No Man's Land

9.5/10 No Mans's Land No Man's Land is absolutely brilliant film with a great story line, outstanding acting and a real treat for fans of the alien movie franchise.

The Story It's hard to believe that one person, Christan Kennedy was able to write, produce, edit and shoot this fantastic yarn. It fits so neatly into the franchise cannon and really holds its own conceptually.

It was a brilliant idea to place this story is the chaos of WW1 and I'm sure that there are some Hollywood writers slapping their foreheads in frustration because they didn't come up with this idea.

Cinematography The cinematography and lighting are perfectly done with great saturation and color palettes. The lighting was exceptional and painted the scenes with incredible nuisances.

The close-up work is gorgeous and really pulls you into the characters and the tight living conditions of trench warfare. The weapons were also accurate for the time period and the addition of the BAR was a nice touch. Traci Rose's costuming is bang on and credibly reflects the time period of the story.

Actors The actors really look the part. The makeup was top notch and Jo Franklin and crew deserve full kudos for their work. The lead actor, with his craggy face and humongous beard, reminded me of Jorma Tommila from the movie Sisu.

Easter Eggs The homages and Easter eggs that were brilliantly incorporated. The Weyland canned food was a nice touch. The scene with the shotgun shoved down the aliens' throat and the resulting acid blood spray from the blast, reminded me of the scene in the APC doorway with Hicks in Aliens.

When they set up the machine guns at the tunnel, I was hoping to see a scene similar to the ALIENS movie when they lifted the ceiling panels and saw the swarm of Aliens headed towards them. It would have been very cool to see them pouring out of the tunnel into a hail of machine gun fire. A la the smart guns that were set up in the tunnels on LV427.

I especially loved the "Bad Robot" ending. I didn't see it coming and I wonder if a shot of a face hugger skin, lying on the ground somewhere in the tunnels when the soldiers were exploring, would have set it up better.

Nitpicking When you set the bar so high in your film the parts that don't work well unfortunately stand out more than they would in a lesser crafted endeavor. The thick dialects and no subtitles made it difficult to understand what the actors were saying.

The costumes seemed a bit too clean at times and didn't have that lived in look. Living in trenches for weeks at a time would cause a great deal of wear and tear to clothing and equipment and unfortunately the costuming didn't match the makeup.

The choppy CGI at the beginning and did not forebode great production values for the film. However, this was soon made up for with action scenes where we got to see the Aliens in action.

The ship interior was a total misfire, it simply looked like the basement of a building with a lot of pipes in it. The square architecture did not match the round shapes of the ship we saw at the start of the film. And the height of the ceilings did not match the scale of the ship's occupants.

The "alien autopsy" corpse lying on the ships floor was a disappointment. I get that Kennedy was maybe trying to tie the classic "Little Green Men" to the Alien Franchise, but it seemed odd and out of scale.

I've seen a lot of sci-fi movies in my time. I saw ALIEN in the theaters when it first came out. I am a huge fan of the franchise and I've seen a lot of fan made films pertaining to this genre. To refer to Christan Kennedy's work of art as a "fan film" does not do it justice. It is truly one of the best non studio films made. I would have gladly paid money to see this in a theater.

I loved the setting of No Man's Land. An historical visit from the aliens is a unique perspective. At its most fundamental level, all Alien movies are movies about things that can jump out of the dark and kill you. One of the great strengths of No Man's land is its pacing. It takes its time. It waits. It allows silences.

The cost of this film was lots of time from a dedicated team with zero budget. What is reflected on the screen is a great testament to Christian and his team.

I hope industry people take notice and offer some of these people work in the film/tv industry. They deserve the break.

As a lifelong fan of the Alien franchise, I have to say this fan-made Alien short film is of exceptional quality. There's a real story here, set on a World War I battlefield. The acting is solid across the board, the aliens look entirely convincing, and most importantly, the film never feels boring. The pacing is well-balanced and keeps you engaged throughout. I've seen some fan-made Alien shorts that were hard to sit through due to a lack of action and too much dialogue - but that wasn't an issue here at all. I also appreciated how some of the cinematographic choices were directly inspired by the Alien films, while the unique setting gave the story a fresh and distinctive feel.

This is one of the best Alien Fan Fiction movies ever made. Excepionally done. This is my first review on IMDB ever, because it is a shame it has such little reviews and the one 5/10 review has enraged me a bit.

Yeah, it IS low budget, yeah the "Aliens" didn't move like in a multi-million AAA Movie, so what? With no budget, they made something very special and something great.

The chosen setting is phenomenal. Battlefield 1 vs. Aliens" is a novel idea. The tension is awesome, not a moment without tension.

The idea is awesome, the acting of all cast members is superb.

So, bottom line, this actually deserves 8 stars, but I'll give it 9. For the heck of it.

I also hope my rating will average the "negative" rating a little bit, because this movie deserves better.

Cheers.

A new Alien short.

From the close up scenes it's clearly visible that the budget was low, aliens are never shown moving, always still, a bit clumsy, "just put there" to be photographed between cuts, a bit poorly made, especially the eggs that look like they have been crafted by children at school (some aliens could actually use bracers), "alien aliens" look a bit ridiculous.

Actors are not bad, doing a decent job but nothing special.

Set, WW atmosphere, costumes are good, I liked the yellowish color of the surroundings.

Though I appreciate the effort and the references, "hommage", to Aliens, it is not comparable at all to the shorts that were made for the 40th anniversary. They pass for decent mini-alien movies, this one does not.

(Containment, Ore, Harvest etc)