Film Review: 65 (2023): Adam Driver Stars in an Intriguing Science Fiction Movie That is Light on Plot but Full of Dinosaurs

65 Review

65 (2023) Film Review, a movie written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods and starring Adam Driver, Ariana Greenblatt, Chloe Coleman, Nika King and Brian Dare.

Producer Sam Raimi helps bring an exciting, yet somewhat lackluster, science fiction action/adventure yarn to the screen with the new film, 65. Filmmakers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods do better directing this new movie than they did writing it. The script is basically enough for a movie half the running time of 65 but the creature effects are outstanding and save the movie from becoming a run-of-the-mill crash survivor picture. Adam Driver, the star, is always a compelling screen presence and his work in this movie is no exception.

The movie opens with Driver’s character Mills, an astronaut, setting out on an expedition that will leave his family behind for two years. Or so he thinks. We meet Mills’ daughter, Nevine (well played by Chloe Coleman) and her mom (Nika King). This family construct is seen having fun on the beach together but as Mills departs, Nevine’s life will never be the same in her father’s absence. Aboard the spaceship, Mills is seemingly on his way to accomplishing his scientific goals but soon an asteroid chunk hits the ship which crashes down in a jungle from 65 million years ago; hence the film’s title.

Mills teams up with a young female survivor, Koa (Ariana Greenblatt) who doesn’t speak English which makes communication between the two characters difficult. The first word she learns to say in English is the ‘S’ word as she repeats it after Mills gets into a sticky situation. A baby dinosaur is seen drowning in what appears to be some sort of quicksand and after our humans save the poor creature, it gets mauled by some other prehistoric animals. This is not the friendliest environment for our heroic characters to stay in for too long.

The plot of 65 basically surrounds the attempts by Mills and Koa to climb up a mountain and get to their ship so they can escape the dinosaur saturated location that they find themselves trapped in. There are a combination of scenes that involve daring escapes and, also, flashbacks to Mills’ daughter Nevine who Koa finds some footage of which makes Koa sad since Mills can’t see his daughter anymore.

There are some exciting scenes such as the one where Koa must save Mills from the quicksand that he gets stuck in. Mills is all the way head under when Koa finally lends him a hand, so to speak, and saves his life. These two characters create a memorable bond that is well portrayed in the movie.

The film’s concluding scenes definitely get the job done from an action standpoint but it feels at the end that there could have been at least five more minutes of movie to see what will happen next. Of course, the filmmakers probably believed they could milk a series out of this threadbare premise but judging from the movie’s brevity and lack of plot development, they may have a hard time continuing this story in a feature length follow-up film. Plus, the box-office prospects are only moderately good for this well made film that suffers from its lackluster plot.

Adam Driver has a heroic quality about him which makes his scenes in the movie relatable. Greenblatt is equally effective in her role that is limited because of her character’s inability to speak English. You still have plenty of dinosaur confrontations and nicely photographed scenes of the land our heroes occupy. The problem is the dinosaurs don’t have the distinct quality of the ones from the Jurassic Park films. However, the little dinosaurs do feel unique and are intriguing to watch despite the recycled feel of the bigger ones.

65 has some time-filler to make up for the plot’s lack of proper development. We get some nice interaction between Mills and Koa which humanizes the story as we soon realize that Koa is like the daughter he never had while Mills still yearns to see the real daughter he left behind. There are also nice scenes on the beach that show how Mills remembers his daughter and they add dimensions to the film which help make up a bit for the lack of story line here.

In the end, 65 could have been a lot worse than it was but it also could have been a lot better. With a stronger plot and more thoughtful action scenes in the middle, this could have been a major contender at the box-office. As it is now, it’s OK but the ending is sure to have audiences wanting more. Audiences shouldn’t have to wait for a sequel to get the resolve of the story they paid to see which makes the ending feel a bit disappointing. There are still some nice dinosaur attacks for fans of prehistoric films who may really like 65.

Rating: 6.5/10

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