From the creative minds of the storytellers who wrote A Quiet Place, comes their latest thriller, 65. Scott Beck and Bryan Woods have made quite an impression in Hollywood. From A Quiet Place and its sequel to Haunt, The Boogeyman and 65, they have become a "dream team" of co-writers/co-directors whose work tends to be met with approval. However, success tends to be a double-edged sword because after A Quiet Place was critically acclaimed and made plenty of money at the box office, expectations were obviously high to continue to deliver quality films. Of course, since then, they have had hits and misses with 65 being more of the latter.
Pilot Mills (Adam Driver; Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens) takes a two-year assignment on a space expedition in order to pay for his daughter's medical treatments. However, during the mission the spaceship is struck by asteroids and is destroyed after crash landing on an unknown planet. All of the passengers on board died in the crash except one young girl named Koa (Ariana Greenblatt; Avengers: Infinity War) who reminds Mills of his daughter. When Mills discovers there is a functional escape pod, they begin their journey to locate it however, there are obstacles, in the form of pre-historic creatures, in their way.
Driver is always very good no matter what role he takes on, whether it is a spaceship pilot battling dinosaurs or Darth Vader's grandson battling the force and the inner conflict that wages war inside him. With 65, since there isn't a tremendous amount of dialogue, he must rely on his facial expressions and physicality to tell various parts of the story. Greenblatt is a good choice to act against Driver because she has been in a number of productions and she has been named one to watch in "young Hollywood".
When it comes to the visuals and special effects in 65, Dolby Vision is a mixed blessing. The picture is excellent with clean lines and sharp details. Unfortunately, the superior quality also shows the flaws in the CGI dinosaurs which can be rather distracting.
Luckily, the Dolby Atmos audio doesn't suffer the same fate. Ambient sounds are layered and robust with dinosaur roars coming at the viewer from every direction. The dialogue also sounds solid with much of it sitting comfortably in the front speakers. Even though some of the sights and sounds aren't the best, overall the 4K disc offers more visually and aurally than the accompanying Blu-ray disc.
The combo pack comes with the 4K and Blu-ray Discs and digital download. There are only 30 minutes of extras including Deleted Scenes, Set In Stone - Filmmakers, Future Of Yesterday - Creating The World Of 65, Primordial Planet, and Final Showdown - Concepts To Screen. None of the extras include interviews with the cast and what they do offer is mostly fluff.
65 has all the elements to be a great film...strong script, good video and audio quality, excellent actors, and proven directors...but the movie never seems to come together. It is easy to tell that 65 is a Beck/Woods creation and production as it has as much silence as it has dialogue and environmental sounds. Unfortunately, once the key components are identified the story falls flat. Honestly, how many times in less than 90 minutes can an audience watch the characters evade and defend themselves against dinosaurs and a harsh landscape?
And if all that wasn't enough, Mills and Koa have to try and reach the escape pod and get off planet before a huge asteroid crashes into it and destroys everything on Earth. The premise of there being life on other planets that happen to crash on pre-historic Earth is both interesting and unimaginable.
In this case, the home entertainment quality is outstanding but, sadly, the story isn't.
Grade: C
