Movie Review: 65

 

Michael's Movie Grade: C+

An enjoyable sci-fi action film. 

One thing I really liked about this film was the way, it focused on visual storytelling instead of having characters explain everything through dialogue. This movie takes on a major challenge with for the majority of the film only having two characters and having neither of them speak the same language. Yet despite this the two developed a close and believable relationship, that can at times be kind of touching. There is a stronger emotional effect to this relationship due to Adam Driver's character (his name is said so rarely in this film that that is what you will call him too) has lost his daughter and he is developing a father-daughter relationship with this young girl he is traveling with. This is also helped by the fact that Adam Driver and Chloe Coleman have wonderful chemistry. I was honestly very impressed with Chloe Coleman's performance here. I have seen her in a couple movies, before this but this performance here shows that she has a real talent is not just another child actress. However what everyone came to this movie to see was Adam Driver fighting dinosaurs and this is done quite well. The action scenes are fun to watch and the dinosaurs (while not exactly memorable) look quite good. There are also some pretty effective jump scares and there is quite a bit of suspense built up by the fact that we never know when another dinosaur is going to appear. 

Where this film falters is the story. Frankly there is not much of anything more to it than the relationship between the two main characters and being chased by and shooting at dinosaurs. While I do not except a film like this to be complex, a movie that is only 1 hour and 33 minutes shouldn't ever feel too repetitive like this film does towards the end. Speaking of the ending, it is incredibly underwhelming and made me think I was missing something (spoilers: I was not). The movie does also bring up interesting questions at times but all of these questions are quickly dropped soon after, with no answers or much more thought to them. There is also a very dramatic scene in this film that creates some suspense and makes you wonder where the filmmakers are going with this, The answer to that is nothing as it is completely forgotten by the next scene. Yet despite the repetitive towards the end and the other major faults, it does get us to care about the characters and does tie together some good action scenes. 

This may not be a great movie, but it is an enjoyable little watch that should provide one with a nice trip to the movies.