65 million years ago, a visitor crash landed on earth. This is the text that follows the title sequence of the 2023 movie “65” starring Adam Driver, Ariana Greenblatt and a bunch of CGI dinosaurs.
Directed and written by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, “65” presents a captivating sci-fi plot centered around Mills (Adam Driver), an interplanetary spaceflight pilot who crash-lands on an unfamiliar planet; a minor girl called Koa (Ariana Greenblatt) is the sole survivor besides himself. Unfortunately, the script fails to go beyond the basic premise of an older adult taking charge of a child while they navigate through dinosaur-infested terrain and make their way to an escape pod. A sentimental sub-plot about Mills having a dying daughter (Chloe Coleman) back home does little to make the audience emotionally connect with the story.
Netflix’s “Troll” was much more entertaining than this, and I’m only drawing the comparison because both films target viewers who enjoy titles like Jurassic Park. “They probably thought that since pairing Pedro Pascal with a kid in anything turns into gold, why not pair Adam Driver with a kid and roll with it,” a friend who also watched the film in fragments told me. However, the interactions between Mills and Koa are dry, mundane, as the dialogues suffer from lack of imagination and we are supposed to laugh at Koa making faces behind his back. Additionally, the cinematography fails to capture the breathtaking essence of the Mesozoic Era as one would expect.
“65” should’ve been either a 30 minutes short film, or should’ve had more characters and a dash of fantasy for it to be more interesting. Stream it on Netflix if you must.
