*Spoilers ahead*
As a major dinosaur fan, I’m always thrilled when I know a new dino movie is coming out. I don’t usually watch movie trailers because I believe they spoil you big time, but I stumbled upon the trailer for The End of Oak Street and was very excited by the concept. Suddenly discovering your entire neighborhood has been transported to a time in which dinosaurs are alive? Sign me up!
The truth is that by the end of the film, I don’t think I’d like to come across those dinosaurs. I’d rather have to run away from the T-Rex in Jurassic Park (1993) for the rest of my life than have to meet those dinosaurs. Nothing against them, but they don’t seem appealing. They are not the kind of dinosaurs you’d like to meet. Because even if the chances are that the velociraptors would kill you, you’d absolutely want to meet Jurassic World’s Blue. But these dinosaurs? Hell no.
Truthfully, The End of Oak Street has so many moments that could have been deleted in editing. Moments that make you wonder what Mitchell was thinking about when creating this story. For starters, we absolutely do not need to see the dinosaurs having sex. I doubt most people watching the well-known dinosaur movies were wondering how that happened. But it’s even more unnecessary to decide that this is the moment when Denise (Anne Hathaway, Interstellar) wants to take a photo of Greg (Ewan McGregor, Trainspotting). Everyone is dying around us, but let’s stop, laugh, and take a photo with the dinosaurs having sex against our dead neighbors’ house.
Another moment that makes you think "Huh? Why?" is when we see them running through the streets and two dinosaurs (seemingly Brontosaurus) are eating from the trees. We see one of them eating and simultaneously pooping. Is this really necessary? This doesn’t add anything to the movie's plot; it feels disgusting and further pushes us to wonder what the entire point of the movie is.
But something that feels completely unnecessary is Jeannette's (Jordan Alexa Davis, Defending Jacob) presence. Her appearance adds nothing significant to the movie. It seems her character was added for two reasons. The first one is to add a sprinkle of diversity to a mostly white cast. The second one is to add an LGBTQIA storyline… and let’s be honest, not even that is handled the way it should be.
Greg’s death seems to have been a choice made for the purpose of adding more violence to the storyline. It doesn’t help the characters grow, change, or evolve at all. And, if we’re honest, we don’t even feel sad for his loss because he isn’t a likable character. We cannot deny McGregor’s talent, but from the beginning, Greg gives us creepy vibes. Therefore, his death means nothing to the audience.
Lastly, we can’t forget to note that the explanation for why this happened reads like a footnote. We don’t leave the movie theater thinking we understand why this happened, what caused it, or how it could have been prevented. Everything feels messy. The characters mention it as a theory in the living room once, and then it’s dropped again. Seems on par for the entire film.
If you are thinking of watching The End of Oak Street because of the dinosaurs, don’t. If you are thinking of watching it because you want to watch every Hathaway movie of the year, leave it last. You won’t be missing anything if you wait for this movie to come out to stream…and that’s a lot coming from my big dinosaur fan heart.
The End of Oak Street is now playing in theatres.
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