Area 51

Okay so first off let me just say that I created this IMDb account after watching this movie, just to review it!. My friends and I have been waiting for this movie to come out for a while after first seeing the trailer for it on Facebook, which mind you, was probably scarier than this entire movie. I am a huge fan of alien movies like dark skies, alien abduction etc, and if you share the same interest then I suggest you only watch this movie if you have absolutely nothing else to watch but if you can avoid it, do it. It had some semi scary scenes, maybe a whole 5 minutes of the movie was actually exciting but other than that it was a bunch of 20 something year old, who seemed to know way too much on how to break into various locations on government technology, running around with video cameras. A lot of the story wasn't explained properly, it left me feeling confused and unfulfilled.

I definitely had higher expectations for Area 51, especially given that Oren Peli had written and directed and reinvigorated the "found footage" genre with Paranormal Activity. I'm a fan of the genre, a fan of the Peli, but this was absolutely abysmal from the very start. The concept could have been extremely engaging and given a unique twist, but it performs and plays out as expected- completely typical and utterly predictable, very poorly acted and nonsensical most of the time. I would have been disappointed even if it were a Direct to DVD or On Demand release. I guess the merits of this film like wholly on "From the writer and director of Paranormal Activity!" However, don't expect the competency which the latter film was delivered. There is very little entertainment value, lines are cut off mid-sentence, and somehow, despite being allegedly filmed with one camera, it switches angles regularly without disrupting other dialog. It places it's weight on technical talk, the late night AM radio conspiracy chatter, but does nothing to actually give the viewer anything to grab on to and immerse themselves in the adventure of these three hormonal boys.

If you'd like to reduce your IQ level or waste your time while sick and just need to say you've seen it, you're better served by searching online for conspiracy videos, which provide far more interesting concepts and, despite being rather extraordinary, manage to entertain, which Area 51 fail to do.

I love scary movies, and I really love "scary" movies-- from Blair Witch to Paranormal Activity, I've always been a huge fan of shaky cameras and found footage. Ghosts and aliens scare me, and classic terror tropes work wonders on me! Things jumping out from behind other things and unexpected screams are my idea of a fun movie night.

If you are looking for a scary movie with aliens as the focus, I would recommend picking up Dark Skies, or John Carpenter's The Thing... but not Area 51, because this is a terrible film. I put it on expecting to be shock-scared, or at least creeped out... but all I got was progressively more and more annoyed.

The first half of the film does absolutely nothing but establish that the viewer should lack empathy for the main characters-- they are vapid young men who enjoy drinking, planning ineffectively, and disrespecting professional entertainers.

The second half of the film is meant to heighten the viewer's anxiety and presumably scare us, but it falls disappointingly short in that respect. Instead it devolves into lots of running and flailing, lots of awful camera work, and terrible physical acting. When the end finally comes, it's more a relief than anything else.

The only positive thing I have to say about this movie is that the main characters' treatment of their female colleague was basically respectful, which is more than what I can say for most movies that are structured in the "x number of guys + 1 girl" model. Nobody grabs her breasts or calls her disgusting names or belittles her intelligence based on her gender. That's awesome.

The rest of the film? Really not so much.

I believe this movie has been mis-labeled. It is by no means a "horror" film. It is, however, better classified as a "sci-fi thriller".

I enjoy the found-footage genre, for the most part. When it's done correctly, which this film is. Everything that's filmed makes sense given the context. Quite a few times, my adrenaline was up while watching and I was genuinely concerned about the main characters.

That's one of the things I liked about this film was the character development. Unlike a lot of thrillers, where the characters are hackneyed and cliched, these characters were actually written like people and you can genuinely understand where they're all coming from.

So I do recommend this movie, just not as a horror flick.

A young guy obsessed with government secrets rounds up a gang to infiltrate a remote facility and uncover the dreadful truth.

Literal found footage - wait for the post-credits clip - and a voyage through the varying degrees of hand-held shakiness. I think it's well shot up to the 2/3 stage, then the jitters break loose and it gets a bit annoying.

The set-up is pretty much the tale of a depressed obsessive, and I enjoyed the characterisation. But they leave the impression he's a chosen one, which doesn't play out in the end. Also there's drama about bringing the girl on the mission, but she doesn't add to the climax.

Few sound effects - the editors very selective - and I don't think there was any music (apart from the party stuff).

Overall, it sets up well but falls short on spooks in its descent into Hardy Boys yarniness.