Alien Planet

Few low budget films of this genre deliver as satisfyingly as Alien Planet, from the always enjoyable twisted imagination of veteran horror actor, writer, producer and director Alan Maxson! From the outset the cast were easily seen as being totally committed to this project and the special effects were maximized to optimum effectiveness. This will certainly be added to my list of SciFi film collection. As a longtime fan of Maxson's, it's easy to see his unmistakable mark on this gem, even from behind the camera. The Alan Maxson signature "gore" is delightfully all over this one. Well done to ALL involved!!!

Of course I had never even heard about this 2023 sci-fi movie titled "Alien Planet" prior to stumbling upon it by random chance. Normally, then sci-fi is not my go-to genre of movies, but I do sit down every now and then and watch something sci-fi. And thus, I opted to sit down and watch "Alien Planet".

I can't claim to be harboring much of any great expectations to writer and director Alan Maxson's 2023 movie "Alien Planet" given the fairly low-budget-looking cover/poster for the movie.

The movie actually was watchable. Not a great movie though, but it was adequately watchable, if you don't mind watching low budget sci-fi. The storyline in the movie, as written by Alan Maxson, was pretty straightforward. And the movie looked and felt like it was made with a lot of heart and spirit put into the project.

Needless to say that I was not familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie. But then again, the performers were so heavily disguised under prosthetics and make-up that they would be unrecognizable.

The special effects in the movie were fair enough. Some of the effects were good, such as the lasers and the make-up and prosthetics. However, the space-cat, Giree, looked horribly fake.

If you are a hardcore sci-fi fan, then you might get much more enjoyment out of "Alien Planet" than I did.

My rating of writer and director Alan Maxson's 2023 movie "Alien Planet" lands on a four out of ten stars.

It wasn't worth it. Was reminded of Saturday morning kid's scripted fantasy tv programs from the 70s. So cheesy.

Replete with smarmy sarcasm and hostile speechifying by the seemingly emotionally immature, laced with lame smack-talk, and even saying it to the unconscious.

It has dialogue with full sentences that consist of, "Ugh, this arm is never gonna heal." and "This damn plant." Also, "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you right now."

The writing, acting, directing, are all about as bad as in the Extinct (2017) series, which was written and directed by BYU (Mormon) grads. The sophistication level is middle-school, like not totally stupid, but almost hopelessly underdeveloped.

The editing was also biffed up, to where an injury changed sides of the body, and changed back because they flipped footage a few times.

Some of the costuming decisions included Tabi Japanese Split Toe Shoes, or Ninja Jika Tabi Split Toe Boots, because those are totally 'alien.' My, my, my what this says! (Although, they're supposedly good for bunions, so maybe those aliens got Foot probs, not just food and water probs.)

I did sort of love it when the puppet/animatronic-looking Healing-Pet growled out it's master's name, fully articulately. L'il Spewy also snarls "NO" and "O. K.," in a grossly charming way.

Anyway, it had a zero payoff ending after being terribly predictable, too.

I just saw this at the premiere and I was really impressed with how good this looked in spite of the budget. The movie was well shot, the make up is top tier and the effects are great for a film of this budget. Has an old school vibe like Star Trek TOS or Doctor WHO. A real passion project and it shows. The blood and gore were all wonderfully over the top, like a Kung Fu film or old Sam Raimi. At the Q and A after the movie the director revealed they went through 11 gallons of blood! The pacing slows down for a bit in the beginning but once it picked back up this really took off. A perfect Saturday Afternoon flick. 7/10.

This movie has a very 1980's feel to it, and is a fun movie to watch. While they were not able to spend millions of dollars on it, they did great with what they had. The story is very engaging and the actors also do a really good job. I would compare it to the movies that came out when I was a teen in the 1980's and this would have been great to see at the movies on a Saturday night with the gang! You can find movies that have spent tons of money on special effects, sets and a high dollar actor or two that aren't as good as this is. Yes this isn't a Hollywood masterpiece, it is still a good effort and is still better than 'La La Land' - now that's a turd of a film! LOL.