Encounter

I didn't read any reviews for this movie before watching, and I'm glad I didn't. Although it might not be your classic si-fi, I believe it was marketed like this for a reason to keep you guessing.

The acting was brilliant by the boys. Their performances are genuinely one of the most realistic for children I have seen.

It clearly isn't for people who are after a shoot-em-up alien flick (see the 1 star reviews), but much more a commentary on mental health, treatment of ex-soldiers, and the lack of empathy from the general system.

This movie is not a no-brainer.

Riz is slowly becoming one of my favourite actors, I am yet to see a performance from him that didn't impress me.

The movie starts with the great premise and its accompanied by another great performance by Riz and solid performance from boys, especially the older one.

The road trip interaction between father and its two sons is the one thing that holds this movie to be better than average for me.

What let's it down from being great is change of direction of the movie from about half way point.

From building brilliant suspense, to quickly resolving it, and disregarding it, towards the ending, that we have seen many times before.

Its not what people expected and thats why everyone is hating on it. Its a mental health movie - and something we dont get a lot of. Riz is an amazing actor, and the kids were fantastic too. Well worth your time - but dont go into it expecting an all out action film. Its a family drama through and through.

It's a good movie, but because of the milseading tags it begs for bad reviews from those who went to watch expecting a sci-fi movie. I'm one of those. If I were looking for a PTSD, drama movie, I would definetly have liked it more, but instead I felt.deceived and disappointed.

Riz Ahmed is one of those actors who rarely makes a bad movie . At the moment he is on a hot streak of really good films and Encounter is no different although I'd argue that Riz probably isn't the star of this film , it's the two actors who play his sons .

The two lads play brothers who embark on a journey with their father, who is trying to protect them from an alien threat and at first it feels like a run of the mill alien/Sci Fi movie but you soon realise it's much , much , more than that.

It's a film about desperation , survival and mental Heath but most of all it's a film about family .

I love the interaction between the father and his sons . Forget what's going on around them , these boys desperately love their dad and visa versa and being a father of two boys myself , this resonated with me .

A special mention has to go to Lucian-River Chauhan and Aditya Geddada. Both are fantastic. Lucian is brilliant and I predict big things for him and Aditya is so funny .

Listen out for some unusual use of some Phil Collins music . A strange choice but it worked perfectly.

Encounter is much better than I could have hoped for and might surprise quite a few people who are probably expecting a completely different type of film .