65

65 (2023)

Image From IMDB

Kylo Ren battling dinosaurs in order to save baby Ashoka is the Star Wars spin-off we’ve all been crying out for, and 65 delivers. Ok, maybe that’s not the actual pitch for this highly entertaining and emotional genre piece, but it’s mine.

65 follows alien astronaut Mills (Adam Driver) who’s long haul transport ship crash lands on Earth after running afoul of a rogue asteroid field. Worse than an alien landing on our hostile planet, is an alien landing on Earth 65 million years ago when dinosaurs roamed the planet and wanted to eat everything in sight. Joined by the only other survivor Koa (Adriana Greenblatt) the pair have to navigate the dangerous landscape and reach the escape ship before dino’s snack on them, or the enormous asteroid heading to Earth obliterates them.

I was excited when I first saw the trailer for this one, but the movie was way better than I expected. I got my fun dinosaur sci-fi, but with it came two fantastic central performances and a lot more emotion than you’d expect from a movie that involves Adam Driver firing a shotgun at a T-Rex in the middle of a meteoroid shower.

The father daughter relationship is a tried and tested trope that might be emotionally manipulative at times, but it’s really built well into the story in 65 with both actors, the writer, and the director, all understanding their assignment. Mills has lost his daughter, and Kao has lost her parents. Both need each other, but as they speak different languages they have to connect through their actions instead. It’s heart warming stuff.

Despite a short runtime compared to modern standards the movies not in a rush either–-thank fuck. There’s plenty of little things set-up that pay off later, and each reveal is masterfully tackled for what could be considered a B-Movie concept. The dinosaurs are slowly introduced with each reveal getting bigger––literally and figuratively––and I love the way the planet destroying asteroid was handled. Structurely, this movie is sound.

The on-location shooting was refreshing––again for modern movies–-and the effects department done their job. Sadly the days of animatronics and claymation aren’t coming back anytime soon, but the dinosaurs looked cool in this one. I liked the minimum world building and the gadgets at their disposal, but really this movie was all about performance. With that mentioned, I also loved how intense Driver looked with a rifle in his hand and wasn’t suprised to learn he was a former marine. I instantly brought him carrying that weapon.

I see plenty of bad reviews for 65, and honestly, I find them kind of baffling. I’m not sure what people expected going into this movie, but my expectations were high and 65 far exceeded them. It’s fun, while not being utterly ridiculous––ok maybe the end sequence––and tells a great simplistic story in a superb setting. I don’t have much love for modern Hollywood, but for me, this is one of the best sci-fi’s to come out of Tinsletown in the last 10-15 years.