65 – Movie Review

We have not written a movie review in over a year, the last of which being of Minions 2: Rise of Gru (which you can read at https://rhysreviews.com/2022/07/03/minions-two-rise-of-gru-movie-review/) but if you have been following our blog for a while then you will know that we are massive advocates of the Cineworld unlimited scheme where for the low price of just £11 you can attend as many free movie screenings as you could possibly want! For the more mathematical reader that means that you would only need to attend the cinema twice a month in order to make this investment worth its cost! Not only do you get access to as much cinema as you can handle but you also you also get 10% off in-cinema snacks and exclusive movies invited to premier screenings of new movies. Cineworld have also been known to send random gifts including free popcorn, drinks or nachos to enjoy while watching the latest releases! If you are reading this and thinking you would love nothing more than to get your hands on one of these memberships then we are able to gift you a totally free month of unlimited cinema if you use the code RAF-41UF-82LQ-14EX-70BM.

If think it’s fair to say that every person went through some sort of dinosaur obsession. While the extent of obsession can range from something as in innocent as playing with a plastic version of your favourite raptor to knowing the name of every dinosaur to every exist, I think it’s fair to say that dinosaurs are one of the more popular phases people go through in their younger years! As a simultaneous slight connect d but also random aside, did you know that pterodactyls are not actually classified as dinosaurs because they can fly? This is when it was announced that there would be a new dino-centric movie hitting our screen I was hoping it would tap into the child-like nostalgia! 65 is a brand new movie that tells the story of the intergalactic explorer Mills (played by Adam Driver) who, after a catastrophic crash into an unknown planet, discovers he has landed on Earth except it Is almost sixty-five million years ago in the past. Through his adventure for refuge, Mills discovers he is not only on this pre-historic planet but is joined by Koa (played wonderfully by Ariana Greenblatt) but he is also joined by a group plethora of violent dinosaurs!

Generally speaking, this movie is a masterclass is how to build effective and convincing tension from the opening to the closing moments! The creative team carefully used suspenseful music/deafening silence, contraptions not working until the very last moment, a mysterious monster teasing its presence before it attacks, the two lead characters being forced apart, the iconic shadow of a dinosaur appearing behind the lead characters before being attacked and also dramatic irony of the audience knowing things before the characters do to keep the viewers on the edge of their seats for the majority of the movie. Before our lead character Mills makes the journey into outer space we see a montage of him spending time with his family. He decides to take this supposed “two-year” journey in order to acquire the funds in order to treat his child with a highly rare condition. Not only does this idea of treatment add extra tension as the mission has to take so long so when the crash eventually happens we have the pressure of a time restraint but also explains why he is so quick to develop an almost father/daughter relationship between himself and the newly discovered Koa. I really enjoyed the sequence towards the beginning of the movie where Mills and Koa are travelling through a Forrest and we see the flicker of the early stages of a connection being built. We experience a hilarious slapstick comedy moment where Mills squashes a bug, and tried to wipe of the remains onto a tree only for it to stick and as he pulls back the wood flies towards his head which knocks him over. What is particularly interesting about the co-star of this movie Koa is that she does not speak English. Considering that this is an English medium-produced movie, it is very unusual to have a lead character that does not communicate in the same way as the other characters. However, Ariana Greenblatt still manages to portray every single emotion and feeling of the story without the need of spoken word which is an incredibly difficult thing to do! There is one moment when we learn that Mills has been lying to his adventure partner for the majority of the movie and this causes a major breakdown within Koa that is only resolved after another dinosaur attack.

In conclusion, this movie is a masterclass in the plethora of ways effective tension can be created. Despite being set 65 million years ago, the story includes some real-world issues that not only make sense but help tie together the action on the screen. The sad thing, however, is that due to the inclusion of dinosaurs, this movie will naturally draw comparison to the iconic Jurassic Park franchise which in my opinion can never be topped! Also, a minor gripe I have is that the movie is set sixty-five million years ago and ends with a meteor strike which in fact this cataclysmic shower is supposed happened sixty-six million years ago and so looking forward unto the future the name will become more and more inaccurate. I would rate this movie 3.5 stars out of 5!