65 is one of those films where you can almost imagine the filmmakers, Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, together, in a room throwing ideas around, fresh off the success of A Quiet Place, ready to bring a new, ambitious narrative to life. Almost like students at University, there’s a playful wonder, as you can’t help but admire their enthusiasm and sense of risk. Though with this particular story, it feels almost as though it was instead pitched by Brad Pitt’s Floyd in True Romance, in between hits of his bong. “How about… a spaceman crash lands into prehistoric Earth?”
That man in question is Mills (Adam Driver), who waves goodbye to his young daughter to set off on a mission into outer space, only to encounter a devastating collision meaning he has to crash land in an unknown planet. Until he soon realises, that planet is Earth, just 65 million years ago. Mills is not alone, there is another survivor in the form of the young Koa (Ariana Greenblatt), as the duo set off across a dangerous landscape to make their way to an escape pod, encountering a fair few dinosaurs along the way.
It’s a compelling, fascinating premise and has all the makings of a real classic, but there’s just something lacking in 65. For many film fans, you had them at Driver. For the rest, you had them at dinosaur. Yet it doesn’t truly feel like either Driver not the dinosaurs are used to their full potential. 65 is not a bad film by any means, it’s entertaining in parts, moving in others, but it’s lacking a certain spark that makes it memorable.
That said Driver is watchable, as always, and it feels like a star turn in the making for the young Greenblatt, but the narrative doesn’t give them enough to play with. The idea may grab you, but beyond the premise, 65 takes on the form of a conventional survival thriller, where the antagonists in question could be anything, from dinosaurs to aliens to human soldiers, as you just watch two people try and stay alive in a way that feels overly familiar. It’s a shame this be the case, because not many filmmakers have braved the prehistoric on film outside of the Jurassic franchise. Naturally Spielberg rules the roost and will be hard to catch, which could intimidate a fair few filmmakers and push them away from tackling the sub-genre, so it’s commendable to both Beck and Woods (who direct this too) delved into this tricky terrain. Which makes it all the more frustrating they didn’t do anything truly special with it.
However, you may have imagined 65 to potentially be a disaster, given it has been released with generally just a small amount of discourse or visibility, but in truth, the title seems reflective on what sort of mark you could give this film out of 100. In college or University, getting a 65 generally gets you a pass, but it isn’t worth calling home to tell mum about, which just about sums this up.
