65, 2023.
Written and Directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods.
Starring Adam Driver, Ariana Greenblatt, Chloe Coleman, Alexandra Shipp, and Nika King.
SYNOPSIS:
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 rescue, Mills and the only other survivor, Koa, must make their way across an unknown terrain riddled with dangerous prehistoric creatures in an epic fight to survive.
It’s practically impossible for a film not to have clichés. Everyone understands that. However, 65, the prehistoric survival thriller from A Quiet Place writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, seems to have been re-engineered by Sony or someone to have anything original about it and any semblance of world-building stripped out, hoping that a straightfaced Adam Driver as a transporter determined to protect a young girl speaking another language, the only cryo- stasis passenger that survived an asteroid sending his space vessel down to Earth circa 65,000,000 years ago (and just in case you never passed first grade, the opening credits make abundantly clear that’s what the title is referring to).
Astronaut Mills (Driver) has reluctantly accepted a job that will last roughly two years and keep him away from his terminally ill daughter Nevine (Chloe Coleman), but hopefully, provide them with enough financial compensation to get her life-changing treatment. Fortunately, Nevine does understand, although she comes to criticize his choice across a series of videos Mills receives throughout the trip, played in succession and montage form, getting sicker and missing her father more. That’s about as emotional as 65 gets.
65 is minimalistic and muted to a fault (I couldn’t tell you a damn thing about the planet Mills comes from or anything about these intergalactic civilizations dating that far back). Once he discovers that young Koa (Ariana Greenblatt) has survived the crash, 65 becomes a transparent parallel of a father compelled to protect a child when he couldn’t be there for his daughter. The filmmakers also don’t do nearly enough to develop any meaningful bond between his two characters, forcing them through a forest to reach a mountaintop where a working escape vessel might be.
One might also presume that the above is good because it would allow 65 to focus on the tantalizing prospect of Adam Driver mowing down dinosaurs with an energy-based space firearm, but even that is tedious and monotonous. From a design standpoint, nothing is especially intriguing about the forest; the smaller dinosaurs are poorly rendered during the daytime. As such, there is no suspense or intensity in watching Mills occasionally kill these creatures with one blast. Even during the climax, when it’s revealed that something big will happen (something you can probably guess from the movie’s title), there is still a lack of urgency and excitement.
There’s also the sense that Scott Beck and Bryan Woods are trying to create A Quiet Place but replaced with dinosaurs in a different setting. The silence aspect is still there, and, at one point, Mills grabs Koa and brings her down to the ground to hide in what looks like a shot-for-shot takeaway from that movie or homage. Then there’s the fact that 65 is a movie about dinosaurs that doesn’t know how to have any fun. It’s committed to a slow-burn style that doesn’t work when everything about the movie is a walking cliché.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
