65 million years ago, Adam Driver roamed the Earth. Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the writers of A Quiet Place, wrote this sci-fi horror action thriller. This film follows Mills, a pilot who crashes on an unknown planet, which turns out to be Earth during the Cretaceous period. Armed with a set of futuristic weaponry, Mills must fend off the dinosaurs while bringing a young girl named Koa (Ariana Greenblatt) to safety. 65 squanders its unique concept on a bloated, pedestrian thriller with a thin script that never allows it to rise above the rest.
Steven Spielberg ruined movies. Once he made Jaws, no one could ever make a shark movie as good as this. And once he made Jurassic Park, nobody could ever make a dinosaur movie that could reach those levels of greatness. Kudos to Beck and Woods for trying because it’s not an easy task, but sadly the movie has to do more with its concept. Putting a human in a landscape filled with dinosaurs is a fun idea, but the film takes it and does the concept of “lone wolf and small”. Those who have followed The Last of Us are familiar with trained warriors bringing a young girl to safety, but this movie does it with dinos instead of zombies, without any quality.
Part of the reason it doesn’t work is that Driver and Greenblatt share little chemistry. Although the film gives them a few moments to bond, there is a language barrier between them and the film only sometimes allows them to communicate without words. Additionally, Driver has proven himself to be an excellent actor in previous films, bringing much of his intensity to this film. However, Driver fails to bring out his inner Schwarzenegger, with a movie concept similar to Predator but lacking the charisma to make a movie with that idea.
It’s fun to see Oscar-nominated Adam Driver show up for a B-action movie, but the movie takes itself too seriously to be fun. Some expositions are awkwardly given through title cards, and there’s a moment reminiscent of the scene in Interstellar where Matthew McConaughey watches clips of his kids growing up. However, 65 never captures the emotion of this scene, with its poor storytelling. The film has a few clockwork attempts, developed characters, and a goal they’re trying to achieve, but it could be more inventive. The contrast between futuristic technology and old-school dinos is a nice touch, but the weapons look more like regular weapons with cool lights rather than unique weapons we’ve never seen before in a movie.
Ultimately, 65 is a miss. The performances are good and there are some intense action moments, but the film doesn’t have much to offer beyond what you’re used to seeing in a creature feature. Suppose you are looking for a story along these lines. In that case, you better watch The Last of Us or Logan or Leon: The Professional because even though dinosaurs make fun movies, the airy runtime of this movie can’t stop it from being a thriller. without life.
RATING: 5/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 5 equates to “Poor”. The positives and negatives end up negating each other, making it a wash.