‘65’ movie review: A disappointing survival drama that hits us like an asteroid

Adam Driver and Ariana Greenblatt in a scene from ‘65’

After finding himself in a world he wasn’t prepared to survive in, a man has to embark on a journey along with a girl child, roughly the same age as his dead daughter, traversing through elements that want to kill them. If that plot reminds you of The Last Of Us that’s heading towards its first season’s final episode, you haven’t mistaken. Swap the post-apocalyptic world for an Earth 65 million years ago, riddled with dinosaurs and where every flora and fauna wants to kill you, similar to the clickers from the video game/TV series, and we’ve got 65.

Mills (Adam Driver), the sole pilot of a spaceship, crashes on an unfamiliar planet thanks to rogue asteroids striking their vessel. As expected, the mishap kills almost the entire crew who were in cryogenic sleep, except for the young Koa (Ariana Greenblatt). Trying to assess the situation and map a route to go back home, the duo get the shock of their lives when they find out that they’ve landed on prehistoric Earth. With salvation meaning a long hike through unknown terrains, the unlikely duo has to face the odds stacked high against them in order to survive.

On paper, this looks like an exciting proposition and The Last of Us proved it to be a tried and tested template. But the film flounders because of its incapacity to replicate the character development and the bond between the leads that develop over time which became the reason we cared about Joel and Ellie. 65’s biggest shortcoming is its unoriginality. The film reeks with ‘oh wait, I know which film this is from’ moments throughout its thankfully short runtime. Apart from The Last of Us and the discernible resemblance to the Jurassic Park movies, tropes like shooting monsters, protecting the unarmed kid at the very last moment and even hordes of people dying in their cryo-sleep remind us of countless monster and space films.

What could be pointed out as one of the very few positives of 65 is the jumpscares and given how directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods wrote the brilliant A Quiet Place, this shouldn’t be a surprise. Despite the film offering very little for its lead actors to work with, the ever-dependable Adam Driver tries his might to save this film. 65 does a decent job of establishing Mills’ past and the traumas he carries but the film fails to show why that equates to the lengths he goes to save a stranger like Koa. The tech, the weapons and the gadgets are fascinating but they also remind you of video games like Halo. Thanks to all of these missteps, what’s supposed to be a slick action-thriller involving cool monster action on the surface and bottled-up emotions at its core ends up being a predicament and despite a 90-minute runtime, 65 feels like it runs for 65 million years.

65 is currently playing in theatres