65

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Radio across regional Victoria on March 16, 2023.

(M) ★★

Director:  Scott Beck and Bryan Woods.

Cast: Adam Driver, Ariana Greenblatt, Chloe Coleman, Nika King.

"I mean, yeah, I could walk on the dry bits, but that wouldn't look as cool, would it?"

Let's start with the obvious - 65 is a terrible name for this film. Just about anything else would be better. Adam Driver Vs The Dino-creatures would be better, and that's the dumbest name I can think of, yet it's still preferable to 65. I think more people would go see a movie called Adam Driver Vs The Dino-creatures than a movie called 65. Tell me I'm wrong.

What about Day Of The Dinosaurs? Dino Planet? Cretaceous World? The Lost Planet? No Way Home? Off World? Dinosaurs In Space? Cretaceous Crashlanding? Seriously, anything would have been better than 65.

Even 65 Million Years Ago would be better, although that particular title, as well as the film's promotional material, posters, trailers, tagline, and weird title screen 20 MINUTES INTO THE MOVIE deprive us of what could have been a great Planet Of The Apes-style twist. That twist - "It was Earth all along!" - surely would have attracted people to see this movie. Or at least attracted more people to see this movie than are currently seeing this movie (at last count it had made $22m worldwide against a budget (after tax rebates) of $45m).

The plot, in case you haven't figured it out from my ramblings, follows resourceful deep-space pilot Mills (Driver) and lone surviving passenger/plucky child Koa (Greenblatt) as they try to survive life on Earth 65 million years ago following a spaceship crash.

With man-eating dinosaurs at every turn, Mills and Koa must cross dangerous terrain to reach the other half of their ship, which contains an escape pod that will get them home. 

As at least one YouTube commenter noted, it's great to see a dino movie that's not part of the Jurassic Park franchise. And 65 isn't great, but at least it gets us back to dinosaurs being threatening and scary creatures - not trainable anti-heroes.

Its core premise is strong - Adam Driver vs The Dino-creatures - and those are the best bits, but the film is ultimately disappointing. There are some solid jump scares, the dinosaurs look excellent and dangerous, and the edge-of-your-seat elements are good, but the film falls down in just about every other department, including a sadly mis-cast Driver.

He is undeniably a great actor, and leverages every bit of his immense talent to try and save 65, but Driver's Mills comes across as uncharismatic and sullen. Moments where he tries to add depth are quickly brushed away in the editing, leaving his performance feeling unconvincing and out-of-place. The film really needed a hero to get behind, and Mills isn't it. His relationship with the kid falls flat, and the accumulation of close scrapes and narrow escapes can't get us to care more than a perfunctory amount.

An unnecessary introduction gets the film off to a slow start, and I know this shouldn't matter, but I can't recall another film that buries its title card so deep into a movie. It has to be at least 15 minutes in, although maybe the laboured beginning just made it feel that long. Also the title card is weird because it's not just the title but also tells us OMG THEY'RE ON EARTH 65 MILLION YEARS AGO.

65 is as disappointing and oddly misfiring as its title. Yeah, the dinosaurs are cool, but that's about it.