It is 1982 and fledgling novelist Denise Platt (Anne Hathaway) lives with her husband Greg (Ewan McGregor) and their children Audrey (Maisy Stella) and Brian (Christian Convoy) in the suburban town of Flowervale, Michigan. The marriage is strained, Denise is thinking of divorce, and Greg has lost his good job and is secretly delivering pizzas for cash. (Sounds pretty Spielbergian so far.)
One day, Denise photographs a mysterious plant that appears in a neighbor's yard. The town librarian, Mrs. Valcourt (Emily Kuroda) says the plant went extinct millions of years ago. Then a huge pile of excrement appears in the yard of their unlikable neighbor Mel Jacobs (P.J. Byrne) who is angry about it. Then a white light engulfs Oak Street, the atmospheric pressure changes, and the local power and water cut off.
In the morning, Denise and Greg go out in search of their dog Starbuck, who has disappeared, and discover that the place is surrounded a prehistoric landscape from which dinosaurs emerge and start killing the neighbors. The family boards up the windows and Audrey thinks the flashes of light were wormholes that transported the neighborhood millions of years into the past. I hate it when that happens. I'm going to stop the dumb jokes now and discuss the movie, which somehow manages to carry this stuff off. Throughout the movie, you see people in being chased and caught by critters, and the critters are quite good.
Greg knows Denise is contemplating divorce and he tells her he lost his job. Brian sees Starbuck outside and goes out to get him, with Audrey. They find Jeanette Christiansen (Jordan Alexa Davis) a neighborhood girl who has lost her parents. Brian has a crush on her but in fact she's more attracted to his sister. Denise and Greg, searching for their children, see a flash of light and find a house with a glowing sphere inside. They think they can return to the future with it and go looking for their children. The wormhole disappears but they hope it will come back.
The next morning, they are attacked by an Allosaurus. Greg is killed protecting the others, who escape. Devastated, they find the wormhole again above Mrs. Valcourt's house and reach the roof. It seems the wormhole appears and disappears at regular intervals. Jennifer jumps in and disappears, but when Brian tries, he falls. A pterosaur grabs him, but Starbuck appears and saves him. They try to hide inside Mrs. Valcourt's house, but it is infested with creatures. Mrs. Valcourt kills one but is overwhelmed. But on the roof, they manage to jump into the wormhole and return to 1982.
They arrive 20 minutes before Oak Street is teleported away. Denise warns Oak Street residents to leave before the white light appears. She calls Greg and orders a pizza delivery at the phone booth. When he arrives, he is embraced by Denise and the kids. They see the light and watch the neighborhood below disappear. Two years later, scientists and the military are in charge. Denise writes a book about it all.
The film was written, produced, and directed by David Robert Mitchell. It has positive reviews from critics and made a lot of money. J.J. Abrams and Hannah Minghella produced it for Bad Robot. It was filmed in London and in a number of small streets in Atlanta, Georgia. The Michael Ghiacchino score reminds you of John Williams. Some criticized the movie for being too Spielbergian, but frankly, I'll take Spielbergian anytime. It's hard to say how you can make a good dinosaur movie without thinking of him. You create some likeable characters and find likeable actors to play them, put them through special effects Hell for two hours, and write a happy ending. People will come.