Based upon the trailer I saw I had reasonable expectations of this movie, not the dizzying heights of Aliens or Alien, but perhaps an entertaining little movie/homage. I was wrong. We were treated to a poorly written script with poor Direction and confusing shallow depth of field close ups for the entirety of the running time.
An opportunity was squandered by the writers and director to create an intense experience in a claustrophobic setting with a vicious Alien creature that is hell bent on killing every member. Sounds interesting. Sign me up to watch that movie. But sadly we are not treated to this instead we focus on a group of whiney thirty somethings who look bemused and uninterested, perhaps due to the shoddily written dialogue, who casually saunter through the film with the occasional lapse into hysteria when the "Alien" attacks. Otherwise they argue about a break up scenario involving Noel Clarkes character and Antonia Cambell- hughes, who incidentally somehow channels the Audiences reaction to the film with her disinterested performance to the material. In truth if I'd have dated Noel Clarkes whiney character too, He'd have been dumped and cheated on as well.
Now to get on to the Alien in question... a hybrid creation which resembles a poor version of the cockroach creatures from District 9. In that movie they looked menacing and creepy, in this it just looks silly. Every attack is shown in an extreme close up... by the end I was begging for the director to please give us a medium shot so at least I could get some indication of surroundings/bearings/anything! The worst travesty has to be the final showdown with the Alien involving a usually fairly talented and reliable Irish actor named Ned Dennehy. He usually gives quirky characterizations and in this to a certain degree he does as well with one key difference: it just isn't believable. You may say its not supposed to be, that he's there for comic relief. Fine, perhaps. But then again it isn't particularly funny either, just another blip on an already blemished film. He courageously sacrifices himself so that the three others can escape the Alien creature near the end of the movie. That would be fine if we cared or indeed we were shown that he cared for any of the characters he sacrificing himself for. Only twenty minutes previous he attacks them and now they are life long buddies sacrificing life and limp for... hmmm anyone else think thats poor writing? I expected a bit more from this movie than it delivered. It sorely lacked direction and a properly cohesive script that had proper set pieces and interesting characterizations instead it fails even as a B movie instead slipping into a category of its own somewhere close to C. I'm surprised Universal studios is releasing this to cinemas its home clearly belongs on DVD.
An opportunity was squandered by the writers and director to create an intense experience in a claustrophobic setting with a vicious Alien creature that is hell bent on killing every member. Sounds interesting. Sign me up to watch that movie. But sadly we are not treated to this instead we focus on a group of whiney thirty somethings who look bemused and uninterested, perhaps due to the shoddily written dialogue, who casually saunter through the film with the occasional lapse into hysteria when the "Alien" attacks. Otherwise they argue about a break up scenario involving Noel Clarkes character and Antonia Cambell- hughes, who incidentally somehow channels the Audiences reaction to the film with her disinterested performance to the material. In truth if I'd have dated Noel Clarkes whiney character too, He'd have been dumped and cheated on as well.
Now to get on to the Alien in question... a hybrid creation which resembles a poor version of the cockroach creatures from District 9. In that movie they looked menacing and creepy, in this it just looks silly. Every attack is shown in an extreme close up... by the end I was begging for the director to please give us a medium shot so at least I could get some indication of surroundings/bearings/anything! The worst travesty has to be the final showdown with the Alien involving a usually fairly talented and reliable Irish actor named Ned Dennehy. He usually gives quirky characterizations and in this to a certain degree he does as well with one key difference: it just isn't believable. You may say its not supposed to be, that he's there for comic relief. Fine, perhaps. But then again it isn't particularly funny either, just another blip on an already blemished film. He courageously sacrifices himself so that the three others can escape the Alien creature near the end of the movie. That would be fine if we cared or indeed we were shown that he cared for any of the characters he sacrificing himself for. Only twenty minutes previous he attacks them and now they are life long buddies sacrificing life and limp for... hmmm anyone else think thats poor writing? I expected a bit more from this movie than it delivered. It sorely lacked direction and a properly cohesive script that had proper set pieces and interesting characterizations instead it fails even as a B movie instead slipping into a category of its own somewhere close to C. I'm surprised Universal studios is releasing this to cinemas its home clearly belongs on DVD.