Here’s a little-known fact about me, I am a total dinosaur nerd, so I was super excited when I first saw the trailer for writer-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’ movie 65. I finally got a chance to see it this weekend, and needless to say, I have some thoughts.
Warning Spoilers Ahead!
The trailer gave viewers the impression that it was nonstop action, which is false. We were lied to. Instead of an action film, we get a drama that happens to have a few dinosaurs in it.
The major plot twist, which was a pretty good one, was that the planet they landed on was Earth 65 million years ago, only a few days before the asteroid hit Earth that wiped out the dinosaurs.
There’s a character problem. Adam Driver’s character is disconnected and aloof in 99% of the movie, in which he plays the transport ship, Captain Mills. It makes it hard to connect with him. If you can’t connect with a character, what’s the point? Yes, I realize that he’s a grieving father, but still. He spends a lot of the movie being a dick to the only other survivor of his ship’s crash on the uncharted planet, a kid named Koa (Ariana Greenblatt), which makes him even more unlikable.
Can we please talk about all of Mills’ injuries? This guy is beyond clumsy, and he gets hurt again and again throughout the entire movie, but he can keep going almost like nothing is wrong, climbing mountains, giving the girl a piggyback ride after being hit by shrapnel, and immediately after dislocating his shoulder? Really? I’ve dislocated my shoulder twice, and each time I could barely lift my arm for days. I call bullshit. I’m all for creative ways to continue a story, but come on, let’s be a little realistic, please.
The movie lacks character development. We mostly just get Driver being standoffish. The girl also doesn’t really have character development either. The entire movie is meant to be about Mills and the girl building a bond and dealing with loss, but we see very little emotion, even when she discovers her family is dead.
Unfortunately, the pace of the film is off. There are long stretches of sort of mundane scenes with short bursts of action. As a result, the excitement and tension don’t have a real chance to build.
I do have a few issues with the story. Unfortunately, not only is it super predictable, the movie gets some important things very wrong.
- The movie is a million years off. In 2012 the International Commission for Stratigraphy changed the date of the asteroid strike from 65 million years ago to 66 million years ago. So the dinosaurs would already be dead when the ship crashed. Did no one look into this before making the film?
- The dinosaurs look good. Unfortunately, I didn’t see a single one with feathers, which we now know many had.
- The dinosaurs that constantly stalk the duo don’t appear to be based on real dinosaurs. With over 700 real species to choose from, they chose to create one. Why?
- Near the end of the movie, Driver fights what appears to be a T-Rex or some other kind of big dino with four legs. Once again, not a real dinosaur. Paleontologists have never found the fossils of a four-legged predator the size of a T-Rex. Ever. So, why not just make it a second T-Rex?
In the end, It’s a movie designed for entertainment. It’s not a dinosaur documentary, so we have to try to let a lot of things slide. And while dinosaurs are key to the film, it’s not really about them. It’s about a man fighting to save a kid, and both of them dealing with their fear and grief and trying to make a connection. It’s about the emotional journey of the two, which was left lacking.
So does 65 crash and burn? The answer is yes, yes, it does. 65 is out now on Digital to rent and own. You can learn more about 65 here.
