Scott Beck and Bryan Woods
On general release in cinemas
AFTER an asteroid hits his spaceship, astronaut Mills (Adam Driver) crash-lands on Earth while transporting a cargo of intergalactic voyagers kept in cryosleep. But this turns out to be Earth 65 million years ago and, alongside the only other survivor, a young girl named Koa (Ariana Greenblatt), Mills must stay alive in a prehistoric world populated by killer dinosaurs.
That is the premise of 65, a new film written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods that throws up a number of issues 鈥� starting with its title, which is intended to refer to the number of years (in millions) since the end of the Cretaceous period. The problem is that, , the International Commission on Stratigraphy revised the end of the Cretaceous to around 66 million years ago, not the 65.5 million years previously posited. So, if Driver鈥檚 character had landed 65 million years ago, there would have been no dinosaurs to grapple with, given this period concluded with a huge asteroid impact that wiped out these reptiles.
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65 is also a film with a case of identity crisis. Often let down by a jarringly slow-paced narrative, it doesn鈥檛 know what kind of sci-fi movie it wants to be. It is neither exciting enough to be a survival thriller, nor playful enough for a bona fide family adventure.
Despite dealing with some promising, soul-searching ideas relating to grief and parental guilt, the writers opt for the worst kind of preposterous denouement. This film is only about 90 minutes long, but it felt like 3 hours had passed by the time it had ended.
