65 – Film Review

After a catastrophic crash on an unknown planet, pilot Mills quickly discovers he’s actually stranded on Earth — 65 million years ago. Now, with only one chance at a rescue, Mills and the only other survivor, Koa, must make their way across an unknown terrain riddled with dangerous prehistoric creatures.

When Scott Beck and Bryan Woods‘ 65 was announced, it was hard not to be excited. Seriously, who doesn’t want to see a movie in which Adam Driver walks around on a planet called Somaris sixty-five million years ago with a super crazy gun that he uses to hunt dinosaurs? That sounds like a recipe for an extremely fun summer blockbuster-style movie.

Unfortunately, though, 65 isn’t all that exciting or summer blockbuster-esque.  This is a gigantic missed opportunity that left me feeling like I had a massive hole in my heart by the time the end credits rolled. I absolutely love the Jurassic Park franchise, much like the rest of the world, and one of the reasons why those films are so popular are because of the characters and world-building, not just because of the dinosaurs.

If you were going into this movie expecting to get a legitimately intriguing story that has layers and characters that feel real and wholly-realized, then you’re going to be utterly disappointed. The only things we really learn about Driver’s character Mills is that he had a daughter that died at a young age due to a sickness and that he’s a pilot. That’s honestly pretty much it.

We learn even less about Ariana Greenblatt‘s Koa, sadly. We get to know that she has family somewhere out there that she is trying to find and that’s basically it. While you do find yourself rooting for Mills to find Koa’s family and bring her home, we don’t really get much in terms of development.

By far the best aspect of the entire movie, however, is the chemistry between Driver and Greenblatt. They have excellent on-screen presence together and they feel like they were perfectly cast in their respective roles. I just with they were given a lot more to do here.

If you go into 65 expecting to see a wildly chaotic dinosaur action-adventure science-fiction film, I wouldn’t blame you. Surprisingly though, we don’t even get to see too many dinosaurs in the movie. I counted just three scenes with dinosaurs in the entire movie, which is quite a shame. Even the scenes in which Driver is shooting down some prehistoric life, it doesn’t look all that impressive.

That’s not to say that this movie is awful, though, because it isn’t. There are fun moments sprinkled throughout 65 for sure, but I couldn’t help but find myself wanting a lot more out of this movie, especially considering just how extremely fun and entertaining the concept was. Maybe one day we’ll get a great Driver vs. Dinosaur movie. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait sixty-five million years to see it.

While Adam Driver and Ariana Greenblatt turn in strong performances, 65 is a disappointingly dull science-fiction action film devoid of any real excitement or depth.