Yeah I know this is a bit of old hat now, but even in the UK the screening was so limited I didn't even get to see it. I mean I think they had like one showing per cinema. But hey, at least it gave me an excuse to watch First Class (which is another fantastic film). And this has been my first chance to get a hold of a copy and watch it. But damn, was it worth the wait!
God I love British cinema. We make horror films our own, I don't know how we do it. But we take such an American concept and make it so British. Just look at films like Shaun of the Dead or Dog Soldiers or even Eden Lake. Yeah this film takes a pretty basic concept, but then they make it so British and it becomes unlike anything else out there. And don't worry, aside from the chavspeak slang of the main characters which I guess might be a barrier for some, this film is still pretty accessible even being so completely English. So don't be put off by the Britishness or you'll be missing out. The effects are great, the action is great, the drama is great, the humour is great (although some American's might miss some of the jokes. This film seems to be made with British people in mind). It's just an all round great movie. British film fan or not.
The film is a basic b-movie alien invasion movie. The twist is that it all happens inside a London council estate and our 'heroes' are a bunch of chavs. The theory, from one of the characters of the film goes. That the aliens are like spores. Drifting on solar winds, the female lands first on wherever she's drifted too. She then leaves a pheromone so the males come after her. They reproduce and take over the planet. They never prove this theory, but it's still a fantastic invasion plan. Anyway, our gang of chavs kill the female (or what is assumed as the female), the female leaves the assumed pheromones over the gang of chavs and the males crash down in the 'Block' and hunt down the chavs because of the pheromones on them. Queue a survival horror/action movie. And a bloody great one at that.
The aliens are AWESOME. Yeah they kinda look like Wildmutt from Ben 10 having an emo phase. And they aren't all that imaginative anyway beside that. But they colour them this jet black colour and give them these glow in the dark teeth (that fade when they die) and it makes them feel genuinely offworldly. Plus the sound they make when they call, just so alien. Helped even more by how good the effects are, I guess these things were CGI..? But they look so very real and convincing, it made me wonder if they were men in costumes. But normally people in costumes look so much crappier than that.
Talking of great effects, all the gore and such seems to be done practically, like a grindhouse film. And oh hell yeah, it looks fantastic. It was all helped by this gritty action, that you could truly feel the weight of. And I mean fighting aliens with fireworks and chavs with katanas? Hell yeah. There was just so much about this film that could be said as 'spectacle' but I'm guessing as a British film this was made on a little budget?
If I was going to criticise anything, I'd criticise the whole plot of how our 'hero' spends the film on a path of retribution and the film helps this by showing his living conditions. I don't care about his upbringing. He was a thug, end of. Plus, I actually can't remember nearly any of the characters names, the film was so trimmed to the point where it was a pure action sequence, I find it very hard to actually care for any of the characters. There was no background to pretty much any of them. So when they died, I really could care less. Bunch of chav scum dead who cares?
So do I recommend this? Oh hell yeah! It's an absolute thrill round from start to finish. Yeah the aliens may look like a gothic version of Wildmutt. And the language barrier maybe hard for people but fun is universal and this film is brimming with it.
Think About It!
-Locke
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