Jurassic World (12A) ***

Are giant mutant dinosaurs and Chris Pratt on a motorbike enough to please a summer blockbuster audience? I think so –  but it's a shame Jurassic World doesn't strike for a little more inventiveness. 

Still if you can leave aside the cardboard cut-out characters and lap up the action and visual effects, this has much to recommend it. 

Credit, too, to Colin Trevorrow and his team for giving us a monster movie that delivers plenty of frights and carnage. In that regard the movie may be unsuitable for younger or more timid children. 

The movie opens with two young brothers on their first trip to the massive island resort that is the Jurassic World theme park. They're on the trip thanks to their aunt (Bryce Dallas Howard) who has a high-powered job in the resort. 

She's part of a team that has genetically engineered these creatures to bring them back to life. But with demand for scarier bigger creatures high, they have also dabbled in a new breed containing the DNA of lots of different creatures. Now that's not going to end well. 

Chris Pratt equips himself well despite being underused as a keeper who has a personal relationship with the dinosaurs. 

There are all sorts of cool visual creations, like a bubble car in which visitors can visit the park. But it's the creatures that are worth your admission fee – big, violent, and properly scary. 

It doesn't stand up to the original film, but Jurassic World delivers on the action and fright fronts.

Let Us Prey (18) ***

There are even more frights in this nifty Irish horror co-production set in a Scottish town. 

First-time director Brian O'Malley shows he has a great eye in this gothic feature debut, though the film's uneven storytelling sometimes thwarts the onscreen action. 

Centred around the mostly unhappy group of constables who staff a local police station, the film tells the story of one batty night where the crooked and the corrupt come to town. 

British actress Pollyanna McIntosh is very good as a rookie policewoman who witnesses a boy racer hit a mysterious policeman (Liam Cunningham) who promptly disappears. 

It’s the beginning of a busy night at the station - a couple of crooks have already been locked up.  And when the strange Cunningham shows up, things get properly freaky. 

The plotting’s a bit shabby – or perhaps just too ambitious – but the movie certainly delivers on the gore front as various characters get their comeuppance in ways that will thrill and spook fans of horror movies.