YMMV / Clash of the Dinosaurs

Tropes found in Clash

• Aluminum Christmas Trees: While the criticism for the UV-seeing Quetzalcoatlus is warranted (as there's no evidence of such a thing in the fossil record), some less science-minded folks tend to write it off as some fanciful, if not supernatural, creation of the writers with no basis in fact whatsoever. In fact, many birds can see in ultraviolet, and some hawks and falcons use this to track their prey.
• Narm: Deinonychus easily dispatching an adolescent Sauroposeidon in the show proper. At least Jurassic Fight Club had the decency to let the herbivores fight back, while here, they don't even do that.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: As mentioned on the main page, the show gained notoriety for quote-mining one of the experts. Whenever it's mentioned on internet forums, someone will bring up the quote-mining incident. It was so controversial it was seen as the death nail for prehistoric documentaries, at least till Prehistoric Planet revived the genre in 2022.
• Padding: See the entries for Stock Footage and Viewers Are Goldfish and you'll understand. Without these, the programs could each have been just half an hour long, or even shorter.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Even if you hate the clips for repeating so much, you have to admit: the effects are damn spectacular.

Tropes found in Last Day of the Dinosaurs

• Awesome Music: This doc has a really good soundtrack composed by Richard Blair Oliphant.
• Narm: While the film is overall very grim, realistic, and heartbreaking, it still has moments that will make you roll you're eyes.
  • Two dinky Saurornithoides bringing down and killing a gigantic Charonosaurus with ridiculous ease. It's so absurd, it borders on comical.
  • A trio of Charonosaurus and a pair of Sauronithoides being protected from broiling heat by the "micro-climate of a cave", even though they are at the entrance of said cave.
  • The tsunami scene, namely the death of the female Quetzalcoatlus (tries to fly away, only for the tsunami to engulf her with a comical "splat" sound effect).
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • What the meteor impact does to the unprotected dinosaurs. They catch fire, and their skin peels off. Doubles as Nausea Fuel.
  • Also, some of the gory fight scenes. Like the conclusion of the T. rex-Triceratops-Ankylosaurus clash, here the Rex gets impaled on a dead trike.
• Special Effects Failure: The CG environment of Mongolia is pretty fake looking.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: While not without its flaws, many agree that it's a much more enjoyable experience than its predecessor, due to providing a clear-cut narrative that emphasizes the dinosaurs' plight during the K-Pg extinction and the horrific nature of this catastrophic extinction event.
• Tear Jerker:
  • The Cretaceous extinction, and what happens to the surviving dinosaurs and pterosaurs as they slowly die out.
  • The survivors who end up as The Last of His Kind. A Charonosaurus leaving the safety of a cave to find that all of her herdmates are dead, the Saurornithoides who's left with no choice but to eat its fallen partner, the Quetzalcoatlus who lets out a mournful scream when she finds her mate dead, the Triceratops that had to watch as its herd is decimated by a tsunami...
• Woobie Species: The dinosaurs (and Quetzalcoatlus), after the meteorite impact. Last Day of the Dinosaurs pulls no punches as it shows off just how devastating it was and how much pain and agony these animals suffered in their final moments because of it.