Based on the early reviews, Adam Driver’s ’65’ is already extinct

Sci-fi thriller 65 has been one of the quieter big releases as of late, and when you’re surrounded by the likes of Creed III, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, and box office rival Scream VI, no one can blame you for being knocked down the pecking order, so to speak.

However, you wouldn’t think that would be the case given the film’s blockbuster-worthy premise; 65 stars Adam Driver as an intergalactic pilot named Mills, who crash-lands on Earth during the Cretaceous period. Armed with a nifty-looking rifle and a young companion by the name of Koa (Ariana Greenblatt), Mills must fight his way through each and every prehistoric threat he comes across if he wants to come out of this alive.

Indeed, one would think that combining Driver with dinosaurs would safely yield success as far as making a good movie goes, but according to the first reviews for the Sam Raimi-produced dino-stomper, audiences just might find themselves hoping for the next meteorite to strike if it means getting out of this one early.

Benjamin Lee of The Guardian, in a two star review, marked 65 as dead on arrival, and while it’s not entirely without its worth, squandering such an electrifying premise is criminal enough.

“It’s almost impossible sitting down to watch the loopy sci-fi thriller 65 without being niggled by a familiar sinking feeling, like you’re about to eat a meal that you know won’t agree with your system.”

Variety‘s Todd Gilchrist argued that Driver’s combat scenes with the dinosaurs were at least passable as mind-numbing action, but the film still couldn’t stop itself from falling victim to tired story beats and becoming an ultimately unoriginal sum of its parts.

“Yet anchored by another in a series of committed performances from Adam Driver and an ensemble of suitably menacing prehistoric beasts that chase him for just over 90 minutes, Beck and Woods’ adventure delivers requisite thrills even if its creativity seems stuck in the distant cinematic past.”

And Frank Scheck, in his review for The Hollywood Reporter, called the film “underwhelming” while also suggesting that its lackluster creativity places it a good many years behind its time.

“That childlike enthusiasm permeates every frame of 65, which plays like something you might have seen at a drive-in decades ago on a double-bill with The Valley of Gwangi or When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth. Unfortunately, Hollywood has raised the stakes mightily since then, so what could have been a perfectly viable B-picture back in the day now just seems rather low-rent compared with the sci-fi blockbusters of recent years.”

In a world of franchise films, a lot of hopes were riding on 65 to deliver some more independent goods as an original IP, but sadly, the one new idea in a sea of sequels somehow managed to be the least creative of all.

Nevertheless, it does deliver on its promise of making Driver fight dinosaurs, and if that’s all you really need, be sure to grab a ticket for 65, which is now playing in theaters.