Anne Hathaway's HBO Max Sci-Fi Thriller Is a Better Watch Than the Jurassic Park Franchise

In 1993, Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park changed movies forever. With the help of Industrial Lights & Magic and Stan Winston, Jurassic Park brought dinosaurs to life in a way never seen before. Throw in a great script and some compelling characters, and you have one of the most beloved movies ever made. The monstrous success of Jurassic Park led to a trilogy, then a modern update with the recent Jurassic World quadrilogy, but none of those movies could recapture what worked in the original — if anything, each sequel only got worse.

It took until 2026 for there to be another great dinosaur movie, with the release of The End of Oak Street. Now available on HBO Max, David Robert Mitchell's film works by remembering why we love those magnificent creatures so much in the first place.

The Jurassic World Franchise Jumped the Shark With Bizarre Dinosaur Plots

The first Jurassic Park thrilled moviegoers because of a simple premise: what if dinosaurs started eating people at a theme park? The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III were both disappointing because they were more of the same. While it was always fun to see Jeff Goldblum and Sam Neill on the big screen, the wow factor faded after the umpteenth T-Rex chase. It's the same reason why every Jaws sequel never had a chance once the cat was out of the bag.

After a 14-year hiatus, the franchise returned in 2015 as the rechristened Jurassic World. Although better than the last two Jurassic Park movies, the new entry got everyone's attention because of the notalgia factor, not because of stellar storytelling or amazing visuals. And when that made beaucoup bucks, it meant more and more sequels, with each having to up the ante to try and get audiences to care. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom struggled to entertain with a plot about dinos being sold to the military and monstrous hybrids that felt more silly than fun. In Jurassic World: Dominion, there was more silliness that even the reunion of the original Jurassic Park cast couldn't save us from. Jurassic World Rebirth tried to right the wrongs of the last two movies by focusing more on the dinosaurs, but with all the same predictable action horror beats, there was no reason to care.

'The End of Oak Street' Delivers the Goods With Its Realistic Monsters

The End of Oak Street succeeds right off the bat by not being a Jurassic World movie; its plot doesn't need to be confined to the world built in that franchise. David Robert Mitchell got to take what we love from that cinematic world (dino mayem!), and go in a wild new direction with it. Instead of humans going to the dinosaurs yet again, now they come to us, as a portal from millions of years in the past opens up in early 1980s suburbia. Such an intriguing idea could be built around the usual character tropes of Indiana Jones wannabees and scientists, but instead, as a way to ground such a fantastical plot, the story follows a family of four, led by the strained marriage of Greg (Ewan McGregor) and Denise (Anne Hathaway) Platt. And it turns out, a family trying to survive is all you need in order to be invested.

None of it works, however, without the dinosaurs. With a plethora of Jurassic Park and Jurassic World movies out there, how do you get audiences to notice? It's going to take more than just an original idea and compelling characters. So Mitchell does what he did so well with It Follows, a horror movie that hides its monster and slowly gives us more and more of the terror. In The End of Oak Street, the director makes dinosaurs scary again by hiding them for as long as possible. We know what dinosaurs look like and we want to see them. But Mitchell won't let us, increasing the anticipation for as long as he can before he lets loose. When he does, The End of Oak Street doesn't show off some over-the-top hybrid. Instead, it delivers dinosaurs with feathers, like they're now thought to have really had. Keeping them realistic, there are even shots of dino sex or the creatures relieving themselves, in scenes that are funny while also genuine.

When The End of Oak Street does show the dinosaurs, it's immediately effective with the scenarios they're put in. Sure, there are going to be a lot of chase scenes; however, instead of being recycled winks to the past, the film relies on true horror, upping the fear as the humans hide from the monsters who want to eat them. When they attack, it's brutal and gory, in settings not seen before in the genre. One man is viciously attacked by flying beasts on his roof. Then comes the shocking moment when a main character is ripped apart in a front yard during the middle of the day. There is no putting these CGI creations in the dark and rain; Mitchell is confident enough to have them out in the open during the middle of the day, tearing down what should be the safety of suburbia.

It's impossible for The End of Oak Street not to feel nostalgic. Even if you've never seen Jurassic Park, you know about it, and you likely were once a child fascinated by dinosaurs. There's an established wonder few other creature features can pull off ready to go. The movie refuses to take that for granted. It pushes boundaries, taking the PG-13 rating right to the edge with dinosaurs that feel authentic. The Jurassic World movies forgot this. The End of Oak Street is built on it.