Rating C｜“65”，Jurassic Dinosaur vs Predator 

Recently, a new action movie about dinosaurs was released.

"65" is a CGI film that delivers immense satisfaction. It doesn't merely showcase visual effects, but instead employs the technology to enhance the emotional impact of the film. The story revolves around Miller (played by Adam Driver) and Koa (played by Ariana Greenblatt), who journey back 65 million years to a pivotal moment in Earth's history.

Miller, a skilled pilot, is hired for a two-year deep-space mission that promises three times his usual pay. However, the price he must pay is being separated from his beloved wife (Nika King) and daughter (Chloe Coleman) for an extended period of time. The family desperately needs the money due to the exorbitant cost of healthcare in their technologically advanced society, where their daughter is critically ill.

Koa, a nine-year-old passenger, is cryogenically frozen during the return trip. However, the ship encounters an unexpected asteroid swarm, resulting in a catastrophic crash that kills all other passengers and leaves Miller injured with shrapnel wounds to his abdomen. Fortunately, the advanced medical equipment on the ship helps him recover partially.

The majority of the film follows Miller and Koa, who speak different languages, as they embark on a treacherous journey from the wreckage of the ship to the other half where the escape pod is located, 15 kilometers away atop a mountain. In this prehistoric Earth, teeming with flowering plants and coniferous forests 65 million years ago, they encounter indigenous fauna that view them as food rather than foreign visitors. Additionally, the same asteroid swarm that damaged their ship contains a massive asteroid that is on track to cause the extinction of dinosaurs and 75% of all life on Earth.

This may be an interesting piece of speculative fiction, but the story itself is a character study of two people without a common language forced to rely on each other in order to survive. And in this it is, ahem, stellar. Driver, an ordinary guy with the proper sort of emergency training for his job, displays uncommon sensitivity and empathy for the child he can’t help but see through the lens of his daughter so many light-years away. It is a performance of strength and gentleness and a fair amount of controlled desperation as he encounters the ever-popular deinonychus almost as soon as he sets foot outside his half of the ship. As for Koa, described as being from the, perhaps, wild region of the Upper Territories, Greenblatt gives an emotionally charged performance that knows a child in shock would be silent not hysterical. She shows her own amount of controlled desperation to see her parents again after Miller, in equal measures of kindness and need to get her to cooperate, tells her using drawings and sign language that they are still alive and waiting for her on the mountain top. The jut of her chin coupled with the barest bite of the lip tells the story of what she is going through, and that she is a force motived to be reckoned with.

Audiences have long been accustomed to see dinosaurs plod and menace their way across film screens, and so it is incumbent on a director to present these creatures in ways that make it fresh. There is little one can do, I think, with a T. Rex attacking, but our introduction to the ancient creatures roaming here is with a slow reveal of a giant skeleton that evokes wary awe in Miller, giving us the same feeling as that rib cage just keeps on going. The writing is taut and quick-paced as this unlikely pair traverse a landscape that constantly surprises them and rarely with delight. The narrative necessity of them bonding is handled adroitly, with Koa proving to have more mettle (and ingenuity) than either Miller or we initially expected. The dangers continue until the end, with this nature, like Darwin’s description so much later, red in tooth and claw. Not to mention very big and very gooey bugs.

Credit goes to the ingenious thought process that conceived the advanced technology. It's familiar enough to be recognizable, yet cleverly distinctive. The rifle has limitations, the canteen serves as a food tester, and the computer, despite its crash and subsequent unknown location and off-course trajectory, is not all-knowing. The portable version of the computer also comes in handy, revealing to us the events unfolding in the pitch darkness of a cave, adding an intriguing element to the story.

True, there may be an element of contrivance in the fact that Miller and Koa are compatible with the air and water of the ancient era in which they find themselves, and arrive just as the Chicxulub asteroid is about to end the Cretaceous Era. But let's overlook that for now. It provides us with a unique opportunity to witness an educated guess of what that time period might have been like leading up to the catastrophic impact. What we get is a thrilling adventure, brimming with excitement and a captivating story to match.