What's better than Jurassic Park? First, nothing. Nothing better than Jurassic Park. But, and it's a big but, what if something was? Let's say, a futuristic movie a la Jurassic Park?
Step Forward 65, the upcoming sci-fi thriller from Sony Pictures starring Adam Driver (Star Wars, A Marriage Story), is written by the visionaries behind A Quiet Place and produced by Doctor Strange 2's Sam Raimi.
OK, what does this have to do with dinosaurs? More importantly, what about Jurassic Park? Well, Mills, that's the name of Driver's space pilot in '65, crash-lands on an unknown planet when a particular mission goes awry. It turns out that the world he crashes into is none other than Earth. 65 million years ago. At the height of the Cretaceous period. Watch? Now the movie title makes sense!
Anyway, here's the official trailer for 65, if you haven't seen it yet:
Now is it just me or does it really look like a decent watch? Granted, it's not going to live up to the power of 1993's Jurassic Park (read our ranking of every Jurassic movie to date). After all, we've already established that few movies can live up to this masterpiece.
65 doesn't look too bad though (for a film with a €91 million budget, you really wouldn't expect less). It takes the best of the dinosaur disaster movie formula—namely, big, scary reptiles who want an easy lunch and smashes the place—and casts them, along with one of the world's greatest actors, into a sci-fi thriller. scenario with a semi-convincing narrative. What's not to like?
Speaking of its plot, in a press release, Sony explained a bit more about what audiences can munch on when 65 hits theaters next year. "After a catastrophic accident on an unknown planet, pilot Mills (Adam Driver) quickly discovers that he is 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 fight their way through uncharted terrain infested with dangerous prehistoric creatures in an epic fight for survival."
And let's be clear here: there haven't been many top-tier dinosaur movies in a long time. Jurassic Park (yes, I'll mention it for the fourth time) reigns supreme, but what other movies with dinosaurs can be considered good?
The Good Dinosaur, one of Pixar's animated movies (read our classified op of Pixar movies while you're here), could be considered one, depending on who you ask. The 1988 animated adventure film The Land Before Time is also a cult classic. I guess I could also include one of the many King Kong movies here, since there are dinosaurs in every one of the giant ape movie offerings. We can all agree that the other five Jurassic movies aren't brilliant movies, even if some of them are entertaining (not you though, Jurassic World: Dominion).
So 65 doesn't have a lot of competition when it comes to high-quality dinosaur movies. With a fantastic lead on Driver too, 65 could be a sleeper hit when it rolls around on March 10, 2023.
Heck, it might even surprise us and exceed expectations. Outside of Shazam 2 and John Wick Chapter 4, which hit theaters on March 17 and 24 respectively, 65 has a relatively free run at the global box office. Everyone loves dinosaurs. Everybody loves Adam Driver. So why wouldn't everyone go watch the two face off on the biggest screen possible? I certainly will be.
65 isn't the only big movie trailer Sony has released lately. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, the highly anticipated animated sequel to 2018's Into the Spider-Verse, received its first official trailer on December 13. And, considering the incredible amount of Spider-People in it, it's another movie I can't wait to see in theaters.
65 hits theaters around the world on March 10, 2023.