65 Review: Dull Dino Action

Despite its non-stop action, 65 is a dull dinosaur movie with perfunctory B-movie thrills.

Before the advent of mankind, other civilizations explored the universe. On planet Somaris, pilot Mills (Adam Driver) is assigned on a two-year exploration run. His ship encounters an unexpected asteroid belt and crashes on an unknown planet. Mills discovers that the planet is Earth 65 million years ago. With only one chance at rescue, Mills and another lone survivor Koa (Arianna Greenblatt) must cross a terrain inhabited by prehistoric creatures.

The contradicting premise aside, 65 has all the bones of a B-movie that could be a disposable but entertaining popcorn sci-fi that you can stream on a Sunday. Unfortunately, 65 is just an outline of a B-movie made from a bunch of sci-fi B-movie cliches with Adam Driver’s name added to sell it.

65 is a family drama and survival story plugged into a dinosaur action movie. It doesn’t have enough to be either taken seriously or become a so-bad-its-good flick.

There’s nothing to its characters. The movie wants to create a father-daughter type of relationship to make us invested in their journey but doesn’t bother to develop it.

The bond between them is limited to Koa making fun of Mills for being uptight, and Mills mimicking basic words he says to her like “family” because she doesn’t speak English. They’re also stuck with each other in an inhospitable landscape, so there’s no tension either.

In another movie, these two would share an open fire and have an exposition-laced conversation, but 65 thrusts them into non-stop peril. This plot choice would’ve been enjoyable if the action isn’t too repetitive.

There’s a jumpscare, a chase, a narrow escape, and an injury. There’s no suspense in these scenes because they’re resolved quickly to get the pair back on track for another sequence. Mills has gadgets but they’re not utilized in creative ways for something different other than the stomp-and-chomp dino horror.

These scenes aren’t different from what you’ve seen in Jurassic Park. The CGI dinosaurs don’t suspense disbelief one bit. On top of that, this movie loves to overexplain by having Mills repeatedly look at a scoping gadget as if it’s assuming its audience is going to be too dumb to understand a basic premise.

The actors do their best to sell 65, but their talents are underutilized. Adam Driver is at his best when he’s hamming it up but the most he gets is a bland hero. Arianne Greenblatt gets nothing to work with because you’ll know nothing about Koa, except that she has a family.

In the end, you’ll get a glimpse of what this movie could have been had it committed to its silliness. But it’s all too late.