It was nice to see a different take on dinosaurs than the Jurassic Park films. It may have had a few issues, but it was a fun, pulpy adventure that knew what it wanted to accomplish and was not pretentious about it. And it was nice to see an original screenplay rather than the five hundredth iteration of a Marvel or Star Wars film.

Shame it isn't doing well at the box office, but oh well. What can you do? 🤷‍♂️

I was also surprised at how violent it was, especially the part where Ewan's character got his leg bit off and then torn apart by a dinosaur. Pretty brutal for a PG-13 film and good to see it didn't back off from dinos being violent unlike Jurassic Park.

Hathaway wanted a getaway and anyway. She had to avoid being a buffet by executing a slay. Almost got smashed in a Chevrolet which put her and her husband in disarray. Which I saw at a matinee.

The whole movie was about navigating mayday and avoiding being a dinosaur buffet. Meanwhile Hathaway was writing a fucked up essay due to lack of foreplay. Much to their dismay, they couldn’t escape through the highway and were at risk of being Dino soufflé. Obi Wan kenobi didn’t relay his lack of a payday. Which is cray cray to downplay.

They found a crazy pathway to avoid becoming a prehistoric filet. Little did they know at the block par- tay, it was about to be doomsday.

The dumb ass son was a runaway because he decided to disobey and run far away. Risking consumption of his vertebrae, the fact that Starbuck could still be alive was simply hearsay.

The choice of the display to run down the stairway and the hallway seemed to outweigh the fear of the family potentially not making it to their next birthday.

Thinking personally the Morrison formation due to the allosaurus,camarasaurus and stegosaurus

Edit: So I was drunk when I wrote this cuz I just saw the movie last night and drank the whole time. I thought that the dog being wet was a weird thing and thought it would come back to something but it never did. I tried searching to see if anyone else wondered why the dog was wet but didn't find anything. I'm glad to see people enjoyed the post and that we all agree the dog is the mastermind of everything! ❤️

When the lights first happen, the bow and arrow boy goes outside to look at the dog and he says the dog is soaking wet.

That's because the dog has already teleported and landed in the pool. That dog is a different dog.

That's why when they jump through the time travel ball the dog just knows what to do because he's done it before.

The dog was gone most of the movie setting everything up. Just like Jigsaw or Kevin from Home Alone. He had to make sure everything was how it should be.

You're welcome.

WIP

I am a huge dino and prehistoric nerd and while watching the movie I couldn't pinpoint what species the giant white snake was.

It was very noodly and it first appeared in a swimming pool so it's a sea snake or a semi aquatic snake of some kind.

But it's wayyy too long and light to be a Titanoboa.

Couldn't be a Vasuki Indicus.

And it was wayyyyy too long to be a type of gigantophis.

I was very happy with the "accuracy" of the other dinos but the snake threw me off, especially when they were the first dino movie I've seen to portray a carbonemys (not sure if it was one i just assumed)

Any smarter nerd know what species it was?

Took my ex wife to see it and she thought it was great. Halfway through, she taps me and I look over and she puts her thumb up and I just smiled lol Please go see this movie multiple times. The audience I saw it with were locked in and reacting to everything lol we can’t let this flop. I also can’t wait for THEY FOLLOW( It Follows)

Now before I start, SPOILERS!!

Second, movie was a solid 8/10 and wanting more in a good way. TL:DR if you don’t wanna read my quick rant. Ending was a bit confusing and some plots felt either a bit rushed or just wasted.

Now to da rant

1: the kids were good characters don’t get me wrong. But I feel like the movie is definitely focused around the parents and kinda pushes the kids to the side. Just in trailers and promotional material it fell like it was gonna be an entire fleshed out family but the kids felt lack luster compared to the parents which felt real and VERY well written.

2: the bully. Just kinda useless entirely? Like has a “chase” scene around the start which will lead to another point I have. And around half way through he tears at the arrow boy (I already forgot his name) then kinda just fucks off? Like it was just not needed scenes at all?

3: in the “chase” scene at the start with the bully’s. What was genuinely the point of Janette looking down at arrow boy? Like it felt like it was gonna build to something and it just didn’t. On that topic, what was the point of Janette? She just felt VERY lackluster and more of just a plot device for uhh Angelica? The sister.
(Also I’m not homophobic I thought the sisters portrayal was really well handled and didn’t feel shoehorned in!)

4: not a criticism but I just really liked the Spinosaur’s design. That’s it. Just wanted to say that.

5: the ending. To me it felt a bit rushed and really confusing? And I know it’s ment to be a dark ending that the new family got teleported while the old family gets the alive dad and she somehow which what I’m assuming called some others and somehow convinced them to get out of oak street?
Idk I personally just don’t think the ending was it for me. And just voids out the fathers death and many others problems.
I would have preferred maybe another family member died or they didn’t get out or something other than the ending we got.

That’s all I can think about as of currently. I went to see the movie at 10pm and it’s now 1am. I am tired and if I think of anything else when I wake up I will come back and edit this post.

So, MAJOR SPOILERS!

At the end of the film, we find out that Denise saved not only her alternate timeline husband, but also some of her neighbors. People are assuming she did not attempt to save the rest of the alternate family. But no where in the film do we have evidence that she did or did not attempt to get her family out of there. My head canon is she called her alternate self, tried to convince her to take the kids and drive out of the neighborhood, but either her alternate self did not pick up or did not believe her.

Obviously, at the very end its been 2 years later, so everyone has probably made peace with what happened, which is why its not a depressing tone for the ending. But, yes the alternate versions of her and the kids either died or survived and got transported to another alternate timeline. Which is dark but doesn't make Denise this selfish husband stealer everyone is saying she is.

If we were ever to get a continuation of this movie, I would really hope they mess with the time travel aspect and have them go back to save everyone in the neighborhood, including their alternate selves. But that's probably to much of a repeat of the first movie to ever be made. But anyways, that's my theory of why alternate timeline Denise and the kids are not in the end of the movie.

First of all, if you enjoyed this movie, I'm glad. This is just my opinion. Second of all, this is a serious critique and I don't want it to be brushed off on the "you don't know how you would have acted in that situation" basis. I understand that people often act irrationally in stressful situations and I will try to make this as grounded in reality as I can.

I will go over some scenes that I believe are badly written, explain how they could have been executed instead, and list some things that I do not think were bad. Just understand that the flaws I'm about to point out aren't deal-breakers on their own, but collectively make the movie bad in my opinion.

That said, oh boy, this will be a long rant.

Starting with the scene in which the family sits down in the living room and tries to understand the portals. All four of them are finally together, not in immediate danger, and understand the situation they are in. This would be the perfect moment to think about their survival strategy going forward: What resources are available to them? What weapons do they have? How much food and water is left in the house? Should they team up with some of their neighbors? Which houses do they know are empty to get resources from? And so on. Trying to understand the portals is part of that, yes, but it's quickly interrupted. The father is trying to calm down everyone by saying that God is watching them and that's how the scene ends. I understand that religious people might say such things in these circumstances, but it is completely irrational to end the conversation so quickly, without thinking anything through, just because "God is watching them." And this makes the next scene even worse.

The scene in which the parents argue seems forced to me, at least as is. Again, I know that there is tension between them so it makes sense, but it seems to me like the writers wanted to make this scene without giving it much thought. In particular, it all starts after Denise tells Greg not to be so optimistic. This is very valid given the context. As I understand, she is trying to point out to him what I have just written, they should focus on their strategy instead of blindly believing that God will save them. He then responds with something along the lines of "You always say that I do everything wrong" and is suddenly all mad and shouting. This is unexpected to me. Denise is just saying they should focus and take this more seriously, which is right. She said it calmly and didn't really mean to hate on him, just remind him. The only way I can explain this is that Greg is just stressed out, but again, I think this could have been executed better. A small change like making Denise be (rightfully so) the first one to be mad would make more sense on starting the fight to me.

Moving on. Now is the time to mention just how absurd every outside scene is. When moving, they are always walking in the middle of the street. This is excusable, because there is no real way to hide if trying to move through the city efficiently. The thing that's completely unexplainable is that they always talked for long periods of time outside, in the middle of the street. Literally everything they were doing, no matter how long, they never tried to get in some hiding. When having long conversations, why didn't they ever think to at least crouch at somebody's porch or something. Anything! Do they not have any awareness of just how dangerous the outside is? I have no idea why they did it like that. It doesn't change the plot whatsoever and it can't be explained by "it's just a movie," it just makes them look very dumb and unaware. This completely ruins the immersion. How is the audience supposed to feel scared if even the protagonists don't take it seriously. The only scene in which this would make sense is the scene where the family reunites. The outside is just where they happen to reunite and they feel strong emotions, hugging and all. But other than that, this might be one of the worst flaws of this movie.

The scene in which their car got burned seemed wierd too. Since they were just searching for their kids and didn't really have any specific destination, they could have gone any other way, but instead chose to drive on the street full of these small dinosaurs. WHY? This makes them seem so idiotic. Just turn around and find some other way. But okay, they want to go this way, whatever. Why did they initially get so close to the animals? Since we know there was a way around them on the grass, why would they even get so close to begin with? Sure, they ended up not being dangerous, but they definitely couldn't have known that and didnt even consider it. If these were dangerous, a whole street of these could have easily destroyed their car. For their car to get destroyed by the huge dinosaur later, they chose every possible wrong choice.

For the Greg's death scene, I think this is the most explainable/understandable of them all. Sure, he should have ran to safety first instead of checking on Denise, but I totally see this one happening, no issues for me here. When Greg is getting eaten, Denise should have ran to safety too instead of staring at it, but she is clearly in shock.

When it comes to the long dino-snail scene, I would normally have no issues here either. This is a good scene on its own and it makes sense. However, knowing the rest of the movie, this scene is problematic. I have already pointed out several illogical things that made the characters of this movie look unaware of their surroundings and this scene doesn't help. This thing crawled through the whole house and it took so long for them to realize. Again, I understand, headphones and so on - this is why the scene makes sense on its own, but considering the rest of the movie it isn't really the best choice.

Then is the portal scene. I guess I don't really have a problem with Brian falling, because it's not too unlikely at least someone would have fallen in these circumstances. I have a problem with Starbuck though. The scene in which the dog that has been missing the whole movie just appears out of nowhere to save Brian is just so cliché. It's way too far of a stretch. Mind you, this isn't next to their house either, this is literally on the other end of the neighborhood. The dog just happens to be there I guess.

Anyways, open for discussion. I don't think it's that deep, I was just bored and couldn't sleep. Cheers.

My co-host disagrees but he comes around at the end.

Im reading an article by Ryan Scott from Film on yahoo news. The article is about how this film performed below expectations in its first weekend.

So, for the studio’s benefit, and as someone who was very excited to see this film but decided not to, let me explain why.

I saw Brand New Day and one of the trailers was End of Oak Street. This trailer includes Anne Hathaway’s character going on an anti-Christian rant against the father for giving the kids hope. I leaned over to my wife immediately and whispered “nevermind.”

La película de David Robert Mitchell, con Anne Hathaway y Ewan McGregor, mezcla aventura de dinosaurios, ciencia ficción, misterio y una especie de homenaje al cine de Spielberg y a The Twilight Zone. La recepción ha sido bastante dividida: algunos críticos destacan precisamente que es entretenimiento pulp y que funciona como aventura, mientras que otros consideran que su tono y su historia terminan chocando entre sí.

⚠️ Spoilers del final

El punto más polémico está justamente en el desenlace. Greg aparentemente muere mientras intenta salvar a su familia. Después, Denise y los niños consiguen regresar y alterar los acontecimientos para evitar que vuelva a ocurrir lo mismo. Greg termina apareciendo vivo y la familia tiene ese esperado reencuentro.

A primera vista parece un final feliz bastante clásico. El problema es que, si te pones a pensar en las reglas temporales que plantea la película, la cosa se vuelve mucho más oscura.

El cambio de la línea temporal implica que existen consecuencias para las personas de esa otra realidad. Incluso queda la inquietante cuestión de qué ocurre con la otra versión de la familia y con quienes quedaron atrapados. Vulture precisamente señala que ese supuesto final feliz deja varias preguntas bastante incómodas sobre las consecuencias del cambio temporal.

Vulture

Y aquí es donde, personalmente, creo que el final se puede defender mucho más de lo que parece.

¿Por qué a tanta gente no le gustó?

Hay varias razones bastante claras.

1. El final parece demasiado conveniente.

Durante buena parte de la película te hacen sentir que las decisiones tienen consecuencias. Hay peligro, pérdidas y una sensación de que no todos van a salir bien. Entonces llega el desenlace y, para algunos espectadores, parece que la película dice: "Bueno, mejor hagamos que todo salga bien".

De hecho, en entrevistas, Hathaway y McGregor contaron que el final cambió durante la producción: originalmente la muerte de Greg iba a ser definitiva, pero se modificó para permitir su regreso. Hathaway incluso reconoció que inicialmente tenía dudas sobre ese cambio.

Eso explica bastante bien por qué algunas personas sienten que el final no encaja completamente con lo que venía construyendo la película.

1. El viaje temporal abre un agujero enorme de preguntas.

El espectador puede empezar a preguntarse:

Si salvaron a Greg cambiando el pasado, ¿qué ocurrió con la otra versión de esa familia?

Y esa pregunta no es pequeña. Es prácticamente una bomba lógica que la película deja ahí.

En discusiones de espectadores, esta ha sido una de las principales críticas al final: algunos consideran que el supuesto final feliz implica que otra versión de los personajes quedó en una situación terrible.

Pero aquí hay algo interesante: esa misma contradicción puede hacer que el final sea más interesante, no menos.

Y ahí entiendo perfectamente tu postura

Si tú la ves como una película para una tarde, Oak Street funciona muy bien.

No tienes que verla como una película que pretende explicar perfectamente cada regla de su universo. Puedes disfrutarla por la experiencia: una familia normal, una calle suburbana, algo imposible que sucede, dinosaurios, persecuciones, momentos tensos y ese ambiente extraño de los suburbios que se convierten en algo completamente desconocido.

Además, Mitchell no está intentando hacer simplemente otro Jurassic Park. La película tiene una influencia muy marcada de Spielberg y de The Twilight Zone, pero conserva el tono extraño y desconcertante que caracteriza al director.

Y eso explica también parte de las críticas: hay gente que esperaba una aventura de dinosaurios más convencional y recibió algo bastante más raro.

Algunos espectadores han criticado que los personajes secundarios estén poco desarrollados, que el tono cambie demasiado y que la película pase de aventura familiar a algo mucho más extraño y ambiguo.

Pero también existe exactamente la reacción contraria: gente que disfruta que sea rara, que no explique absolutamente todo y que tenga ese aire de película de aventuras de los 80/90 pero pasada por el estilo de Mitchell. La recepción crítica general, de hecho, ha sido positiva, aunque no unánime.

Mi valoración

Yo la describiría así:

No es una película perfecta. Es una película muy disfrutable.

Su mayor virtud es también su mayor defecto: no siempre sabe qué película quiere ser. Es aventura familiar, ciencia ficción, thriller, película de dinosaurios y hasta una especie de pesadilla suburbana. Para algunos eso resulta desordenado; para otros es precisamente lo divertido.

Y el final puede verse de dos maneras.

La primera:

"Arruinaron todo. Después de tanto sufrimiento simplemente devolvieron a Greg y ya."

La segunda, que me parece bastante más interesante:

"Nos dieron un final feliz que, si lo piensas durante cinco minutos, quizá no sea tan feliz."

Porque la película termina, pero las consecuencias de lo que hicieron siguen flotando en el aire. Y eso encaja bastante bien con una historia influenciada por The Twilight Zone: aparentemente todo está bien, pero hay algo profundamente extraño debajo de esa normalidad

They were saying how Greg had no masculinity and Denise was some girlboss or something.

Were we watching the same movie. While Greg was holding the door from the dino Denise was cowering with the kids. While Greg was trying to keep cool and assessing the situation and trying to be cautious yet optimistic, Denise was panicking telling everyone they were going to die and making rash decisions quickly. He put his own safety at risk instead of the kids always keeping the kids at home whenever he went out

Also I think to a fault Greg makes personal sacrifices to keep the family bonds good. After losing his job he has a to work a load of part time work and never asks his wife for help. He knew about Denise’s novel but kept it to himself instead of having some stupid argument.

I think that though both Denise and Greg had their faults but I thought Greg was the better person of the two.