Technically they're the first two humans to set foot on Earth

★★ 1/2 out of ★★★★ (👍)

65 (2023)

Runtime: 93 minutes

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

"65" falls into that category of 'it could be better, but at least it's not terrible'. 

This is an example of what Ghosted would have been if it had maintained its mediocre quality. "65" works best as a survival action film, with enough sequences of Adam Driver fighting dinosaurs and him and another survivor hopping from place to place, blessed with stunning scenery that remains interesting even if there are logic errors, the narrative falters, and that the family drama is underwhelming.

It starts off with so much potential, and the concept is so intriguing; advanced human-like civilisations existed 65 million years ago, and that Earth was an unknown planet at the time. Fortunately, it never crumbles to zero after crash-landing on planet Earth and finding a way to escape it. The pacing also feels intentionally slowed to make the experience feel like a 120-minute journey, though I'm not sure whether that completely helps the film. Driver plays pilot Mills, who works as an astronaut to financially aid his ailing daughter, Nevine (Chloe Coleman). On the way back to Somaris, an asteroid belt hits the ship, causing it to crash on an uncharted planet.

Mills considers suicide but finds another survivor, Koa (Ariana Greenblatt). They have communication issues, but Mills discovers an escape shuttle location on a mountain 15 kilometres away from their temporary hideout. However, embarking on the journey is not so simple, as Mills learns that alien creatures, known as dinosaurs, dominate the planet and are highly dangerous.

Directors (and writers) Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who also wrote A Quiet Place, offer abundant landscapes and terrain. It never gets repetitive, and its such a blast to view them, that the nicely captured shots here might as well be used in a documentary. With an estimated budget of $45 million after tax credit, what more could you expect from a movie with so many dazzling settings and a wild variety of dinosaurs?

Moreover, it manages to stick to the survival aspect for adequately long enough, that the way they navigate through the terrain and fend themselves from dinosaurs are always engaging. It does exactly what it promises us to do, with numerous action sequences which get increasingly creative towards the ending, involving knives, tiny bombs, and hot geysers. 

Yet, even though it minimally works, thanks to the constant focus on survival and action, "65" still falls into as many traps as Mills and Koa do throughout the runtime. Part of the trouble is that there isn't much personality to Mills, whose backstory about his daughter never feels compelling or resonating. Video recordings or dreams about his daughter are sporadic and very brief, not giving us enough time to sympathise with his struggle and the entire journey as a whole.

Several scenes are also narratively and logically questionable, like why Mills has to navigate the ship through the asteroid belt at full speed, or why didn't he use his blast gun to get through the rocks. Each intense scene also ends in a "a-ha" moment, where the dinosaur comes out of nowhere and attacks the characters. There's also the predictable climax argument about Koa finding out that Mills lied to her about her family, and a subplot about the incoming asteroid that's about to impact Earth and cause cataclysmic destruction. It's a saddening checklist of stuff that's ticked in the narrative formula sheet, though.

Still, the score always matches with the tone and mood "65" is always trying to create, whether that is tension, relief, shock, or hopelessness. It also ends on a satisfying and rather hilarious way, that who cares if this isn't Adam Driver's best performance? "65" is no art film, but that the stars have enough chemistry and that the concept is not fully squandered, I can't deny I was entertained.