65 is a solid B movie with sufficient action, story, and cool-looking dinosaurs. It isn’t winning any awards, and it is a bit slow, but it is fine for what it is. If you are curious about watching this movie, throw it on in the background and enjoy the good bits. Adam Driver is transporting groups of people across space to make money for his sickly child. His latest mission is interrupted by an uncharted asteroid system that forces him to make an emergency crash landing on an undiscovered planet. He and a young girl are the ship’s only survivors. Now the two must brave a world full of dinosaurs as they make their way to the only remaining escape pod. Can they make it off this planet? The leads have good enough chemistry to make a movie with very little dialogue work. I do take some issue with the little girls’ problematic representation, but it wasn’t so bad that I had to turn it off. I would have preferred it if they spoke the same language, but the movie handles the language barrier well enough. This movie is dumb. The story is on the generic side, the science is too magical, and there is a fair amount of ex-Machina. There are also some slow bits you could gloss over, but the movie is fine. It’s fun to watch Adam Driver blasting away Dinosaurs, and the relationship the forms between the two leads is cute. It’s not a movie you should be rushing to, but it is an option when you need something in the background that doesn’t require your full attention. I liked it enough to watch it again, and I liked it a whole lot better than After Earth. So throw it on, skip through the slow bits, and enjoy this silly bit of alternate history.
Exoprimal First Impressions
I got the chance to try out Capcom’s Exoprimal during its beta this weekend, and it was okay. Exoprimal is a third-person shooter where you defend against oncoming hordes of dinosaurs using an advanced exosuit. The game is coming out for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox, but I only got to try out the Steam version. One thing to note about this game is that a Capcom ID is required. I am not a fan of having more logins, but at least it was easy to set up.
The exosuits are what gives this game its flavor. Each suit has its unique playstyle and role to play in a team. At the moment, there are three roles an exosuit can take: support, tank, and assault. It should go without saying that efficient teamwork in this game is more important than DPS.
The only game mode available for the beta was a type of race. Two teams race to complete a set number of objectives before ending on some light PVP at the end. A cool feature about this mode is that the losing team will get weapons or abilities that will obstruct the enemy team so that races aren’t one-sided. This makes for an interesting dynamic because while you are trying to complete objectives, you also have to worry about being invaded by an enemy player.
So what did I think of Exoprimal? The game is beautiful on the highest settings. The detail in the cutscenes, character models, and dinosaurs is breathtaking. I did notice some odd rag-dolling here and there, but nothing game-breaking. The gameplay was fun for the first couple of matches before it got stale. Changing classes does help with the monotony, but I usually filled the same role. The objectives change between matches, which is nice, but not all are fun.
This isn’t the worst horde defense game I’ve played. I love killing dinosaurs, and the world and tech look cool, but there isn’t much to this game. I am sure people who like these types of games will enjoy it more, but it is still a hard sell for $60. As it stands, it isn’t worth the money. There aren’t enough character choices or game modes to be worth the money. For this game to be successful, the story needs to be fantastic. Players will need to be hooked on the story and world before they can invest in a PVP experience that frankly has been done better and cheaper elsewhere. I am sure there will be new characters planned for after release, a mission pass, and some other carrots to dangle in front of players, but there needs to be something to justify the cost. A couple more free weekends could help to get players a taste of the game, but the game modes need to be more fun. Hopefully, as we get closer to the date, we will get a better idea of this game’s worth. The game is set to release July 13, 2023.