65 (2023)

2 Stars (out of 4)

Prehis-snore-ic

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

While this sci-fi/dinosaur movie is competently made, it really only has one good idea, and doesn't do much with it; the rest is generic, familiar, and fails to generate much suspense or emotion.

Astronaut Mills (Adam Driver), from the planet Somaris, agrees to a two-year-trip through space, since the increased pay will help pay his daughter's medical expenses. Unfortunately, while in cryosleep, the ship is pelted with asteroids and is forced to make a crash landing. Only Mills and the young girl Koa (Ariana Greenblatt) survive.

But worse, they find themselves on Earth, 65 million years ago, when the dinosaurs roamed. Now they must hike 15 kilometers across a deadly, man-eating landscape to find the only surviving escape pod. But there's another problem. The asteroid that hit their ship was only a small one.

The first thing we must accept in 65 is that there's another planet that has human life, and they speak English and act just like Earth humans. After the crash, we get all the usual CGI dinosaur attacks and jump-scares, all stuff we've seen in the six Jurassic Park movies. The screenplay, following a beat-by-beat, three-act formula sets up all the elements it's going to use during the final payoff, and it's all stuff we notice because there's not much else to think about.

But perhaps the weirdest touch in this movie is the decision to have Koa speak a different language (she's from a different "district" than Mills). This leads to many scenes of Mills trying to force Koa to learn English words — which she gamely does — rather than trying to understand what she's saying. It's all a bit of a drag — like Land of the Lost with the fun taken out — and 65 leaves us feeling dino-sore.