Everything here exists to serve the action, which is exciting, entertaining and very well-crafted. If it gets to be a little much by the end, well, thrill rides can be that way sometimes.

It wants to be a big fantasy action movie, with effects, larger than life heroes and pure evil villains. It also wants to be a sendup of exactly that kind of movie. It turns out that this combination does not work.

Bob Odenkirk is, of course, perfect for the material, bringing his dead-pan humor and amusing realism to a deadly situation. It is bloody and explosive, after a strangely slow setup.

I wondered when the joy of exploring Pandora would stop being enough. The answer turns out to be approximately 45 minutes into the third entry.

Does that faithfulness make for a better movie? It is certainly better made. However, I am not sure it is as entertaining.

It feels like every other PG-13 sci-fi/action blockbuster, with nothing all that interesting to distinguish it.

It is summer entertainment on a smaller scale and a fitting way to send us into the fall.

It isn’t a bad movie; it is well-made, with a decent pace and excellent production design. It is merely a perfunctory one.

It is competently made, decently paced and has a handful of effective action sequences. In short, it is the definition of okay. It will probably give audiences what they expect, if not what they’re hoping for.

I may forget it in a few days, yet I am not unhappy that I saw it.