65 Review: This Adam Driver Sci-Fi Thriller Delivers On Dinosaur Scares (But Not Much Else)
The 2023 sci-fi thriller "65" is one of those non-stop, runaway-train action flicks that's best enjoyed with the lights turned low, the bass turned up, and your brain turned off. That might sound like a jab there at the end (and maybe on some level it is) but it would be remiss of me to characterize this particular film any other way. High-concept science fiction this is not. You will see the afterglow of smarter, better movies — a hint of "Minority Report" here, a glimmer of "Prometheus" there — but it doesn't really matter. This movie has set out to give you a survivalist spaceman Dad shooting dinosaurs to protect a surrogate daughter figure — and damn it, it delivers that in spades.
"65" is the brainchild of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods ("A Quiet Place"), who both wrote and directed. Sam Raimi serves as producer and, in some of the film's more gruesome moments, it shows. Adam Driver stars as Mills, a long-expedition space pilot who finds himself stranded on a mysterious planet 65 million years ago (Earth — the place we live!). Due to the crash landing, all the other passengers perished — or at least that's how it initially appears. At his lowest point, with no reason to go on, Mills discovers that one of the cryogenic pods is still functioning, and it contains a young girl, about 9 years old. This newly orphaned child, Koa (Ariana Greenblatt), gives Mills a newfound purpose in life. He seeks her out, and together, they struggle to get off that god-forsaken rock before the Cretaceous period abruptly ends.
65 is Dino-MITE....eor
Mills and Koa have found themselves in quite the pickle. Being stranded on an alien planet in an uncharted part of space that's months away from help ... not ideal. The creatures on this planet are extremely hostile, and there's a foreboding fiery glow in the sky. To make matters worse, Mills and Koa don't speak the same language, making communication very difficult. Luckily, Mills has experience with children and is pretty good with a gun. This comes in handy on account of the whole dinosaur thing.
The conflict in "65" is essentially "man versus nature," with "nature" in this case being distinctly prehistoric. There are dinosaurs aplenty, and unfortunately for our heroes, this particular area seems to be impossibly predator heavy; forget anything you know about trophic dynamics and population control — this forest is all-murder, all the time. I think we saw one small herd of herbivores briefly, as well as a flock of Quetzalcoatlus. Mostly, it was just wave after wave of terrifying beasts, ready to rip the flesh from Mills and Koa's bones. And not even for sustenance! Seemingly, for fun. Not since Barney has the blank stare of a T-Rex seemed so menacing.
Beck and Woods manage to imbue "65" with as much skin-crawling, uncomfortable phobia-bait as possible. It's not just the typical "scary predator" schtick either (although there is lots of that). This club has everything: claustrophobic spelunking scenes, near drownings in quicksand, bug stuff ... the list goes on. There is also a near-constant barrage of jump scares. I am not above admitting that I physically jolted in surprise more than once in my theater viewing — although I think this quality actually detracts from "65" a bit. I prefer my action a little less jarring, my thrills more suspense than offense, but that's just me.
A Quetzalcoatlus Place
"65" has enough to keep action and/or horror lovers at least mildly entertained. Driver is a fantastic actor, and he squeezes every ounce out of Mills' characterization. We get more depth, nuance, and pathos out of Driver's body language and glances than is in the actual script. Greenblatt is fine — she doesn't have a lot to do her other than "act scared." Unfortunately, Koa is just a thin character, so the actor doesn't have a lot to work with. She's also playing someone who is supposed to be 9 years old, but she's clearly a teenager, and she struggles to convincingly portray Koa's childishness.
This is a very bare-bones production in terms of cast, so the chemistry between Mills and Koa really needs to sell the story. Ultimately, it's a bit of a rehash of an already well-worn trope in 2023 — Hopper and Eleven in "Stranger Things" comes to mind especially — and Mills/Koa aren't nearly as appealing as most other father-figure/child pairings we've seen over the last few years. Driver and Greenblatt are both putting in the effort, but there's something that's just not connecting between them onscreen.
"65" mainly suffers from weak writing. Action movies don't need to be cranial to be fun, but there should be some stability in the plot. Beck and Woods really struggle to balance the tone, communicate character motivation, and generally craft a compelling story. If this was a video game, it would be fun to play through once. As a movie, it's passable. The special effects are pretty good, and the action is neat — but the story itself is woefully stale.
/Film Rating: 6 out of 10