65 (2023)

65 (2023)

 

3/10

Starring          

Adam Driver

Ariana Greenblatt

 

 

Directed by     Scott Beck and Bryan Woods

Contains Spoilers

Of all the paths this movie could have taken, I’m left wondering why it chose such a boring one. The movie isn’t hard to grasp, and the CGI is top-notch, but the story is just too dull for something with so much potential.

The idea that somewhere in the universe there are aliens who evolved to look like humans and have existed longer than humans themselves is fascinating. When they come to Earth, the concept alone sparks all kinds of possibilities—you can imagine paths similar to Superman or Star Wars. But this movie decides to go in a completely different direction: these aliens arrive on Earth 65 million years ago, during the age of dinosaurs.

Let me say that again: these aliens, who evolved to look like humans, crash-landed on a prehistoric Earth. With a setup like that, your sci-fi mind might naturally drift toward Star Wars, Star Trek, or even Kong: Skull Island—something where humans (or humanoids) interact with monsters in an unpredictable and thrilling way. But no, this movie takes a painfully straightforward route.

Instead of exploring something creative, the plot revolves around Mills running away from dinosaurs while trying to reach his escape pod with the only other survivor, Koa, a young girl. While watching, I could not believe that this movie just threw away one of the best setups for a classic. So, what you get is essentially two people running through the wilderness, being lucky on their journey, and killing dinosaurs left and right. It’s predictable and lacks any real sense of wonder or complexity.

The cast is also incredibly small, with only four characters in total. Two of them are barely shown for more than five minutes, leaving us with just Mills and Koa. Adam Driver’s character, Mills, is a pilot on a deep-space exploration mission, taking the job to earn money for his dying daughter. When his ship crashes on Earth, he and Koa, the only other survivor, must work together to escape.

Honestly, this movie comes close to being a B-movie, if not for the cast and the cost of production. Here is a movie, playing out before like a B-movie you’d expect to see airing on TV in the early morning—low-budget films that don’t try to be more than they are. But unlike those B-movies, this one got a theatrical release and an expensive CGI budget. And yet, I’ve seen better B-movies deliver more compelling stories with far less.