Movie Review: 65 (2023)

Synopsis: Mills, a pilot from the planet Somaris, agrees to a 2-year space expedition to fund treatments for his daughter, Nevine, who is suffering from a deadly illness. The ship is struck by an asteroid and crash lands on prehistoric Earth, killing all on board except for Mills and the 9-year-old Koa. Their only hope is the escape shuttle that landed on a mountain top 15 kilometers away, a journey that requires them to face both dinosaurs and other potential dangers, before an asteroid much larger than the one that brought the ship down crashes into the planet.

Who's in it? The movie stars Adam Driver, Ariana Greenblatt, Chloe Coleman and Nika King.

Review: I briefly considered seeing this movie when it was at our local theater but could only afford to see one film and chose Scream VI instead. Even though it didn't do well as a theatrical release, I remained intrigued and was finally able to watch it on Netflix last night. Overall, I thought it was an entertaining film.

If you're looking for a film that is going to be 100 percent historically and scientifically accurate, this probably isn't going to be the movie for you. However, if you're like me and try not to overthink things like "should the dinosaurs have feathers," or "didn't that asteroid strike Earth a million years earlier," and just enjoy the action, this is a good choice.

I think the thing I liked most about the film was how there were just enough perilous obstacles without crossing a point where it was a bit ridiculous. Yes, there were deadly dinosaurs, but they weren't constantly under attack and that made the movie a lot less predictable because you never knew when the next attack would happen.

My wife and I both liked the character, Koa (Greenblatt). She seemed bright for her age but also brought some realistic unpredictability, such as when she puts their lives in danger trying to save a trapped dinosaur and her reaction to what happened a few minutes later. Her and Mills (Driver) speaking different languages added another unique complication to their already dangerous journey.

In all honesty, probably my only real complaint about this movie was Mills. For someone who was supposed to be the hero of the film, he sure got himself hurt a lot, almost to cartoon-like proportions, whether it was falling out of a tree, nearly dying in quicksand, being bitten by a dinosaur or somehow injuring his ankle jumping over a log. I found it kind of humorous how much damage he sustained when Koa didn't have a single scratch and I'm not sure if humor was what the filmmakers were going for.

I also thought Chloe Coleman was a bit underused as Mills' daughter, Nevine. She's a talented young actress who was excellent in movies like Gunpowder Milkshake and Dungeon & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves but was limited to a very small role with no impact on the overall plot (other than her being the reason he left in the first place). 

On top of it, the whole illness angle didn't really work for me. It's an advanced race that has mastered intergalactic space travel but doesn't have universal health care or doctors who can find a cure for what she has? At minimum, you would think they would have put her in a cryogenic state to keep her alive until they found the cure. Oops, there I go being guilty of overthinking things, as I said you shouldn't do.

Final Opinion: As I said, it's a film of scientific inaccuracies. However, if you ignore them, it is an entertaining movie.

My Grade: B