This
particular alien movie, along with District
9, is shot entirely on the setting that plays a key role in the movie.
Often people will talk about how this movie is this year's District 9, where the movie depicts aliens in a poor and forgotten
part of the world that's not a part of a huge worldly pandemic alien invasion.
They both also show a very fresh cast of people who are surprisingly well done
and are judged purely on their ability on whether they can act, and not their
celebrity status. The movie does have Nick Frost; however, he's not a main
character.
The
movie centers around five hoodlums around a South London block, led by the
dominant figure, Moses. The movie also revolves around a nurse name Sam, who
just got mugged by the hoodlums. After a mysterious thing crash lands onto a
car, the hoodlums chase after the alien thing, kills it, and bring it to their
flat. However, more of these things seems start to appear everywhere around the
block, and they are bigger, aggressive looking, and would kill if it wants to.
This
movie is a type of survival movie that I really like. It takes place in one
night, and we see almost everything that's happening. It's like a type of
zombie movie where the survivors are well prepared and advance, later
retreating after being outnumbered. It's a type of movie where the group high
fives each other as they're about to go into a huge fight. After finding out
that the alien invasion has started, the hoodlums go into their flats and gear
up with fireworks, a bat, a sword, and a knife. After being prepared to go on
an all out assault with the "don't mess with our turf" spirit, they
retreat into the block after being outnumbered with the bigger looking aliens,
or, the big Gorilla Wolf motherf**kers.
The
running time for this movie was only 88 minutes; however, the movie has a great
energetic feel from the beginning, to the end. It's extremely straightforward
and it gets straight to the point. Everybody wants to go on an adventure to
kill these aliens. Afterwards, everyone's life is at stake and end up fighting
in order to stay alive. Even their pot driven conversations are worth listening
to as each and every one of these characters are interesting and not cardboard
clichés. There is a great spirit in this movie that's not found in staged
mainstream movies. It's the kind of spirit that kids want to emulate after
watching too much zombie action movies. For example, there are two little kids
named Mayhem and Probs who are only about half the size of the hoodlums, but
they carry around, what seems to be a toy gun, and a water gun, showing the
aliens they mean business. In the trailer, I thought, "why does the kid
have a water gun?" The answer, it's all in the spirit of the movie, like
the spirit of preparing for a zombie apocalypse that'll never ever happen.
Despite
being hoodlums who've just mugged an innocent woman, we actually start to
slowly relate to these kids who aren't just looking for trouble to brew. We get
to especially get to relate to the de facto leader, Moses, who tries his best
to lead the group into safety. At first, we see him as a punk who steals from
people. When the first alien crash lands into Earth, Moses was the one who
kills it. As everything starts to go downhill, the hoodlums have to team up
with Sam, the nurse, who need her nurse expertise to treat a leg wound.
For
a low budget movie, made by a first time movie director, the movie has a great
sense of using suspense, the "less is more" concept, and the use suspension
of disbelief. Obviously, Joe Cornish is going to have a bright future ahead of
him. He did his homework, and he knows what life is like in the South London
block. This alien movie is a type of alien movie that works as a personal
movie, where the visuals go hand in hand with the characters as they see this
mayhem strictly through their point-of-view. There are moments where the scenes
have darkness and smoke that seems conventional but surprisingly works to its
advantage.
It's
very interesting how the hoodlums have a very strong South London accent, and
because of their accent, the audience in America might get lost in their jargon.
Sometimes, when I look up British comedians who joke around about current
events in Britain or imitate a semi well known British person, I would get
completely lost. I thought the same thing would happen in this movie; but
instead, I totally understood almost everything that they're saying, despite
having not recognized some of their slang. They do talk a bit fast at times,
but it's really the character's action and the character's themselves that's
emphasized. It's not a Jersey shore thing, it's a universal thing that anyone
can recognize. If they were speaking in a foreign made up language, then I
would still understand them in the movie.
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