65… million years ago, to be exact. In that time frame, the behemoth of all doomsday asteroids struck the Earth that wiped out the dinosaurs. Naturally, we have one more movie that caters to this as a fantasy. 

An action movie directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, starring Adam Driver and Ariana Greenblatt, it was released on March 10, 2023. The budget for the film was 45 million dollars, ultimately receiving 34% on Rotten Tomatoes. 

The premise of such is widely an action movie, where the main character, Mills, (Adam Driver) pilots a spaceship from his own planet 65 million years ago, only to be struck by an asteroid belt and sent crashing into planet Earth. At the time, with only one other survivor, nine-year-old girl, Koa, (Ariana Greenblatt) the two make it their mission to reach their escape pod, detached from the ship as it soared downwards from the atmosphere. 

That is its only purpose. The meat of this movie was based on action shots, many of Mills shooting dinosaurs at every turn with a cyberpunk, alien-esque looking gun. The clear cinematics of multiple jumpscares, the both barren and swamped land of the prehistoric Earth, and perfected editing of brutish, bloody dinosaurs. The scenery was beautiful yet terrifying, which always draws viewers in, since we can’t seem to get away with pondering what our past world was like, what is out there in space, and what it would be like if we were in the characters shoes.

That in of itself is a key point to the purpose of this movie. It was sadly, widely cliche. It used all of its money to have the name of Adam Driver, as well as extremely detailed action shots. In cliche, it means every meaning of the sort. The main character has a sick child, who loves them dearly, and appears to them in flashbacks – in this case, a hologram projection. The only partner and sidekick is a beautiful, young girl, who is shy and cannot speak English. However, the only word the girl knows is “family.”

The two butt heads, with one comedic relief scene, but move through the film trying to protect each other dearly. The main male character may not be outwardly macho, but seems to be indestructible. In one scene during the middle of the film, Mills falls about 20 feet from a tree and knocks his shoulder out of his socket, the loud noise drawing attention from numerous ravenous dinosaurs. The second before they strike, Koa steps down hard enough to pop his shoulder back into place, and the moment she does so, Mills gets up faster than the speed of light and immediately starts shooting the dinosaurs with perfect aim, as if nothing happened. Koa also cannot be hurt, because the moment before the dinosaurs eat her, Mills blasts them away with one shot. 

It’s repetitive, yes, however, it was not a bad watch. Personally, as a big fan of Dystopia and Sci Fi, I did not walk out with regret of watching the movie, but funnily enough, there were many things I called and bet would happen, far before they actually did. 

It was just subpar, with great visuals, even one with a T-Rex with melted skin, so mushy it looked like uncooked ground beef. This pattern of mediocrity which this movie falls into is part of a far bigger phenomenon, larger than some of the best movies ever made. Generally, it is the attention span crisis. 

As technology gets faster, our ability to both comprehend information and be interested in such things has changed radically, where we as a global society are always itching for more. It is a dopamine fix. Social media is arguably the biggest aspect of this event. However, that word falls under the bracket of media itself. In this case, the movies. 

Here we are. Once more both the people and the companies are pushing more for another movie with explosions and a popular actor, not because they want to make something memorable, but to make an extra buck. A small percent of people will watch these movies, however just 0.01% of Americans, which is about 326 million, is still roughly 1.6 million. That is still a massive amount of people who will pay to see something repetitive. It is a cycle we have fallen into and perpetuated because of our love for the instant and the harsh reality that most genres and plots have already been done. 

It is like the music theory that we are running out of sounds, and that even with the help of AI generation, there are only so many strings of chords we can make that are audible. The same thing is happening to the movie industry, the entertainment industry, the television industry, you name it. Classics have a soulful feel because they were made with purpose and they were original. 

Entertainment is changing as we know it, and wasting money to make some of it back in a pointless film is just bad decision making, and is playing into this scandal of the media. There is no easy fix to this, and it might not need fixing either. It may just be a matter of time, as well as seeing the direction the people point to. 

There is no doubt that new technologies and events will emerge, even though it is inconceivable to imagine them. However, this unsettling fact also gives way to the natural progression that entertainment will never die out as a whole, as well as movies. Seeing the story unfold in front of you will always remain a human adoration.