Alien Siege - Tod aus dem All

Just saw this on SciFi channel. Big disappointment after reading some of the promising reviews here. I always give scifi movies a bit of extra leeway as I like the genre, but Alien Siege is just plain poor.

I agree on two points others have made. Good story line which deserves to be made into a decent movie some day, and good visual effects.

That's about it though for the good bits. The direction was pedestrian, no build-up of tension or drama. Terrible screenplay, you'll find better dialog in comic books, and the characters never engaged me in caring about their fate. The acting was generally well below B standard, although in fairness the cast had very little to work with.

I rate this 2/10 for the story and visuals. I kept waiting for it to improve, but it didn't happen. Oh well, sometimes the bear gets you...

Aliens harvesting humans to save themselves from a plague! Humans turning over their own to save their lives! I think the makers were trying to address some Big Moral Issues about what people would sink to in order to save themselves, but this movie just gets lost in the details. It is very distracting when the alien soldiers dress like waiters. Also, stand straight up in the open when someone shoots at them (I guess this proves they are not human?). And it's very disconcerting the way the humans shoot them with machine guns, and just happen to get them right between the eyes - even if only a couple of times. Then there's the earth resistance, who are desperate to get alien technology to turn it back on them, and never actually try to pick up the sidearms the alien soldiers drop when the resistance fighters kill them by the truckload (well, they don't take cover - do they?). They need a Scientist who was studying Wreckage from an Alien Crash to figure out that we can use their weapons. There's a lot of this stuff - too much for a good action movie, and not enough explanation, character development, etc. for an issue movie. Thud.

Among the hundreds of watched movies this must be one of the worst.. Pretty much everything is plainly wrong with it. No offense to people trying to make low budget movies, SciFi or not, au contraire, this movie is a mold in the eye for those who's REALLY trying to make something good with whatever budget the might have. Script, directing, dialog, acting, lightning, camera, CGI and again.. the SCRIPT, they must have been drunk on Kulku. If U against all odds found "V" to be entertaining prepare for a amazingly if possible even worse ripoff. Sorry guys (director Robert Stadd, writers Bill Lundy, Paul Salamoff) but plz don't quit your day jobs, OK. The only feeling left after watching this *hrmftpp* "movie" is anger, anger due to dragging SciFi in the dirt..

I've learned my lesson. I was going to skip this movie until I checked it out on IMDb. Wow, three people gave it a pretty good review. Maybe it's worth a chance. After watching the movie, it now appears these people had some vested interest in posting other than a fair review of the movie. Take, for instance, Jon H Ochiai. After I saw this terrible movie, I wondered who in the world would recommend an obvious stinker like this. So I took a look at some of Mr. Ochiai's other reviews. This guy appears to be someone with classical training as a movie reviewer, except there are no bad recommendations in his voluminous collection of reviews. I'm guessing there must be some cottage industry for people that can't land a steady gig for a real media outlet, so they pump these movies while they wait for an honest job.

Lesson one: Sci-Fi makes terrible movies. I'll not watch another premier.

Lesson two: There are people that pump these movies just like they have people pumping stocks on Yahoo. Though I still have trouble envisioning the economic model (are they really paid, or like the bad guys in these movies, are they just pure evil).

Lesson three: There are no low budget movies with four writers that are worth watching.

The writing is so awful that it's sometimes hard to believe the actors went through with reading their lines. Judging from the barely contained expressions of disgust and embarrassment on the faces of some players, you can tell they can barely believe they're reading these lines. Porn would have been a more dignified career choice.

The CGI budget seems to have been spent on two very nicely done shots of the alien ship hovering above the planet. Everything else looks like the rudimentary placeholders that CGI artists block in while making the final design.

Speaking of special effects, while I can buy the humanoid features of the alien race the silly accents were a bit much. I did, however, appreciate the unintentional humor of the alien personal communication system, which appeared to be activated by the alien tapping something resembling a giant zit on their cheeks.

Also providing much unintentional humor: The enthusiastic paid shills who posted here well in advance of this sewage airing on SciFi.