Review: 65 stars Adam Driver in a cliche-ridden sci-fi story

This film was written and directed by Scott Beckett and Bryan Woods, whose best-known credit is the screenplay for the eerie and effective A Quiet Place. There are some similarities to that film here but a lot of differences and despite some good elements, the new film is a disappointment: cliched, clumsy and - despite its economical running time - slow.

The problems begin with the title - 65 what? We find out when more text awkwardly appears under it: it's referring to the time 65 million years ago when an asteroid smashed into Earth, ending the age of the dinosaurs. At least we know what's happening from the start, both from that information dump and from lots of other movies about survival and dinosaurs.

Mills (played by Adam Driver) is a man who is literally on a mission. He's an astronaut from elsewhere in the universe who's on a two-year exploratory mission, piloting a spaceship and a bunch of frozen passengers. He misses his wife and sick daughter immensely but his thoughts are quickly diverted when his vessel is struck by a small asteroid, forcing him to crash land on Earth.

The crash kills most of those on board and,rips the ship into two pieces some distance apart. Mills discovers one survivor, a young girl named Koa (Ariana Greenblatt). She doesn't speak English (which he, in the best tradition of sci-fi expediency, does: wouldn't it have made more sense to have everyone on board speak the same language?) and the translation equipment on board is broken so they have to do the best they can to communicate.

How effective they are in doing so seems to vary depending on the dramatic needs of the plot and the desire to add some poignancy and an occasional touch of humour to what is a very solemn film. Not that the situation they're in is a lark but given how familiar most of this material is, a bit more levity might have helped. Driver is intense and convincing in his role and Greenblatt is appealing as the girl who shows ingenuity and grit when it's needed. But their characters aren't very developed and don't change much so their plight is not as involving as it should have been.

Mills uses some of the equipment that conveniently survived the crash to work out where the other part of the ship - which contains an evacuation vessel - is located. He and Koa must make their way to it: he persuades to go by drawing pictures of her parents, saying they will be there (though not in what condition they will be).

Fortunately, the oxygen on Earth matches that of their planet, another convenience.

Off they go, making their way through unfamiliar terrain and the dangers posed by it and by the many carnivorous creatures who can't wait to get their teeth on the interlopers.

There are also meteorite strikes that just keep coming, reminding us that the big one will soon hit, presenting its own deadline.

It's all familiar and not terribly varied stuff with nothing novel added to make the film stand out.

Jurassic Park, Moon, A Quiet Place - these are the kinds of movies that dealt with this kind of subject matter earlier, and did it better.

On the plus side there are decent special effects, some striking scenery, two strong central performances and an occasional effective burst of action.

But they're not enough to make up for the drawbacks.

Seen at Dendy Cinemas.