65

Audiences may never have expected to see the words “Adam Driver” and “dinosaurs” in the same sentence before, let alone the same movie, but the newly-released sci-fi action blockbuster 65 made that strange pairing a reality. But, unfortunately, even Academy-Award nominee Drivers cannot save the film from being anything more than a forgettable, futuristic creature feature. Jurassic Park, this is not.

A Quiet Place writers and executive producers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods helm the picture for Sony, following Mills (Driver), an explorer from a distant planet who crash lands onto Earth—65 million years ago, ergo the title. There, he finds the only other survivor of his spaceship, a girl named Koa (Ariana Greenblatt). The two must reach a far-away escape vessel, a wildly simple objective, before being eaten by the contemporary inhabitants of the Cretaceous period: dinosaurs. The concept is hardly the most farfetched in the sci-fi genre and arguably original, but the core elements never reach perfect harmony.

Beck and Woods demand an unavoidable suspension of disbelief here, placing human beings into a universe some 60 million years before the known origins of humanity on Earth; that is easy to do considering the somewhat silly concept going into the movie. Expectations are that Driver will use his genuine Marine combat training to blast dinosaurs with advanced technology, and that does occur. Still, much of the film gets gummed up by the budding relationship between Mills and his new charge, which ultimately takes away from the elements that will bring prospective viewers to 65 in the first place.

Early on, the filmmakers reveal that Mills left behind a sick daughter that may have passed on during his mission, meaning that he will inevitably project his grief and fatherly instincts onto Koa. If done right, this development could be a welcome sidepiece to the somewhat tense dinosaur component, but it essentially feels like a way to pad time and generate something for the characters to do other than fight Earth’s ancient residents. So, despite their growing bond throughout the film, these two characters still feel incredibly one-dimensional, which not even Driver’s impressive acting chops can overcome.

Interspersed are moments of Mills and Koa encountering various dinosaurs and other weird Mesozoic creatures, which create some suspenseful moments. But, sadly, these moments are surprisingly rare until the film’s heart-pounding third act, which offers no objective complexity in its execution but remains entertaining nonetheless. The dinosaurs are computer-generated and on par with similar dinosaur VFX work not used in anything titled Jurassic Park/World. However, 65 excels in its nighttime scenes, where the eerie darkness obscures the CGI and introduces a far different level of tension and terror. It could be a more compelling thriller if the movie contained more of these scenes and kept the goofy daytime bonding moments and dino action to a minimum.

65 deserves some respect for being a straightforward genre film that sends its character on a “Point A to Point B” journey – increasingly uncommon in Hollywood filmmaking – and making it mostly work. The movie looks good, features strong performances, and even a subtly decent score, but it is not much more than the surface-level sum of its parts. Viewers anticipating sci-fi dinosaur action will be relatively satisfied but should anticipate a cliched side-plot between Mills and his non-English-speaking companion taking up a large chunk of the movie. Ultimately, 65 is a good weekend popcorn flick but needs more substance, whether in its intriguing concept or the characters, to separate it from similar projects.