65 is an old-fashioned B movie creature feature with a modern sci-fi feature budget. Brought to us by the duo Scott Beck and Bryan Scott (best known for 2018’s A Quiet Place), 65 manages just enough in terms of pacing and set pieces to keep viewers moderately entertained, and it fortunately doesn’t stretch its comparatively brisk 93-minute run time. However, it never quite reaches the levels that the bones of its sci-fi genre structure could build to.
Sixty-five million years ago, space pilot Mills (Adam Driver) crash-lands on a distant planet—Earth during the age of dinosaurs. Mills quickly learns that the crew and passengers all died in the crash except for one, a young girl named Koa (Ariana Greenblatt). With their ship destroyed, the unlikely pair are forced to traverse a hostile environment to make it to their escape shuttle and rendezvous with a rescue ship.
Driver and Greenblatt both give committed enough performances, but 65 lacks any real sense of awe or surprise; Beck and Scott fail to expand on its concept to integrate any interesting ideas. Ultimately the planet Mills and Koa land on could be anywhere at any time, and the creatures they fight could be anything. Beck and Scott chose Earth and dinosaurs, but the question they fail to elaborate on is, why?
65 is a half-spectacle where the danger is choreographed to the point of predictability, and what should be the highest stakes don’t ever feel particularly risky. The film and the audience would’ve been better served had 65 leaned into and expanded upon its genre premise, or even leaned into the ridiculousness of its plot. Instead, it falls into a middle category, neither carrying serious heft nor utilizing the concept of Adam Driver fighting dinosaurs to its absurd potential. PG-13, 93 min.