Adam Driver is an alien who has crash-landed on Earth. But it is 65 million years ago, so there are dinosaurs to contend with.65may want to beJurassic Park, but is it?
Jurassic Parkis an all-time classic of a movie, and65obviously didn’t fare quite as well. However, is the Adam Driver-led film a complete rip-off of the iconic story?
What Is 65?
The film65follows space pilotMills (Adam Driver), who has left his wife and sick daughter on their home planet to take a group of cryogenically frozen people on a multi-year expedition. The ship is struck by meteors and winds up crashing on Earth. However, it is Earth 65 million years ago.
In the wreckage of the ship, a distraught Mills learns that one other person has survived. The child, Koa (Ariana Greenblatt), speaks very little of his language, and the two must make their way across the hostile landscape to find their escape vessel. On the way, they encounter a variety of dinosaurs, with Mills using his alien weaponry to fight his way through various landscapes.
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As all of this is happening, Koa and Mills realize that the giant, bright shape in the sky is an imminent threat. It is, of course, the asteroid that will kill the dinosaurs. Mills does not know this, but he knows they need to get off the planet before it strikes.
How Close Is 65 to Jurassic Park?
The film wants to be a number of films all rolled into one and still be its own original vision at the same time. The problem is thatJurassic Parkis so ingrained in our minds that certain tropes must be visited before they can pass.
These tropes include the realization that something big is out there by showing us thegigantic Tyrannosaurus Rexfootprint in the mud, the scared but capable child that needs protection, and a hostile environment.
The film draws from multipleJurassic Parkmovies with a “sound from over there” scene, a “two tyrannosaurus attempt to attack a semi-secure vehicle,” and a “big dinosaur head comes through the waterfall” scene. The problem is that these would be a great combination if they were not taken from a genre and not from a specific film series. But if people have seen theJurassic Parkfilms, they are in for no real surprises.
The film also takes a page out of theJurassic Parkplaybook by making it so that even if our heroes can get past the dinosaurs, there is still a wider issue to contend with. InJurassic Park, there is a power issue mixed with a severe storm. In65, there arethe smaller asteroidsthat begin falling mere hours before the giant one actually hits the planet.
Does 65 Pack the Same Punch as Jurassic Park?
InJurassic Park, the big surprise was that the dinosaurs could not just get out of their enclosures but were also breeding. That meant there was the danger of more of them being around every corner. It made for constant surprises.
In65, the surprises have been taken away. There is actual text at the beginning that tells us Mills crashed on Earth 65 million years ago. They missed the biggest reveal, which would have been the odd look up in the night sky to see the glow of the asteroid heading towards them, followed by the dinosaur reveal. Then the audience would have sat up and thought, “Oh man! That’s why it’s called65! They need to avoid the extinction-level event!” But the directors do not trust the audience to make the journey with them.
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Therefore,65does not reach the fascination level that brought people toJurassic Park. It has great visuals, and the dinosaurs look good (except for one baby they save from a tar pit), but this is thirty years afterJurassic Park. The dinosaurs need to look good. They’ve been making CGI dinosaurs for a long time. If65couldn’t get the basics down, it would not even be on people’s radar.
Adam Driver andAriana Greenblatt have great chemistry, with Driver showing that he is a grieving father who welcomes the child into his care. There is no reluctant hero. He wants to save this child, even at the expense of his own life. Driver is a more-than-capable actor who could show range through a brick wall.
For her part, Greenblatt plays the confused alongside the precocious. She’s not cloyingly adorable and is able to show rage and fear without the need for language. Her character is led by Driver to the escape vessel under the guise of finding her family. Her reaction upon realizing it was a ploy to save her is genuine, and Driver gives her room to act.
Greenblatt is the stand-in for the Tim and Lex characters fromJurassic Park. The difference is agency. Koa is obviously a curious child, but her confidence builds as she spends time with Mills. Hers is the arc that doesn’t exist inJurassic Park. Mills is there to protect Koa, but Koa does her fair bit to keep Mills alive as well.
Is It Different Enough to Watch?
65is a simple “get from here to there” movie with dinosaurs.Jurassic Parkwas the same, except when it came out in 1993, it was new. This newness has worn off in the intervening twenty years.65is a movie helmed by Bryan Woods and Scott Beck, two directors who could use more meat on the bone and more trust in their audience. They are no Spielbergs. But for people who wantstraightforward action with a sci-fi twist,65may fill that need.
