless boyfriend, Xavier (David Iacono), who’s also along for the adventure at sea.

After a pulse-raising sequence that sees Duncan get his boat and … most of her passengers to the island, we mainly spend time with the groups split up on land. It is home to a research facility where, years ago, work was conducted to cross-breed creatures in the name of keeping the attraction appealing. One of those creations is, of course, the film’s big bad, and it is very big, very bad and very ugly.

Spending time with the characters before they reconvene for the intense final several minutes is fine but nothing special. Isabella befriends a tiny creature, “Delores,” which leads to some cute moments, but an apparent attraction between Zora and Henry never rises above a little light flirting, a questionable choice by Koepp and Edwards. Some romance may have gone a long way here.

Perhaps that’s being saved for a potential sequel, which feels like a near certainty if this movie, too, performs well at the box office. Still, given how much this film, despite being titled "Rebirth," feels mostly like a reheating of familiar fare, we can’t say we’re left craving another adventure with Zora, Henry and the rest.

Who knows, though? Perhaps after a few more years, their absences will have made the heart grow fonder.

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'JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH'

2.5 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: PG-13 (for intense sequences of violence/action, bloody images, some suggestive references, language and a drug reference)

Running time: 2:14

How to watch: In theaters July 2

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