'65' review: Who wins when Adam Driver fights dinosaurs? The audience.
Is 65 ridiculous? Absolutely. Is it trope-y and occasionally too self-serious for its own good? Also yes. But did I still have the time of my life? You're darn right I did.
Of course, it probably helps that I'm obsessed with the core premise: "Adam Driver fights dinosaurs." Take an Oscar nominee renowned for his intensity, pit him against a bunch of prehistoric predators, and I am 100 percent in.
65 also incorporates the "lone wolf and cub" trope and a narrative about familial grief, but it works best when it's a no-holds barred thriller about — say it with me now — Adam Driver fighting dinosaurs. While these Driver-dino showdowns, tragically, happen less often than they should, much of the rest of the film builds enjoyably to these encounters, with some particularly great sequences overshadowing 65's clunkier narrative beats.
Why is Adam Driver even fighting these dinosaurs?
While the trailers for 65 tell you that "65 million years ago, humans discovered Earth," it's important to note that 65 is not a time travel story. Instead, the film tells us in its opening text that "prior to the advent of mankind", other civilizations are exploring space. Don't think too hard about it — whatever gets us to the dinosaurs fastest.
65 follows Mills (Driver), a pilot from one such civilization who takes a longer exploratory mission in order to get more money to care for his sick daughter Nevine (Chloe Coleman). An undocumented asteroid belt takes out his ship and most of his passengers in cryostasis, leaving only himself and young Koa (Ariana Greenblatt) as survivors. Their only hope of making it home is a faraway escape pod, but hordes of dinosaurs and natural hazards stand in their way.
The ensuing story feels like what you'd get if Jurassic Park, The Last of Us, and After Earth (bear with me) had a B-movie baby, alternating between dino-centric set pieces and sequences of bonding between a gruff survivalist man and a precocious child. Driver and Greenblatt share a sweet rapport, and even though their characters don't speak the same language, you don't have trouble believing their connection.
Some of Mills and Koa's bonding scenes can feel a little overly cutesy, while the many flashbacks to Mills's daughter steer into corny territory. Any time Mills watches Koa doing something, there's a chance he'll remember something similar with Nevine. For example, a moment Koa takes to examine a river transitions to a day Mills and Nevine spent at the beach. Writers and directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who also co-wrote A Quiet Place, hammer us over the head with Mills and Koa's newfound father-daughter relationship, when we can tell that's coming from the moment the two meet.
Despite these flaws, 65 wrings some very cool moments out of the threats posed by prehistoric Earth. An erupting geyser makes for a surprisingly effective jump scare, while a claustrophobic cave system gifts us with a harrowing chase and fight sequence. Greenblatt and especially Driver do enough walking, climbing, and full-on sprinting around these ancient landscapes that we get a solid idea of the mammoth scope of this world — and how small they are within it.
65's dinosaur fights are fun — and I wish there were more of them.
You can't do "Adam Driver fights dinosaurs" without the dinosaurs, and 65 comes through with some truly bloodthirsty raptors and T-Rexes — as well as a higher-than-expected volume of really nasty bugs. Driver blasts through the majority of them with his handy-dandy laser gun. Did I fist pump when he headshotted a particularly fearsome foe? Maybe, who's to say? (Of course I did.)
But as was my complaint with Cocaine Bear, 65's twin in wild premises, we definitely could have used more time with the film's main beasties. The film pays homage to Jurassic Park throughout, including with a rainy T-Rex jumpscare, but we have little chance to wonder at these beings before they start gnashing their teeth.
Part of this may be due to 65's sub-90-minute runtime, which is an ideal length for a popcorn flick but also results in some rushed sequences of dino mayhem. However, the film's final sequence, in which Driver and Greenblatt square off against multiple T-Rexes and an asteroid shower is an absolute treat of sci-fi madness. Truly, nothing could have prepared me for the joy I felt when 65 unveiled its secondary "antagonist" to be an asteroid on course to hit Earth — maybe even the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs. These are the levels of genre ridiculousness I signed up for, people!
Even though the film's premise is out there, Driver approaches the role of Mills with his usual combination of intense commitment and physicality, and perhaps that's why I ended up so invested in Mills and Koa's journey. The way these two fight tooth and nail through every obstacle Earth throws at them is oddly inspiring, to the point that my most cynical 65 thoughts fell to the wayside. Sure, a space-tinged dinosaur thriller sounds bananas, but I choose to embrace it. Adam Driver does indeed fight dinosaurs, and although it is indeed flawed, it is also pretty awesome.
65 hits theaters Mar. 10.