“65” Review
Adam Driver battles dinosaurs on prehistoric Earth in “65,” a film that sees Driver defend himself and a young survivor (Ariana Greenblatt) from the dangerous creatures.
The idea of Adam Driver fighting dinosaurs should be easy to make awesome. Who wouldn’t want to see Kylo Ren take on a T-Rex? Well, after watching “65,” I was once again faced with a truth of film watching: a good premise doesn’t equal a good film. Lacking intensity and investment, “65” was a hollow bore masquerading as action-filled spectacle.
Set before humanity’s existence millions of years ago, Adam Driver stars as Mills, a pilot of a humanoid alien race, who crashlands on prehistoric Earth when the transport ship he’s flying is struck by an asteroid. After finding the ship’s sole survivor, a girl named Koa (Ariana Greenblatt), Mills decides to take her to find a part of the wreckage that they can use to get back home. Along the way, they’ll have to fight the dangerous wildlife in an unforgiving world so they can get off of Earth before the asteroid that will cause the dinosaurs’ extinction hits the planet.
With a plot like this, this could make for either a fun action film or an intense science-fiction horror film. However, “65” just can’t decide what kind of story it wants to be. There’s no vigor to the action and the crash sequence that opens the film, which should show us what kind of film the audience is in for, is relentlessly underwhelming. It’s a shame, especially since Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the writers/directors, have worked on tightly-paced horror in the past, including writing “A Quiet Place.”
As for Adam Driver, an actor that I deeply admire for his captivating performances, his character is so uninteresting that I had to look up what he was called. The film starts out with a couple of minutes showing his life at home but that’s not enough to equal a developed character. I love Adam Driver and he’s doing his best but there’s just nothing to Mills. Instead of being set up within the first 10 minutes before the crash, we get much of his backstory through flashbacks. If his story was told in a linear fashion, I would have been far more concerned about him from the get-go.
While giving him a child to protect could create a good dynamic, like Din Djarin and Grogu in “The Mandalorian,” and Ariana Greenblatt is certainly giving all of her effort, the screenplay makes the mistake of having her not speak the same language as Mills. The idea of a language barrier could work, especially if a visual form of communication developed, but that communication never comes. So whenever there’s a heart-to-heart talk between the two of them, its value is diminished.
The action of “65” is one of the few engaging parts of the film with the dinosaurs being unmerciful obstacles for Mills and Koa. The effects are fine but I could have used some practical effects to help bring these creatures to life. Maybe I’m just greedy after being treated to “Jurassic Park.” As fun as the action sequences are, they are few and far between. The climax sees Mills take on two T-Rex dinosaurs but I was too bored to be amazed.
With long stretches of uninteresting character development and no action, the film’s pacing is its worst quality.“65” may be short at just 93 minutes but it felt so much longer. I wanted to see an enjoyable popcorn film but I was left with an emptiness that only comes from mind-numbing boredom.
