Why So Blu?

65 (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)

One of the year’s more notable wide releases that didn’t really connect with anyone, yet had an intriguing premise and trailer was that of the Adam Driver-starring 65. This comes from the writing team behind the A Quiet Place movies. This one bombed pretty badly, but no is the time to safely take it in; the comfort of your own home. The film released on 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray on May 30th. 65 comes loaded with some featurettes, deleted material and a Dolby Atmos track. You can order yourself a copy of Adam Driver vs Dinos by using the paid Amazon Associates link that follows the review at the bottom of the page.

.

.

Film

After a catastrophic crash on an unknown planet, pilot Mills (Adam Driver) quickly discovers he’s actually stranded on Earth…65 million years ago. Now, with only one chance at rescue, Mills and the only other survivor, Koa (Ariana Greenblatt), must make their way across an unknown terrain riddled with dangerous prehistoric creatures in an epic fight to survive.

65 doesn’t really off too much even on the surface level of popcorn munching entertainment. I went in open minded, hoping for more from this movie, but it didn’t want to give me any of that. Its a script that has things in place to make it more interesting, yet never chooses those avenues and does a lot to keep the viewer detached from investing in anything to do with the characters or relationships in the film. There’s a lot of stuff going on that the film thinks is clever or interesting, yet never gives a reason for it to be other than the writers just made that decision because they thought it was shocking, neat or interesting. Its a box of some really tasty looking cereal, but they decided to stop at the box and not have any of that cereal inside of it.

There are plenty of threads that the writers think are interesting but never connect. The big 16 minute mark surprise they give us is with the title is that Adam Driver has crash landed on earth 65 million years ago. So, its not some weird planet. Its the one we live on. But, that’s it. Nothing interesting, no purpose, its just almost smug like they came up with the title and then wanted to wait til people saw the movie for this big nothing burger reveal. And later on, we find out its at the time of the meteor about to cause dino extinction, and again, nothing really important of that.

Drive does his best, and he gives a fine performance which makes it more watchable. His character oddly is given a rando he needs to help survive and get off planet with him. Though, in the opening we see he has a family and a daughter to which this girl is suppose to remind. Why couldn’t they have just made this girl be his daughter? It could add some stakes, weight and emotional heft to this. Instead, we get a movie where a guy is alone with a young girl who is not his daughter and also can’t communicate. Its pretty bizarre.

And not to fault the movie, but the dinosaurs aren’t in this much because they cost a lot of money. So, we are treat to a lot of wandering. And the terrains aren’t too interesting and the journey itself rather uninteresting and boring. I get the idea of a man alone, stranded on a planet being good for something in the science fiction realm, but they just can’t figure out what to do with it aside from ideas and reveals that don’t add up to anything or add to the film or characters much at all.

There’s a nifty premise and star to boast 65, but it never really gets beyond any of that and lands on the “what was the point of this?” feeling when finishing it. I don’t much begrudge the low budget or resources, its moreso the script with no sense of purpose or choosing to find no engagement or drama where the opportunities are waving their hands. Not wanting to continually pile on and bag on the movie, but like the discoveries our characters find in the movie show us: there’s not much there.

Video

Disclaimer: Screen captures used in the review are from the standard Blu-ray disc, not the 4K UHD Blu-ray disc.

Encoding: HEVC / H.265

Resolution: 4K (2160p)

Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1

Layers: BD-66

Clarity/Detail:  65 features are rock solid, pretty rad transfer here in its debut on 4K. The dinosaurs hold up well, but some of the space and ship stuff in the first act are a little revealing on this disc. Nonetheless it is loaded with fine details in this sharp and crisp picture that has a nice, natural looking color palette and has some good black levels to boot.

Depth: Depth of field is solid an there’s a nice sense of space and scale for this “big” but small movie. Movements are smooth, natural and find no issue with blur or jitter during the rapid action sequences.

Black Levels: Black levels are deep and natural and craft some good nighttime and shadow work throughout the film. Information keeps rather decently in the darker corners of the frame. No crushing witnessed.

Color Reproduction: Colors are pretty bold and mostly rustic in their look. Some of the fabrics and machinery showcase more of the prettier looking colors. HDR comes in good with nice contrast to the darkness helping some of the more sci fi looking things to allow their colors to pop and glow.

Flesh Tones: Skin tones are natural and consistent from start to finish. Facial features and textures on our limited characters are clear as day and discernible from any given distance in the frame.

Noise/Artifacts: Clean.

Audio

Audio Format(s): English Dolby Atmos, English Audio Descriptive Service, French 5.1 DTS-HD MA, Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 DTS-HD MA, Thai 5.1 Dolby Digital

Subtitles: English, English SDH, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, French, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai

Dynamics: For a movie I really didn’t care for, 65 delivers an amazing audio experience as it is loud, involving and carries a weight and depth in this layered track. There’s a good balance between the vocals, music and effects. Said effects are loud, powerful and make you feel the force of the action scenes and the “day in the life” of the quieter scenes.

Height: The ceiling channels have a lot of fun here and are quite loud and participatory. Things flying above, debris falling, water dripping, characters jumping over camera and more “heighten” the experience.

Low Frequency Extension: The subwoofer crushes here. Lots of crashing, blasting, stomping, roaring, rumbling and more with a hammer of force.

Surround Sound Presentation:  This swings all over the room with good force. The rolling, atmospheric sound is everywhere, creating an amazing environment and really tracking and translating the action with great accuracy and ultimate impact.

Dialogue Reproduction: Vocals are clear, vibrant and crisp.

Extras

65 comes with the standard Blu-ray edition and a redeemable digital code.

Deleted Scenes (HD, 8:03)

Set In Stone: Filmmakers (HD, 4:21) – Wanted to make a dinosaur movies since they were kids.

Future of Yesterday: Creating the World of 65 (HD, 4:56) – “Crash land from one movie into a better movie”

Primordial Planet (HD, 2:30) – A parody of a nature program set to Earth of 65.

Final Showdown: Concepts To Screen (HD, 10:14) – Storyboard and pre-vis stuff playing with a PIP of the actual part in the film.

Previews: The Woman King, missing, Big George Foreman, Bullet Train, The Pope’s Exorcist

Summary

65 is one of the higher profile bombs of 2023 both critically and commercially. Despite my misgivings about the film, its presentation is dynamite. Extras are soft but decent. If you’ve not seen the film, I’d recommend renting or waiting for it to hit a streaming service you subscribe to before buying. If you’re a fan, I’m sure this’ll hit a discount price by the holiday season that you can easily hold out for to get a good deal.

This is a paid Amazon Associates link