Review of 65 (2023) by Rebecca31 — 14 Mar 2023

Pilot Mills (Adam Driver) is one of only two survivors after a catastrophic crash on an unknown planet. Mills and Koa (Ariana Greenblatt) must make their way through this dangerous planet and the fight for survival begins.

The dinosaurs market for the big screen is severely lacking, so when I saw the trailer for Adam Driver vs a bunch of scary dinosaurs on earth 65 million years ago that's all I needed, I was in. Even the very mixed reviews wasn't enough to put me off. And although 65 isn't quite as bad as some of the overly harsh reviews, it does still feel like a missed opportunity. And stamping "from the writers of "A Quiet Place" onto the poster isn't fooling anyone. 65 comes nowhere near the suspense and tension of A Quiet Place.

65 avoids using dinosaurs we're used to seeing in the Jurassic Park movies which was probably a wise decision as otherwise we couldn't help compare them. The story itself takes a while to get going with all the setup somehow feeling both rushed and dragged out at the same time. Not quite sure how they managed that but sure here we are. There's some strange jumps between scenes early on that feels like scenes were deleted altogether. Either way it takes a bit for the fight for survival to kick in. Once it does it's entertaining in the moment, but it's nothing special and honestly not as great as the trailer made it seem.

The fact that there's such a small cast in a fight for survival across dangerous terrain storyline means there's no surprises in store. There's also quite a lot of flashbacks and scenes reminding Adam Driver's character of his family etc. which is all trying desperately to get an emotional response from the audience but none of that was really achieving anything. The dinosaurs themselves are scary, no holding up your little hand in front of them to stop them trying to eat you. There's some good scenes eventually, even if moments were already spoiled by it's own trailer. The best thing about it was probably the last 20 minutes, it's got a good third act but takes a while to get there.

65 should have been better and I'm not even going to mention how bad the title is. Overall there's the feeling that something was missing here and it's not the most jaw-droppingly memorable movie you'll see all year. It's fine, nothing amazing but you could do much worse. Yeah I'm looking at you Jurassic World: Dominion. Recommended for anyone looking for a short "entertaining in the moment" kind of movie, and it will probably entertain the kids for a couple of hours.