movie review of 65

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You’d think a movie in which Adam Driver fights a bunch of dinosaurs couldn’t possibly be boring, but that’s exactly what “65” is.

This is a movie that would have benefitted from being a whole lot stupider. The big-budget sci-fi flick—which reportedly cost $91 million to make and was featured in a Super Bowl ad—should have embraced its inherent B-movie roots. Instead, it tries to juggle a wild survival story with a poignant family drama, but both elements feel so rushed and underdeveloped that neither ends up registering. There’s nothing to these characters, and the action sequences quickly grow repetitive and wearisome. There’s a jump scare, insistent notes from an overbearing score, some running and screaming, the gnashing of teeth, and maybe an injury before a narrow escape. Over and over and over again.

But the film from the writing-directing team of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods , whose credits include co-writing “ A Quiet Place ” with John Krasinski , offers an intriguingly contradictory premise. It takes place 65 million years ago, but suggests that futuristic civilizations existed back then on planets throughout the universe. On one of them, Driver stars as a space pilot named Mills. He’s about to embark on a two-year exploratory mission in order to afford medical treatment for his ailing daughter ( Chloe Coleman from “ My Spy ,” who’s featured in the film’s prelude and sporadic video snippets).

On the way to his destination, the ship Mills is flying enters an unexpected asteroid field, gets torn to shreds, and crashes. All of the passengers in cryogenic sleep are killed—except one, who just happens to be a girl around the same age as his daughter. Her name is Koa, and she’s played by Ariana Greenblatt . And the planet, which has swampy terrain reminiscent of Dagobah, just happens to be—wait for it—Earth.

“65” requires Mills and Koa to schlep from the wreckage to a mountaintop so they can commandeer the escape pod that’s perched there and fly out before dinosaurs can stomp and chomp on them. The creatures can be startling at times, but at other times they look so cheesy and fake, they’re like the animatronics you’d see at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant. And yet! It almost would have been better—or at least more entertaining—if “65” had leaned harder into that silliness if it had played with the basic ridiculousness of mixing complex technology with the Cretaceous period. They rarely use Mills’ advanced gadgets in any inspired ways within this prehistoric setting. The few attempts at humor fall flat—they mainly consist of Koa making fun of Mills for being uptight—and moments of peril wrap up too tidily for us to luxuriate in their anxiety.

Worst of all, Driver doesn’t get to ham it up nearly enough here. He’s an actor of great intensity, which can be both thrilling and amusing if he’s amping it up in a knowing way. Imagine him screaming “More!!!” as he’s blasting Luke Skywalker in “ Star Wars: The Last Jedi ,” or punching a wall during an argument in “ Marriage Story .” But the man he plays in “65” is blandly heroic and just seems generally annoyed. Greenblatt, meanwhile, does the best she can with a character we know absolutely nothing about. Koa speaks a language that’s not English, so most of her exchanges with Mills consist of mimicking the basic words he says to her, including “family.” There’s no real bond between them, but neither is there any sort of prickly tension since they’re stuck with each other. “The Last of Us,” this is not.

Beck and Woods offer some clever camerawork here and there, but also some erratic editing choices. And they borrow quite a bit from the “ Jurassic Park ” franchise: a giant footprint in the mud or a dinosaur’s yellow eye leering menacingly through a window. But maybe that’s inevitable at this point. Their film only gets truly enjoyably nutty toward the end, with its climactic combination of a sneaky quicksand patch, a ravenous Tyrannosaurus rex, a well-timed geyser eruption, and a catastrophic asteroid shower. But by then, it’s too late for us—and the planet.

Now in theaters.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Film Credits

Rated PG-13 for intense sci-fi action and peril, and brief bloody images.

Adam Driver as Mills

Ariana Greenblatt as Koa

Chloe Coleman as Nevine

Nika King as Alya

Bryan Woods

Cinematographer

Salvatore Totino
Chris Bacon

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‘65’ Review: What on Earth?

Millions of years ago, a guy from another planet landed on this one. Like most survivors, he had a moody little girl with him.

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In a film scene, a man and a young girl stand in a dense forest, looking worried.

By A.O. Scott

To paraphrase an old Monty Python sketch , nobody suspects the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction.

Certainly the poor dinosaurs didn’t, though for their more obsessive present-day human fans the fact that this movie is called “65” — as in million years ago — might count as a spoiler. When Mills the space pilot crash-lands on a muddy, reptile-infested Earth after his vessel is hit by an asteroid, you might have an inkling of the larger disaster in store.

I don’t mean the movie; that would be unkind. “65,” directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (two writers of the first “Quiet Place” film), is not interesting enough to be truly terrible or terrible enough to be halfway interesting. As Mills, Adam Driver does a lot of breathing and grunting as he runs a gantlet of familiar dangers. In addition to the T. rexes and other saurian menaces, he faces quicksand, large bugs, falling rocks, malfunctioning equipment and the withering judgment of a 9-year-old girl.

But let’s back up a second. Who are these people, and how did they get to our planet before (if I may quote the opening titles) “the advent of mankind”? The answer is that they belonged to an ancient extraterrestrial civilization, one sufficiently advanced to have invented not only space travel, but the usual array of futuristic sci-fi technology.

Their health care system was pretty bad, though. Mills’s adolescent daughter, Nevine (Chloe Coleman), suffers from a persistent, apparently life-threatening cough, and the only way he can afford her treatment is by taking on a high-paying “long-range exploratory mission.” He’s already grief-stricken when the asteroid hits, cleaving his spaceship in two and killing all of his cryogenically frozen passengers except one, a girl named Koa (Ariana Greenblatt).

The folks on their home planet, realistically enough, speak more than one language, so Koa and Mills — whose native idiom is English — can’t communicate very well. Also, he’s a grumpy, unhappy man and she’s a moody girl, so we’re on familiar survival-story terrain. “65” is a little like “ The Last of Us ,” but with dinosaurs instead of mushrooms and no obvious sociological theme that would sustain a think piece.

Which would be to its credit, if it managed to be a simple, effective action movie. Or science-fiction movie. Or scary movie. Or something. Like Mills’s emotional back story, the special effects seem to have been pulled out of a box of secondhand ideas. Nor is the execution all that impressive. There’s little in the way of awe, suspense or surprise. Just a quickly hatched plan to get off this God-forsaken planet and leave it to its fate.

65 Rated PG-13. Dinosaur blood and prehistoric curses. Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes. In theaters.

A.O. Scott is a co-chief film critic. He joined The Times in 2000 and has written for the Book Review and The New York Times Magazine. He is also the author of “Better Living Through Criticism.” More about A.O. Scott

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‘65’ Review: Adam Driver Battles Dinosaurs and Other Stone-Age Story Ideas in Derivative Thriller

'A Quiet Place' writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods direct a prehistoric adventure that feels like it's 65 million movies in the making.

By Todd Gilchrist

Todd Gilchrist

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Reviewed at Thalberg Screening Room, Los Angeles, March 9, 2023. MPA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 93 MIN.

Production: A Sony release of Columbia Pictures presentation of a Bron Creative, Raimi Prods., Beck Woods production. Producers: Sam Raimi, Deborah Liebling, Zainab Azizi, Scott Beck, Bryan Woods. Executive producers: Maryann Brandon, Doug Merrifield, Jason Cloth, Aaron L. Gilbert.
Crew: Directors, writers: Scott Beck & Bryan Woods. Camera: Salvatore Totino. Editors: Josh Schaeffer, Jane Tones. Music: Chris Bacon
With: Adam Driver, Ariana Greenblatt, Chloe Coleman.

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Adam Driver shoots a bunch of dinosaurs like any good father would.

Remember 2011’s Cowboys & Aliens ? 65 is a movie that dares to take that same simple idea of a kid smashing two of his favorite toys together and give us Space Dad & Dinosaurs, a breezy sci-fi survival mission that delivers what's on the tin and little more. Writers and directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods – who wrote the much fiercer invasion stunner A Quiet Place and pulled double duty on the gruesome yet underwhelming Halloween horror movie Haunt – emphasize ferocious special effects, a fast tempo, and adventurous tension. It’s a straightforward story of a man protecting a child that will someday fit well into syndicated Father's Day marathons on channels like TBS or TNT. Don't expect the next Jurassic Park or even Jurassic World . 65 pleases the most basic expectations, and that's good enough for the entertaining concept to survive for 90 minutes.

Beck and Woods favorably draw from ‘80s and ‘90s action movies centered around a hero whose family-driven motivations are more compelling than another cardboard action-hero cutout trying to beat a body count record. Adam Driver's space pilot Mills survives a white-knuckle crash landing filled with asteroid damage that drops him on Earth 65 million years ago, and it’s not long before dinosaurs start trying to take bites out of the stranded visitor. Adding Ariana Greenblatt's young survivor, Koa — who speaks a different language — creates a fatherhood instinct that drives Mills. Thanks to her, Driver gets to do more than shoot energy bullets at animated dinosaurs, which suits his flair for expressive facial reactions and outbursts. Koa needs Mills' tactical skills, Mills needs Koa's daughter representation, and 65 needs their parent-child dynamic to elevate even a single notch above point-and-shoot generics.

That father-daughter relationship acts like tossing some Hallmark warmth into a prehistoric episode of Survivor (...with futuristic tools [scratches head]). Driver's commitment as an overprotective caretaker shines, while Greenblatt's playful scamp can be a delight. The communication barrier between the two might not add much to the story, nor does their emotional journey go anywhere special, but Driver and Greenblatt mold a sweet relationship together that make it easy to root for Mills and Koa as they overcome separate familial subplots. It’s something like After Earth, but far better.

Visual effects supervisor Chris Harvey led efforts to present lifelike digital dinosaurs and gets plenty of credit for 65's success in that arena. Nothing here will beat the Tyrannosaurus rex or raptor animatronics from the original Jurassic Park (perhaps nothing ever will), but 65 delivers creatures big and small that appear pretty darn polished and worthy of a reported $90 million budget. Harvey's dinos favor menacing reptilian attributes like massive predators running on all fours, like a blend between a T-Rex and Komodo dragon — they're somehow more unsettling by resembling animals we see everyday. Driver and Greenblatt's chemistry when threatened by them sells everything from cautious wonder to fear-stricken danger, especially with some choice cinematography, like when a rainstorm lightning bolt reveals a massive T-rex-type outline behind our worried leads.

What's the best dinosaur movie WITHOUT "Jurassic" in the title?

65 isn’t a non-stop creature feature, though. Beck and Woods balance less-frequent dinosaur attacks with natural obstacles like cave-ins and quicksand, showing an environment where death is one wrong step away. Driver brings intensity, whether challenging razor-clawed predators or exhaustively chipping away at rocks to clear claustrophobic escape tunnels from dank caverns. 65 embraces the wildness of wilderness excursions, and while suspense might subside when dinos vanish for longer stretches of time, there's never too long to wait before Mills and Koa have to defend against another snarling adversary.

What 65 lacks is any ambition toward grander world-building. Beck and Woods' screenplay gives us a glimpse of an advanced cosmic race of humans that arose long before our own, complete with solve-all gadgets that can be too convenient for their own good and interstellar travel. Mills and Koa’s backstories are completely unexplored because 65 is dedicated to being a movie about fleeing from gaping dinosaur jaws and a quest to locate a lost escape pod – but the microscopic focus feels slight and unfulfilling given the setup. Mills' never-quite-emptied blaster (the fact that it recharges itself undermines a fair amount of survival tension) and their holographic GPS tracker are neat devices, but they beg for expanded lore about the people who built them.

65 Movie Photos

65 is a capable action-thriller with a softer side when it comes to its family-centered survival motivations. That doesn't negate the excitement when Adam Driver must square off with fearsome, great-looking dinosaurs. Writers and directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods don't overcomplicate 65 beyond acting on primal instincts, and while that leads to sci-fi storytelling that leaves so much unanswered intrigue on the table, they deliver respectable humans vs. beasts entertainment. 65 has a few oddly cruel moments that hit out of nowhere, which can throw off balance in a way that feels like a family-friendly The Land Before Time movie colliding with the feeding scene in Jurassic World, but it's also a competent 90-minute gauntlet where survivors race against time and extinct foes.

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Given they are the subject of the one-time biggest box-office hit in history ( Jurassic Park , naturally), it’s a wonder that Hollywood hasn’t embraced dinosaurs more. Bringing the wildest dreams of small children to life seems like an obvious win for blockbuster filmmakers looking for some paleontological pleasures at the picturehouse; special effects wizards like Ray Harryhausen and Phil Tippett once kept them alive in the cinematic imagination but these days, outside of the ongoing Jurassic series, big-screen dinosaurs are a rare beast.

Now, finally, comes this dino-disaster-movie from Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who have — as with their script for A Quiet Place — sketched another simple but effective sci-fi premise: what if a spaceman from another world crash-landed on our planet, 65 million years ago, at the tail end of the Cretaceous Period? It’s a basic idea which reframes dinosaurs not as the terrible lizards of wonder that captivated young minds in science classes, but deadly, terrifyingly unknown aliens.

This is a very straightforward, efficient kind of blockbuster. Following some rather gloopy exposition back on his home planet which establishes him as a stock-in-trade Sad Dad, Adam Driver ’s Mills crash lands on Earth within ten minutes. There is so little flab here, it is almost skeletal: not counting the prehistoric beasties, there are only four speaking roles, and one of them doesn’t even speak English. That would be Koa (Ariana Greenblatt), Mills’ fellow survivor, quickly taking the role of surrogate daughter for his real one, who is suffering from an unspecified illness (we’ll call it ‘Character Motivation Syndrome’).

65 breaks no new ground. But it is a short, sharp, largely original studio movie.

In the spaceman-falling-to-a-planet-that-turns-out-to-be-ours setup, there are faint echoes of Planet Of The Apes , but Beck and Woods aren’t especially interested in making any kind of satirical commentary on our world, past or present. Instead the film lurches into a lean genre exercise, a survivalist thriller that occasionally draws from the filmmakers’ horror background. The sheer hostility of prehistoric nature means peril is always lurking, the experience always at some degree of stress.

It plays more or less as you might expect: there are problems that require solving; there is a journey requiring the characters to get from A to B; there is, unhelpfully, the odd Tyrannosaurus rex in between those two points. The dinosaurs are fun and frightening (even if — sorry, paleontologists! — none of them have feathers here), and while plot holes loom like falling asteroids, it is at the very least handsomely presented, blending epic landscape cinematography — including lush location shooting in Louisiana's Kisatchie National Forest — with solid, subtle CGI.

It’s also bound together by a typically compelling Adam Driver performance. As he did in three Star Wars films , Driver brings a thoughtfulness to his genre character even when the screenplay doesn’t, a humanistic approach that grounds the bombastic silliness around him. He shares an easy warmth with Greenblatt, too, despite their characters speaking different languages, her character having hailed from the "upper territories" of their home planet. They commit, admirably, to the project at hand.

65 breaks no new cinematic ground, upends no rules, challenges no clichés. But it is a short, sharp, largely original major studio movie, unbound to any franchise or intellectual property — at a time when such a concept is being threatened with extinction. Also, it has a T-Rex in it. Sometimes, that’s enough.

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65 review: a simple, bare-bones sci-fi thriller

Adam Driver wears a futuristic spacesuit in 65.

“65 is a simple but effective sci-fi thriller that, thankfully, doesn't overstay its welcome.”

Adam Driver's committed lead performance
A lean 93-minute runtime
Several intense, clever action sequences
A messy, unpolished visual style
An overly familiar story

The new movie 65 is a refreshingly unambitious sci-fi blockbuster.

Written and directed by A Quiet Place writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the film is a straightforward, tight thriller that’s interested in little more than forcing its star, Adam Driver, to repeatedly fight a bunch of dinosaurs and other dangerous prehistoric creatures. The film employs no more visual effects than it absolutely needs, and it consistently makes strong use of its real-life environments and locations — most of which prove to be far more dangerous than they initially seem. In case its tight 93-minute runtime didn’t already make this clear: 65 doesn’t have any franchise aspirations, either.

The film’s world-building is concise and efficiently delivered, and Beck and Woods’ screenplay doesn’t ever seem in danger of becoming obsessed with the kind of fictional minutiae or sci-fi gobbledygook that drag down so many other modern blockbusters. Its safeness and limited scope undoubtedly prevent 65 from rising to any truly great heights. However, there’s also something thrilling about the way 65 calls back to the days in which Hollywood’s sci-fi blockbusters could still be self-contained adventures that ask no more of their viewers than 90 minutes of their undivided attention.

As is alluded to by its title, 65 takes place around 65 million years ago and centers on Mills (Driver), a work-for-hire space pilot from a distant, technologically advanced planet. The film’s simple opening scene establishes Mills’ decision to take on a two-year transport mission in order to pay for the expensive medical treatments needed by his sick daughter, Nevine (Chloe Coleman). In its next scene, 65 catches up with Mills’ fateful mission as it’s upended by an asteroid field that damages Mills’ ship and sends him and his passengers crashing onto a nearby, uncharted terrestrial planet.

In the wake of the crash, Mills discovers that all but one of his cryogenically asleep passengers were killed by the destruction of his ship. Mills finds and wakes up the crash’s only other survivor, a young foreign girl named Koa (Ariana Greenblatt), who unfortunately doesn’t speak the same language as Driver’s skilled pilot. Determined to make sure that Koa gets back home safely, Mills takes her on a multiday journey to his ship’s escape vessel, which landed over a dozen kilometers away from where he and Koa ended up.

Along the way, Beck and Woods reveal that Mills hasn’t crash-landed on just any terrestrial planet, but Earth itself. Mills is, therefore, forced throughout his and Koa’s journey to use his scientifically advanced weaponry to fight off a wide range of deadly prehistoric creatures. In what likely won’t come as much of a surprise to anyone who has seen anything even remotely similar to 65 , Mills and Koa’s journey also results in the two characters gradually forming an intensely trusting, if unconventional, bond.

Despite what its dramatic opening title reveal would like you to believe, 65 is nowhere near as original as it thinks. Driver’s casting as Mills makes the film’s twist on a typical uncharted planet premise easy to accept, and 65 doesn’t have any more truly subversive tricks hidden up its sleeves. The film spends the bulk of its runtime following Mills and Koa as they encounter a series of dangerous creatures and obstacles over the course of their journey together. The film’s straightforward, obstacle-driven structure results in it feeling a bit repetitive in its second and third acts, which only makes the thinness of 65 ’s story feel that much more apparent at times.

There is, however, something uncomplicatedly thrilling about watching 65 ’s heroes come face-to-face with increasingly difficult challenges and still overcome them with their own brute force and intellect. There are moments throughout 65 in which Beck and Woods demonstrate the same knack for action storytelling that they did in A Quiet Place . That’s particularly true of one sequence in which Driver’s Mills is forced to fix his dislocated shoulder before a pack of dangerous, raptor-like dinosaurs get the chance to rip him and Koa apart.

Woods and Beck’s economical approach to 65 ’s story also allows the pair to make the most out of Mills’ various futuristic weapons. The duo often avoids relying on exposition by simply letting viewers watch Mills put his gadgets to use, as he does during one sequence in which he places a series of glowing markers around his and Koa’s camping spot. The character’s decision to place the markers where he does makes their purpose clear long before their yellow, pulsing lights turn red and Mills begins looking around in fear for any approaching creatures.

Beck and Woods’ visual style isn’t nearly as refined as their storytelling. There are numerous moments throughout 65 when the duo’s uneven mix of general coverage shots and dim lighting makes it difficult to maintain a clear sense of the film’s physical spaces. One underground showdown between Mills and an unidentified dinosaur is particularly confusing to watch due to both the overwhelming darkness throughout it and its lack of establishing wide shots. Beck and Woods bring much more control to some of 65 ’s other action sequences, but the duo’s visual style nonetheless comes across as disappointingly rough and messy during certain sections of the film.

Fortunately for it, 65 is luckier than most other Hollywood blockbusters because it’s led by Driver, a performer who is willing to bring the same level of commitment to films like 65 as he does to the more grounded dramas he typically stars in. Driver’s performance as Mills is so unsentimental and to the point that it ensures that the character’s rare moments of emotional vulnerability land with real force. In a way, the cut-and-dry nature of Driver’s performance is ultimately a reflection of 65 itself, a film that understands how even the most pared-down version of a story can still be compelling and entertaining if told with enough passion and focus.

65 is now playing in theaters.

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65 Movie Poster: Adam Driver holds a weapon and looks alarm as a dinosaur lurks behind him

Common Sense Says
Parents Say 7 Reviews
Kids Say 10 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Violent, by-the-numbers sci-fi/dinosaur movie has gory bits.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 14+?

Many are said to have died in cryosleep during crash-landing. Dead bodies lie in

A few uses of "s--t." One use of "damn." A use of "oh God" while in pain.

Any Positive Content?

Both characters are strong and resourceful; they take turns helping each other o

Four characters: Mills (Adam Driver), a White man, is the central character. You

Encourages selflessness: One character considers giving up until he discovers th

Violence & Scariness

Many are said to have died in cryosleep during crash-landing. Dead bodies lie in a swamp. Girl in peril. Main character shoots laser-like space gun. Splattering dinosaur blood. Explosions. Main character pulls metal shard out of bloody wound. Character attacked by small dinosaur; he bashes it to death with gun butt. Main character falls out of tree; painfully snapping dislocated shoulder back into place. Dinosaur stabbed with pointed tusk. Quicksand. Dinosaur corpse covered in blood and maggots. Burned, gory dinosaur corpse. Red-tinted water sloshing on ship. Fiery crash-landing. Dinosaurs attack and eat one another. Asteroids colliding with ship. Main character briefly considers death by suicide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Role Models

Both characters are strong and resourceful; they take turns helping each other out of scrapes, working to overcome difficult odds.

Diverse Representations

Four characters: Mills (Adam Driver), a White man, is the central character. Young Koa is played by Ariana Greenblatt, who is of Puerto Rican heritage. Mills' wife (seen in prologue), played by Nika King, is Black. Their mixed-race daughter, Nevine, is played by Chloe Coleman, who is of African, Eastern European, and English descent. Mills' insistence on Koa learning English -- rather than trying to understand her language -- supports dominant power structures.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Positive Messages

Encourages selflessness: One character considers giving up until he discovers that there's another person to think about.

Parents need to know that 65 is a sci-fi/dinosaur movie about a space traveler named Mills ( Adam Driver ) who crash-lands on primitive Earth and must battle dinosaurs to save his one surviving passenger, Koa ( Ariana Greenblatt ). Expect intense violence: Characters die (their bodies are shown), there's splattering dinosaur blood/gore, and Mills pulls a shard of metal out of his own bloody wound. Mills also shoots a space-laser gun at dinosaurs and bashes a small dinosaur to death with the butt of his gun. There are also explosions and falls from high places, and a character briefly considers death by suicide. A girl is sometimes in peril. Language includes a few uses of "s--t," plus "damn" and "oh God." To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

Parents say (7)
Kids say (10)

Based on 7 parent reviews

Dinosaurs look awesome

Decent popcorn flick but huge missed opportunity, what's the story.

In 65, astronaut Mills ( Adam Driver ), from the planet Somaris, agrees to a two-year trip through space, since the increased pay will help cover his daughter's medical expenses. Unfortunately, while he's in cryosleep, the ship is pelted with asteroids and forced to make a crash landing. Only Mills and young Koa ( Ariana Greenblatt ) survive. But somehow, they've ended up on Earth, 65 million years ago, when the dinosaurs roamed. Now they must hike 15 kilometers across a deadly landscape to find the only remaining escape pod. And there's another problem: The asteroid that hit their ship was only a small one.

Is It Any Good?

While this sci-fi/dinosaur movie is competently made, it really only has one good idea, and it doesn't do much with it. The rest is generic and familiar and fails to generate much suspense or emotion. The first thing viewers must accept in 65 is that there's another planet that has inhabitants who speak English and act just like Earth humans. After the crash, we get all the usual CGI dinosaur attacks and jump scares -- all very similar to what we've seen before in the many Jurassic Park / World movies. The screenplay -- following a beat-by-beat, three-act formula -- sets up all the elements it's going to use during the final payoff, and it's all noticeable because there's not much else to think about. But perhaps the oddest touch in this movie is the decision to have Koa speak a different language (she's from a different "district" than Mills). This leads to many scenes of Mills trying to force Koa to learn English words -- which she gamely does -- rather than him trying to understand what she's saying. It's all a bit of a drag, like Land of the Lost with the fun taken out. Ultimately, 65 leaves us feeling dino-sore.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about 65 's violence . How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?

How does the movie handle the difference in the languages that the characters speak? How does the language barrier affect the story?

How does the movie deal with grief?

Movie Details

In theaters : March 10, 2023
On DVD or streaming : May 2, 2023
Cast : Adam Driver , Ariana Greenblatt , Chloe Coleman
Directors : Scott Beck , Bryan Woods
Inclusion Information : Female actors
Studios : Sony Pictures , Columbia Pictures
Genre : Action/Adventure
Topics : Dinosaurs
Run time : 93 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : intense sci-fi action and peril, and brief bloody images
Last updated : June 18, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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’65’ review: adam driver fights dinosaurs in an underwhelming sci-fi actioner.

An astronaut from another planet and a little girl find themselves battling dinos on Earth 65 million years ago in this film from the writers of 'A Quiet Place.'

By Frank Scheck

Frank Scheck

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‘65’ Is ‘The Last of Us’ With Adam Driver, Dinosaurs, and Zero Thrills

By David Fear

Attention, anyone who’s ever said they’d gladly watch Adam Driver in anything: You’re about to have that statement put to the test.

The “twist” is, Mills has actually landed on Earth during the Cretaceous Period, and those monsters are dinosaurs . The title refers to how many million years ago Mills landed on our big blue marble. It also happens to be a larger number than the amount of minutes it takes for you to completely lose your patience with this mess. Can’t that ominous comet they keep cutting to in the sky — you know the one — come any sooner?

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The good news is that this is far from an extinction-level event for the A-list talent here; Driver may be forced to push this plodding sci-fi misfire along, but given how he’s survived white supremacists , rebel forces , noble-failure literary adaptations and the sixth season of Girls, he can recover from this. The bad news is that even those of us who love the actor’s work may find ourselves wondering why he said yes to this in the first place. Put it you this way: This is a movie in which Adam Driver , Movie Star, fights a bunch of dinosaurs. And long before the film’s abrupt excuse for an ending drops, you will find yourself rooting for the dinosaurs.

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘65’ on Netflix, a Bare-Bones B-Movie in Which Adam Driver Dodges Dinosaurs

Where to stream:.

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Adam Driver headlines 65 (now on Netflix, in addition to streaming on VOD services like Amazon Prime Video ), a keep-it-simple-stupid B-movie in which he plays a marooned space traveler who has to fight dinosaurs in order to survive and also keep them from eating the little girl under his protection. Sam Raimi is a credited producer, and A Quiet Place writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods direct, so here’s hoping we can squeeze a little fun out of this genre exercise, and it won’t be a dino-bore that just leaves us dino-sore.

65 : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Subtitle: PRIOR TO THE ADVENT OF MANKIND (pause) IN THE INFINITY OF SPACE (pause)… it goes on like this for a bit, all overdramatic and silly, about how there were ancient civilizations elsewhere in the cosmos, capable of interstellar travel and such. Then we meet Mills (Driver) as he and his wife (Nika King) watch their daughter (Chloe Coleman) play on the beach on their home planet of Not Earth. The girl’s sick. He’s gotta take a two-year space-excursion gig in order to pay for her treatments, proving that even long long ago in a galaxy far far away, health insurance functioned exactly the way it does now, namely, not worth diddley-dick. Mills and his daughter share a moment, and then he’s off.

WHUMP. CLUNK. Those are asteroids hitting the spacecraft. Mills is the guy piloting the ship while the rest of the passengers are in cryostasis. He runs to the control room and grabs the stick as massive chunks of rock smash and bang off the hull, merciless in their destruction. Sleeping people hurtle into the void. “Emergency landing!” says the female robot computer voice, as if we can’t tell from the moving pictures we’re watching that Mills, by taking a hard turn towards a nearby planet, is doing exactly that. It’s a rough one. He’s gotta pull a chunk of shrapnel out of his side and navigate the slimy mudhole he landed in and figure out where the other piece of the ship is and is that a growling creature in the water over there, its spiny back briefly emerging from the muck? Yep.

Thankfully, he’s got a rifle. He considers pointing it at himself, until he realizes one other person survived the crash, a young girl named Koa (Ariana Greenblatt), but if you want to call her Newt, that’s fine. He puts her over his shoulder and slogs through the mud and spots a giant reptilian footprint. What planet is this? I’ll give you three guesses, although you’ll only need one. Koa awakens, but she speaks a different language so they can’t understand each other, which is great, because if anything gets in the way of a good B-movie sci-fi survival yarn like this, it’s dialogue. Mills uses his little computer gadget to determine that the piece of the ship with a functioning escape vessel is a goodly hike through the jungle and up a mountain, so off they go. Easier said than done, of course, because between the massive bugs and nasty parasites and hungry toothy dinosaurs, life is really finding its f—ing way on this planet.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: 65 is Jurassic Park meets Aliens with the stripped-down-premise-meets-big-star formula of Idris Elba Fights A Lion With His Damn Bare Hands movie Beast .

Performance Worth Watching: Like Elba, Driver seems incapable of going through the motions, even in a trivial exercise like this, finding a moment or three of substance for a character who’s otherwise a hasty sketch of a human being.

Memorable Dialogue: In one of those moments of substance, Driver delivers an earnest line-reading when Mills explains to his daughter why he’s leaving for so long: “It’s not because of you. It’s for you.”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: What these Quiet Place guys forgot to add to 65 is an equivalent to the unforgettably intense Emily Blunt Gives Birth In A Bathtub While Being Stalked By Monsters Who Can’t See Her But Can Hear Her scene. It’s the kind of thing that gives a well-trod premise the vitality it needs to be more than just a movie about a dude trying not to get eaten to death. That doesn’t mean 65 is unwatchable though; it’s Just Fine in a way that renders it an acceptable 93 minutes of escapism without making you upset that you wasted your time watching it.

Faint praise, I know, but let’s not damn the movie outright. Beck and Woods stir up a few moments of comedy amidst the grim scenario – Mills gotta distract the girl from the potentially dire prospects of this situation – and layer in some amusingly preposterous coincidence to amplify the stakes. Visually, the film ranges from nifty CGI-action dynamics (smallish dinos attacking from all angles, a scary silhouette of a considerably less-small one) to repetitive (lots of set pieces with our protags clambering over plastic rocks), and doesn’t look too cheap.

But, like, what’s the movie about about? The relationship between Mills and Koa, who reminds him of his daughter, the thought of whom makes him despondent? The classic man-vs.-nature struggle? The idea of holding onto hope in spite of difficult odds? Meh. Nothing really sinks its teeth in deep enough to draw blood, metaphorically speaking, of course. What we do get is plenty of dino spectacle, Driver’s attempt to not brood too hard and the nagging underlying assertion that nobody’d be in this mess if Outer Space Blue Cross would’ve made the Mills family’s deductible more affordable. I couldn’t take another movie in which children suffer while their parents argue about billing codes and out-of-network providers with customer service representatives. I’d take the velociraptors over that any day.

Our Call: 65 isn’t going to leave an indelible impression on anyone, but for an it-is-what-it-is movie, you could do a hell of a lot worse. STREAM IT, but maybe wait til it’s out of the paid-rental tier and hits a streaming service.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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65 is a Lean, Mean Dino Thriller as Straightforward as Its Title

Or: The tale of two characters trying to coolly walk away from our planet’s biggest explosion.

Alfred Hitchcock emphasized film as a visual medium above all else — a teaching that has developed a nearly cult-like reverence. 65 , the newest film from writer-director duo Scott Beck and Bryan Woods , is a genre apart from the Master of Suspense but clearly worships from that same church. The Adam Driver-starring thriller is a lean, mean exercise in sci-fi suspense set far in our planetary past (if only by sheer misadventure).

Mills (Adam Driver) is a pilot shepherding a large group of spacebound passengers when the trip goes awry, ripping the ship apart and scattering it across an unknown planet. As it turns out, two passengers survive — Mills and a young woman named Koa (Ariana Greenblatt). We soon discover that the pair landed on Mesozoic-era Earth (unbeknownst to them) with only one possibility of escape. Beside the sci-fi technology and the existence of violent dinosaurs, at its core, 65 is a simple survival tale about a makeshift family : a pilot and young girl set against a monstrous world, with the ticking clock of a comet propelling their trek forward.

In some ways, 65 resembles a variety of media that have come before. The Jurassic Park/World comparisons are inevitable, with slices of the narrative feeling kin to such sci-fi classics. But just because the idea is familiar doesn’t mean it’s a poorly conceived or executed one. Part of the familiarity of 65 lies in the fact that the concept is so good that it honestly should have been made a half-dozen times before. The setting allows our protagonists to be set in a world emotionally familiar, yet unrecognizable and thoroughly hostile.

Though Driver is well known for his skill at outburst-laden roles (think of all those viral gifs of Kylo Ren smashing consoles or Charlie Barber hitting a wall), 65 ably showcases his skill at emotional subtlety. Mills and Koa are on board the same ship, but they don’t speak the same language and the pair repeatedly struggle to build effective communication and emotional trust in a hostile world. It adds well to the isolation of both, and gives Driver a chance to showcase his skills at a non-verbal performance. Similarly, Greenblatt spends the role speaking a language not of this planet, effectively only having subtle tools to emote and transmit her character’s meanings. She gives a wonderful performance under those difficult conditions.

Adam Driver battles dinosaurs in a tight sci-fi thriller that could’ve used a little more meat.

Everything about 65 is tight. There’s little inessential in the narrative, no surplus dialogue (to whom would our protagonists speak?), and only plot-driven exposition. The shot choice is well designed to build tension, carefully using the frame to hide the danger until it’s too late. The often-tight frame keeps the focus on our protagonists more often than not, which does well to enhance the film’s building suspense. That said, there are times where wider shots would have helped situate the viewer, or slightly longer cuts in a given scene would have let the tension linger. At times, it’s too lean, but that’s a preferable vice in a world full of overlong films stretching over 2.5 hours.

The dinosaurs look good on screen and are used well, if somewhat sparsely. The narrative promises survival against dinos and largely delivers, though the emergent emotional father-daughter narrative and the ticking clock of the comet are unexpectedly a larger focus. Both elements work, but with the dinosaurs being a key element of the promised story, one can’t help but desire a little more high-stakes action from our planet’s former rulers.

65 is not without its curious plot contrivances, however. There are times when Koa has vast leaps in her understanding of a situation or language, and knows precisely what to do when it’s oddly convenient. The premise of the ship crashing on Earth exactly when The Comet is going to hit is a fun way to showcase one of Earth’s most monumental eras, but it’s also a tad convenient that the protagonists hit that specific time period out of Earth’s whole billion-year history. Overall, however, 65 ’s lean narrative is a virtue, generating a tight story that works well.

The film isn’t exactly the dinosaur extravaganza one might be expecting, though that’s present to a relevant degree. At its core, the film is a tight story focusing on the growing familial relationship between a pair of protagonists who have no one else, in a world full of monsters. The performances are strong, the script is lean and largely successful, the dinosaurs look good, and it sticks the landing. It could strangely enough use a slightly longer runtime, but 65 remains a tight sci-fi thriller, and one worth an audience’s time.

65 opens in theaters on March 10.

Science Fiction

65 Review: How Is Adam Driver Vs. Dinosaurs This Dull?

It leans more toward “disappointing” than “awful,” but at least “awful” would have made it more interesting..

Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’ 65 is a film with an excellent high-concept premise and a great deal of on-paper potential. Adam Driver has thoroughly proven himself in the last decade to be one of the better talents of his generation, the filmmakers were the screenwriters of the thrilling and successful A Quiet Place , and the idea of having a humanoid alien who crash lands on Earth 65 million years in the past has a lot of exciting promise. Driver vs. Dinosaurs – how bad could it be? As it turns out, the answer to that question isn’t “it’s really bad” so much as it is “it’s surprisingly boring.”

Adam Driver being approached by a T-Rex in 65

Release Date: March 10, 2023 Directed By: Scott Beck and Bryan Woods Written By: Scott Beck and Bryan Woods Starring: Adam Driver, Ariana Greenblatt, Nika King, and Chloe Coleman Rating: PG-13, for intense sci-fi action and peril, and brief bloody images Runtime: 93 minutes

After a clunky, on-screen text-filled opening that sets up the general plot, 65 is never able to move out of neutral and do much with its conceit. Instead of featuring Adam Driver dramatically and creatively fighting for survival and escape while using extraterrestrial technology to fight off our world’s carnivorous, monstrous lizards, the movie settles for developing overused plot devices and character dynamics to unfurl a familiar story with nothing identifiably original to offer audiences.

In 65 , Driver plays Mills, a spaceship pilot from the planet Somaris who agrees to take a two-year long trip across the stars so that he can make enough money to afford treatment for his terminally ill daughter (Chloe Coleman). On the journey back home, the ship Mills is flying encounters a flurry of asteroids that cause it to crash land on an uncharted world. Because the movie can’t find a way to properly communicate the information to movie-goers, a title card delivers the necessary exposition: “65 Million Years Ago, A Visitor Crash Landed On Earth.”

Just as you get excited starting to wonder how the movie is going to narratively function with Mills being all alone on a planet filled with flesh-eating monsters that see him as an exotic meal, the film opts to not even try. It turns out that the protagonist isn’t actually alone, and that there instead is one passenger on the ship whose cryo-pod managed to survive the crash. Mills rescues and wakes up Koa (Ariana Greenblatt), a nine-year-old girl who doesn’t speak the same language as the hero. A la recent shows like The Mandalorian or The Last Of Us or recent movies including James Mangold ’s Logan , George Clooney’s Midnight Sky , and Clint Eastwood’s Cry Macho , Miles if forced to become a surrogate parent for the helpless child and do everything he can to shepherd them to safety.

65 is devoid of any exciting, original, or compelling plot points; it’s all by the numbers action.

A high-tech guidance system tells Mills and Koa that a functioning shuttle is on the top of a nearby mountain and can be used to escape the planet – and while there is nothing inherently wrong with the simplicity of that narrative, the problem is that the movie offers nothing to spice things up and make the story compelling beyond the basics of the circumstance. There are moments where they are attacked by dinosaurs and they temporarily get stuck in places, but they are the plot equivalent of speedbumps because there is no effort made to develop more advanced stakes.

You’d think that at the very least alien technology would be able to spice things up a bit, but the movie is unable to strike a balance between implementing cool, futuristic tools and making sure that Mills and Koa always seem desperate and in danger. The most clever usage of anything is using metal marble-like explosives to try and excavate a cave in which the characters are stuck… and even the results of that are underwhelming and undramatic.

Getting excited about dynamic, different dinosaur action in 65 would be a mistake.

With 65 unable to deliver on the more sci-fi side of the story, one would hope it could hit the gas pedal with the dinosaur action, but it’s just another area where the film falls flat. It’s arguably unfair to compare the movie to the high standard that is Jurassic Park , but you’d think that it would take some lessons about what works in that classic and apply them. A big part of the fun in that franchise is seeing the diversity of species and identifying them from memorable fossils seen in natural history museums. Aside from one herbivore that the characters rescue from a tar pit and a few flying dinos that have no significant presence, there are basically just three kinds of dinosaurs: tiny carnivores, medium carnivores, and giant carnivores.

None of them have special qualities that make them stand out; they might as well just be alien lizards with sharp teeth and claws… which kind of defeats the whole point of the film. To the film’s credit, there is one attempt made at trying to add an extra layer of depth to Mills’ conflict with the dinosaurs, with 65 setting up a “rematch” in the third act with what may or may not be a T-Rex from the second act, but the effort is so minimal and ultimately blink-or-miss-it that I wouldn’t be surprised if a large percentage of audiences don’t pick up on it.

If 65 predated the Jurassic World trilogy and Hollywood’s present obsession with the Lone Wolf And Cub dynamic, it would perhaps be seen to have a lot more merit – but as is, it missed its sweet spot release period by a decade, and as such doesn’t have much to offer. It leans more toward “disappointing” than “awful,” but at least “awful” would have made it more interesting.

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.

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The Ending Of 65 Explained

Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of the first "A Quiet Place" film, deliver their third directed feature together with "65," a sci-fi action thriller that sees the future collide with the past. The film follows Mills ( Adam Driver ), a pilot whose mission to transport people is upended after asteroids damage his ship, causing him to crash on an unknown planet. Although Mills has no idea where he is, the film tells us that he has landed on Earth — albeit 65 million years ago when dinosaurs roamed the land and human civilization was nowhere in sight. With few options, Mills grabs Koa (Ariana Greenblatt) -– a young girl who's the only other survivor -– and begins traversing these dangerous lands in the hopes of reaching the other half of his ship to possibly escape.

"65" does its best to make dinosaurs scary again through its intense action and some of the creepier creatures that Mills and Koa come across. Along with some thrilling sci-fi action, the film delivers some interesting story beats for Mills and Koa as their personal struggles are touched on and they gain a stronger connection with one another. The film's finale is especially rich with story moments and action as the pair attempts to escape before a cataclysmic event keeps them in this prehistoric prison. With a lot happening in the film's final moments, let's delve into the fast-paced finale and nail-biter ending of "65."

Future meets past

While it might seem strange to see a futuristic soldier like Mills stuck in the middle of a prehistoric world, the film does delve into how he got there. Mills is actually from a distant planet whose people act and speak like human beings. The film never clarifies what species or race Mills people exactly are, so it's safe to assume that they must be humans too. Either way, Mills is tasked with transporting people to an undisclosed location, but his ship suffers severe damage from a cluster of asteroids, forcing him to crash-land on Earth.

So rather than Mills arriving on Earth through some kind of time-traveling or universe jumping, he simply exists 65 million years before our time. Mill's people are just so advanced that they've been able to develop the sophisticated technology and weapons that ultimately help him survive. Even with these tools, though, Mills faces fierce opposition from both the environment and creatures he's forced to fight against, leading to him nearly losing his life on more than one occasion. "65" is truly a future meets past scenario that pits futuristic tech against prehistoric beasts to see who's really dominant.

The meteor that killed the dinosaurs

Throughout the film, there is an obscure red-looking entity in the sky that seems like it's drifting closer to Earth. Koa is the first to see it when she notices a weird light phenomenon above her. However, when Mills sees it sometime later, it looks much more ominous and massive. At first, you can't help but hope that maybe it's just the rescue transport Mills called for coming down to Earth, but once Mills is able to get an actual read on what this strange entity is, it's much worse than expected.

Mills' scanner says that it's actually a gigantic meteor with the mass to cause cataclysmic destruction once it impacts Earth. Perhaps you are familiar with the idea that the dinosaurs were killed by a massive asteroid that caused a mass extinction event ? Well, this is that meteor — and it surprisingly has a stronger connection to Mills' current situation.

The asteroid cluster that Mills encountered earlier, which ultimately caused the ship to crash, actually came from this world-ending meteor, and it looks like it's coming to finish the job. This meteor adds new stakes to Mills and Koa's escape and plays a big role in making the finale of "65" super intense and visually stunning.

Brought to the edge

Mills crashing into this rough survival situation has a deeper effect on him than initially expected and hints at a secret he hides throughout the film. Once he's able to get up after the crash, he sees that nearly all the passengers are dead and that half of his ship is missing. Even worse is that the part of the ship containing the escape pod is nowhere in sight, which means that there's virtually no way off the planet. After his first few steps outside, Mills also sees how dangerous the environment truly is. Rather than try to survive, he looks like he's ready to end things.

While he attempts to call for help at first, he eventually just tells them that he isn't worth looking for and prepares to end his own life right then and there. However, he soon finds Koa, and she gives him a reason to keep going. Given how harsh this environment is and how vicious the creatures are, it's hard not to blame Mills for thinking that things are over.

It later becomes clear that Mills' hopelessness stems from the death of his daughter, Nevine (Chloe Coleman). Mills' willingness to accept his fate after the crash is the first moment that hints at that.

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing 988 or by callin g 1 -800-273-TALK (8255).

Seeing something more

Mills' relationship with Koa starts on some rocky ground. Their inability to communicate — because they don't speak the same language — makes for some frustrating moments between the two, with Koa sometimes doing her own thing, which really gets under Mills' skin. However, Mills eventually warms up to Koa because he sees her as something more than just a helpless survivor — he almost begins to see her as a surrogate daughter. While it at first appears to annoy Mills, he definitely appreciates Koa's interest in learning about his daughter through video messages. They watch a hologram of her together in the cave and it feels like a real bonding moment between them.

Ultimately, Mills and Koa have some real father/daughter energy in some of their more light-hearted moments together. It's these moments, which connect back to Mills' daughter and the way that he does everything he can to protect her, that make it clear that he sees his daughter in Koa. Plus, once we learn that Mills already knows that his daughter is dead, it becomes obvious that he's trying to make up for what he couldn't do for Nevine.

Mills and Koa's bond is a central part of the film's heart and arguably the main thing that keeps them going over the course of their survival adventure.

Environmental horrors

The vicious dinosaurs in "65" are certainly enough to make surviving in this world a daunting task for Koa and Mills, but it's far from the only thing they have to worry about. While the big creatures are tough to deal with on their own, there are also some big nasty bugs that cause the pair some trouble in their journey. There's a gut-wrenching moment when one of the bugs crawls down Koa's throat while she's sleeping that is sure to leave a massive knot in your stomach. Beyond that, just looking at the sticky goo that comes from one of the bugs that Mills crushes makes you not want to touch an insect ever again.

Unfortunately, the environment is just as deadly as the creatures they find in it. As Mills learns, it's very easy to walk into deadly tar fields or quicksand. Mills and Koa's cave exploration nearly proves fatal when a cave-in occurs. Of course, there's also the geyser field that Mills first comes across after landing on the planet spews water so hot that it could melt skin.

"65" makes viewers thankful that Earth isn't like this anymore since it looks like a genuinely nightmarish world to try and survive.

Is there help?

Almost as soon as he crashes on Earth, Mills attempts to contact his people to try and organize a rescue for him and the other passengers. However, after realizing that all the passengers are dead, he deletes the help message and calls off help — largely because he thinks it's hopeless anyway. Once Mills finds Koa still alive, though, he creates a message that once again signals the need for assistance, and he's left wondering if anyone will come. So, does anyone pick up Mills' distress signal?

Luckily for him and Koa, his message manages to reach someone, but they're not exactly within easy reach. Based on what his scanner says, a ship will meet him at an interception point in space to take him and Koa home. However, the only way for Mills and Koa to get back to space is by finding a distant escape pod before the fast-approaching meteor strikes Earth.

It's a shame that no one can come and just scoop up Mills and Koa from this horrific situation, but the realization that there is a way home at least drives them to survive and push forward.

Koa's realization

Koa's main concern throughout the film is finding her parents. Mills initially tells her that her parents are at the top of the mountain where the escape pod is, but he only tells her this to get her to go on the journey with him. In reality, Mills knows that her parents are dead and only tells her otherwise to keep her motivated as they journey toward the escape pod. There's even a point where Mills becomes so frustrated by their situation and language barrier that he tells her that he lied. Unfortunately, since Koa can't understand him, she still doesn't know that her parents are dead until she finds the destroyed escape pods.

This realization that Mills has lied about her parents being dead understandably hurts her and she becomes furious with him. For Koa, the journey to the ship likely feels like it was for nothing now, and part of her would rather just stay on the planet and die rather than go on without her parents. It's a tough moment for Koa, and it almost seems like she's not going to go along with Mills to leave Earth.

However, he's able to get her back on his side by deeply opening up to her about what happened to his daughter.

The truth behind Mills' daughter

When Koa gets angry at Mills for lying about her parents, he decides it's a good time to tell her about what really happened to his daughter Nevine. When Mills first left, his daughter was set to go through a procedure that would cure her of a mysterious illness. This procedure would be paid for by this transport job Mills was completing when he crashlanded on Earth. Although he would be away from his daughter for two years while completing the trip, at least she would be healthy when he returned. Unfortunately, Nevine died while he was out doing this job — which means Mills never got to see her again after he left.

The death of Mills' daughter is hinted at throughout the film, and there are some key moments that show Mills' frustration. As noted earlier, his willingness to accept his fate at the start of the film shows the lingering pain he has from his daughter's death. The video messages from her also start to take a dour turn that matches the gut-wrenching feelings of some of the dreams Mills has about her. Further, the way Mills views Koa as a daughter and how he protects her also make more sense once it's clear that his daughter is gone.

Mills opens up to Koa about his lingering pain and how he felt that protecting her was a way for him to feel like he did something right. This admission helps Koa forgive Mills, and she decides to continue on with him to try and return to their home.

Botched launch

Now that Koa and Mills have unpacked some of their emotional baggage with one another, they have little time to spare. Fragments of the meteor are crashing all over the place, and there isn't much time left until the meteor collides with Earth. They quickly hop into the escape craft and start the launch sequence. Unfortunately, the fragments begin to impact the mountain they're on and cause the terrain to collapse, sending the ship hurtling toward the ground.

Miraculously, not only are Koa and Mills somehow not dead from that violent crash, but the escape pod is also still seemingly operable. However, they can't launch it right away because the ship has been flipped upside-down. As they scramble to deal with the inverted spacecraft, they soon realize they have bigger problems on their hands — two giant dinosaurs are approaching them, creating a deadly predicament. Although safety seems right in their grasp, this meteor once again causes Mills and Koa problems that could put the final nails in their coffins.

Sacrifices and rescues

Mills and Koa have a lot on their plate — an unflyable ship, a giant meteor racing towards them, and two dinosaurs looking to gobble them up — so Mills springs into action. He's able to distract the two dinosaurs away from the ship, but his gun is malfunctioning which leaves him a sitting duck. Everything seems hopeless for once again, but Koa is able to show him a hologram of his daughter that motivates him to kill the two dinosaurs. Even better, one of the dinosaurs has actually reoriented the ship by slamming into it, which means it can fly again.

However, before they can escape, the dinosaur Mills has wounded approaches them seeking revenge. To protect Koa, Mills sacrifices himself to lead the dinosaur away from the ship towards the hot geysers he came across at the start of the film.

At first, the geysers don't seem to do much damage to the dinosaur, and Mills' wounded leg makes him easy prey. Luckily, Koa is there to rescue him by stabbing the dinosaur in the eye with the makeshift weapon she crafted earlier. This causes the beast to fall into the geyser, where the intense heat causes its skin to melt and ultimately kills it. The big finale action sequence of "65" is full of emotional sacrifices and rescues that show how Mills and Koa have come together.

Having killed the dinosaur, Mills and Koa have one last thing to do -– escape!

With the world-ending meteor nearing impact and Mills severely injured, there's no time to waste. Koa helps Mills back to the escape ship and Mills launches the ship. They narrowly fly into space, just missing the meteor, and make their escape from this prehistoric hellscape. Mills and Koa even get some satisfaction knowing that all the dinosaurs that have been hunting them down have been wiped out by the meteor and will no longer roam Earth.

Mills and Koa's fates are never truly revealed, but they should be heading to the interception point, which implies that they will be rescued. Throughout the end credits, the film even shows what happens after the meteor causes the extinction of the dinosaurs and the evolution that eventually leads to human civilization. Although the climax of "65" kept Mills and Koa on the run and near death the entire time, they finally have a moment of well-earned rest.

Could there be a sequel?

There's no news on a sequel for "65" going into development and there likely won't be one. The film ends on a pretty conclusive note, with Mills and Koa escaping Earth before the meteor hits and the end credits show how humanity developed over time. The dinosaurs are gone and there are no hints that someone else crash-landed there beforehand, so a prequel isn't likely either. Not to mention, the box office predictions for "65" aren't looking too hot. The film faces stiff competition in "Scream VI" and is projected to earn just shy of $10 million in its opening weekend — which isn't great considering its $45 million budget.

If the film does better than expected or becomes a hit on streaming, there's certainly a chance that a sequel could happen. Although there are no hints that someone landed on Earth before Mills, it's possible that a prequel could go back further to show someone else having to fight for their life. In this case, "65" could turn into a bit of an anthology series that sees futuristic soldiers having to face off against dinosaurs in a battle for survival.

Sequel ambitions for "65" will likely be snuffed out by lackluster opening weekend box office results, but a cult following could change things.

Review: There are ‘65’ million reasons to avoid the new Adam Driver dinosaur space flick

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If you asked the AI program ChatGPT to write a dinosaur/space movie as if Steven Spielberg and James Cameron were trying to make fun of each other, you’d probably still get something more entertaining than the thudding hack job “65,” a movie about as thrilling as watching footage of someone — in this case, Adam Driver and his young co-star, Ariana Greenblatt — on the “Jurassic Park” ride at Universal Studios .

The writers of “A Quiet Place” — Scott Beck and Bryan Woods — are clearly not done with monsters and family and the apocalypse. But this time, as directors too, they’ve decided to take us not forward but back, to when a routine trip went disastrously wrong. Think “Gilligan’s Island.” Not because it’s like “65.” Just because it’s more entertaining than “65.”

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Do you like introductory text that removes that nagging worry that you won’t be expositionally satisfied? Because “65” has that. “BEFORE THE ADVENT OF MANKIND” reads the first. “IN THE INFINITY OF SPACE” reads the next, which is, by the way, set against the backdrop of … space. Just so everything’s clear! And later, after a sentient audience will have guessed from the huge dinosaur footprint that exploratory mission pilot Mills (Driver) has been stranded on a particular planet at a very particular time, here come the words: “A VISITOR CRASH LANDED ON EARTH.” Yes, that “65” refers to the number of millions of years ago. Not, as one might hope, the number of minutes in the film.

Do you like stories about absent dads? Based on the movies, they seem to be an emotional connection between humanity’s meager time on Earth and social systems in long-ago galaxies. (“ChatGPT, add George Lucas in the mix.”) By taking one more gig, Driver’s character not only leaves behind an adoring wife but, more urgently, an adoring and ailing daughter (Chloe Coleman), whose hologram messages of love, longing and increasing sickness are like stabs to his heart as he’s trying to avoid dinosaur teeth stabbing everywhere else on his body. So, if you wanted to give him only one human companion to heighten that guilty-father feeling, out of all the possible cryogenically frozen passengers to survive an inconvenient ship crash, who would you pick? A grandmother? Wrong! “ChatGPT, are you familiar with ‘The Last of Us ’?”

A man carrying a weapon walks into a cave alongside a young woman

Do you like made-up tongues not translated because it’s cuter when an othered figure learns English? Maybe Beck and Woods just didn’t feel like writing dialogue for the girl, Koa (Greenblatt), that would help establish this child as a person beyond at first seeming like a feral creature and then a surrogate daughter. Dialogue is hard! So instead this poor character gets an untranslated language until she can trigger “aww’s” by learning the words “home” and “family” and, with stick figures, inventing cave art.

Do you think Adam Driver can do anything? He might have thought that too, when signing on for this.

Do you believe that dinosaurs have long since outlived their CGI-rendered ability to instill awe and terror? Because the filmmakers seem pretty convinced 172 “Jurassic Park” movies haven’t already been made. Sometimes that kind of innocence inspires reinvention. Sometimes it just means that once majestic, still mysterious and endlessly fascinating creatures begin to feel like faceless goons in a video game.

Do you occasionally wish that studios would run dank-looking movies that seem stripped of color through a Snapchat-like filter that would add bright, rainbow-hued tails, faces, starbursts, pizzazz-y augmentations and the like? I’m not saying there are quickie backlot black-and-white adventure movies from 90 years ago with more visual breadth, color range and compositional tension than “65,” but, OK, well, yes, I am saying that.

Is “65” a hall-of-fame bad movie? No, and that may be its problem. It’s just pedestrian dumb and dull. It drops humans from eons away and ago into an extinction-level event, and instead of being full-on weird and wondrous about it, prefers to be utterly imitative and complacent. Way to extinguish yourself.

'65'

Rated: PG-13, for intense sci-fi action and peril, and brief bloody images Running time: 1 hour, 33 minutes Playing: In general release

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65 (United States, 2023)

If all you’re looking for out of a movie is Adam Driver running around in a jungle shooting dinosaurs while protecting a young girl, 65 delivers in spades. If you’re hoping for something more complex, either in terms of character development, background narrative, or world-building, the movie has neither the time nor the patience to accommodate. The dino special effects are adequate for the job (better than in 1993’s Jurassic Park but inferior to those in the third installment of the Jurassic World series ) and Driver appears committed to the work. The running length is a svelte 93 minutes, meaning that 65 isn’t around long enough to wear out its welcome. By keeping its goals limited, it’s able to deliver what it promises, and that stands for something. I’ll admit I was more entertained by this high-concept sci-fi adventure than half the films I have seen thus far in 2023.

In their directorial debut, Scott Beck & Bryan Woods (the writers of A Quiet Place ) keep it simple. The plot could be the template for a video game: get the hero from Point A to Point B without dying. Along the way, there are various impediments that have to be overcome: rockslides, steam geysers, quicksand, and (of) course dinosaurs. 65 mixes in an Aliens - inspired subplot about a lone, grieving adult “adopting” and orphaned young girl. At no point, however, does Adam Driver say to any of the dinosaurs, “Get away from her, you bitch !”

One could argue that 65 is real throw-back – all the way back to the 1920s and 1930s, when monster movies could enthrall and amaze. The first two-thirds of King Kong , after all, focused on explorers wandering around a prehistoric jungle and encountering dinosaurs. 65 has all the advantages of modern technology but it’s not significantly more sophisticated than the movies of Willis O’Brien. This is the kind of production that provides a couple of memorable moments (the T-Rex “reveal,” which is spoiled by the trailers, being the most notable) but somehow seems smaller than it should. Maybe that’s because we have been trained to expect that a menagerie like this is appropriate only for epics while the most lofty goal 65 can claim is being a slickly-made B movie.

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'65' Review: Adam Driver Can Save You From Dinosaurs, But Not This Disaster of a Movie

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There is something remarkable about how completely 65 wastes all it had going for it. Taking Adam Driver , one of the best actors working today, and throwing him onto a prehistoric Earth where he has to fight dinosaurs seems like it could be a solid little action flick. Whoever it was that edited the film’s trailer together should be given a raise, as it made it seem like the final product might actually be a thrilling science fiction ride that could possibly even bring some notes of horror. Instead, what we got is a poorly constructed work doomed by its derivative and dull narrative core.

Though it is aggressively simple, 65 manages to become as lost as its characters as they wander through fields, woods, and caves without any momentum behind them. There are occasional glimpses of the fun that could have been had and Driver is never phoning it in, even as he has basically nothing to work with. The trouble is that it can’t overcome what proves to be an unimaginative experience that is further hampered by poor direction, writing, effects, and everything a film needs to hold together.

This all begins with on-screen text informing us of the necessary information to understand that our humanoid protagonist Mills (Driver) is actually part of an entirely different species than our own. Living on a planet that is far from Earth, he is about to take on a job that will whisk him away from his family for two years. As he prepares to say goodbye to his wife and daughter, who is in poor health of some kind, we learn he is doing this so that they can afford proper treatment. The fact that this species with the capacity to travel through space is still one where healthcare is not accessible to all is a grim prospect, but there is no interest in exploring this as it is all about getting the story in motion. Even then, it feels like it is stalling.

RELATED: The 10 Best Adam Driver Performances, Ranked

While 65 was never going to be a particularly heady work of science fiction, both the narrative underpinnings and their execution are so empty that everything increasingly rings hollow even as it incessantly hammers home the same superficial elements. The inciting incident is that the ship that Mills is piloting flies straight into an asteroid field. This happens while he is asleep, and they subsequently crash down to Earth, their ship breaking into two parts. The only other surviving passenger of the many in cryosleep is the young Koa ( Ariana Greenblatt ), who Mills must then protect as they travel to the other part of the ship they hope to use to escape.

A narrative built around traveling from point A to point B could work to keep the emphasis on the action. After all, the selling point of the experience is getting to see Driver take on various dinos. Much like the recent Jurassic World sequel, that is not something that 65 sufficiently capitalizes on. Further, the déjà vu that is felt when it too becomes oddly fixated on bugs does it absolutely no favors. What should have been a stripped-down story is made into an overwrought and ambling film where the staging of the action ensures that it only rarely carries any actual weight.

From the first moment Mills encounters one of his few dinosaur foes as he goes out to get his bearings, the effects are painfully unconvincing no matter how much Driver dutifully rolls around. This becomes a persistent problem that the film will occasionally get around by using darkness as a cover, but that can only go so far. They are often bigger than the dinosaurs in something like Jurassic Park , but the way it integrates them into the story just falls flat. Those effects have aged better because they aren’t just built around throwing a lot at the screen, but about being more precise in how they are used. The longer that 65 drags on, the more it reveals it lacks anything approaching a creative vision.

Take when Mills and Koa are attacked under a tree, the first truly dangerous encounter the two have. Rather than feel tense, they just seem disconnected from the supposedly approaching creatures. We know from the cutting back and forth that they are getting closer, though we are never given a shot to establish the distance that is being closed. It leans on the committed performance of Driver to convey the character’s panic, but we never feel it in the way the scene is constructed. Not once do you ever think that either of them are in any real danger, no matter how much the film tries to insist that they are. Whenever they are just on the verge of being in actual trouble, they get saved at the last possible second. It robs the film of any sense of stakes, making it hard to actually care about any of the subsequent escalations it throws out. Making matters worse is that the back-and-forth the characters have is all painfully one-note. Much of this stems from how Koa speaks a language that Mills does not understand, essentially reducing her to being a surrogate daughter with no depth that she gets on her own. Greenblatt gives it her all, but she is fighting an uphill battle from start to finish.

All of this could be forgiven if the film were actually fun in how it played around with its premise. It was never going to be a masterpiece by any means, but it is bizarre just how boring it all feels. The main event of it all, Driver fighting a T-rex, is something the film teases for all its worth before it unfolds in the conclusion. This proves to be disappointing as, after all this wait, the sequence just doesn’t feel worth it and passes rather quickly. Once more, the persistent problem is how disconnected the two adversaries are and how poorly staged the entire thing remains. When you then look back on the entire experience, it is fascinating how fleeting it is and how little of an impact it all leaves. Though there are movies that are worse than 65 , it is part of a select few that manage to utterly and completely squander their own potential.

65 is in theaters now.

65 is an action/adventure sci-fi movie from writer/directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. When pilot Mills (Adam Driver) crashes on a mysterious planet, his early investigations immediately reveal to him its not where he is, it's when. Realizing he's stuck on earth 65,000,000 years in the past, he happens upon a young girl survivor named Koa (Ariana Greenblatt) and takes her with him. To survive, the two face off against prehistoric dangers, such as ancient terrain and dinosaurs, as they use Mills' limited tools and whatever they can find to make it back to the future.

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Women of Carbon (2024) Stream and Watch Online

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