‘Jurassic World’ trailer: Be careful tinkering with that DNA

The first trailer for “Jurassic World” is here — two days early, it turns out — giving viewers a taste of the dinosaur-inflicted chaos to come in the fourth installment of the franchise that began with Steven Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park” in 1993.

Scheduled for release June 12 and set an apt 22 years after “Park,” the Colin Trevorrow-directed sequel takes place in a fully operational version of the dino-filled theme park that didn’t, er, quite pan out in the first three films.

At the center of “Jurassic World” is a plot that could be seen as a riff on the lurking dangers of what the filmmakers themselves are doing: tinkering with DNA.

In the film, Bryce Dallas Howard and her team of scientists have genetically engineered a new, no doubt bigger and badder breed of dinosaur to reinvigorate the now-humdrum park, the novelty of which has apparently worn thin.

“A whole new frontier has opened up,” she boasts in the trailer. But Chris Pratt — the park’s resident motorcycle-riding, leather-vested hero — isn’t so sure. “You just went and made a new dinosaur?” he says, Prattishly. “Probably not a good idea.”

From the looks of the trailer, it would seem he’s right, as the new dinosaur -- what else? -- gets loose and goes on a rampage.

Much like the scientists in the film, Trevorrow and company are taking the genetic material of a long-dormant behemoth (in this case, “Jurassic Park”) and endeavoring to make it relevant and entertaining by splicing in some modern updates (Pratt, Howard, more sophisticated visual effects, some winking homages, etc.).

That they seem to be cheekily acknowledging as much probably bodes well for the quality of the film. Here’s hoping the filmmakers have better luck out in the world than their counterparts on screen.

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