Alien vs. Ninja

Another fantastic hyperactive movie comes out of Japan. In the wake of the recent years releases of over-the-top movies that come from Japan, "Alien vs Ninja" is right up there along with movies like "Tokyo Gore Police", "Meatball Machine", "Samurai Princess", etc. These movie are amazing with their low budget, excessive amounts of blood and gore, and totally crazy story lines.

The story told in "Alien vs Ninja" is very, very simple. A group of ninjas are out scouting when a meteor crashes near their village. And a vicious alien has come to Japan, spreading havoc and destruction. Now it is up to the ninjas to stop the aliens before it is too late.

"Alien vs Ninja" borrows elements from movies such as "Alien", "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and "Army of Darkness". The alien, though it looks cheesy, was actually a nice enough touch to the movie. And you just got to love the way it sort of resembles a mixture between Godzilla and the aliens from the famous American sci-fi franchise. Oh, and it was also hilarious the way you could see it was just a dude in a latex suit from the way of the sleeves and pants were reacting to his movements and its general appearance.

Moving on... The outfits worn by the ninjas were actually really cool, lots of nice details and rather cool appearance they had.

The special effects were good enough, though at times it was obviously fake. But with a movie of this caliber, this hyped up speed and action, you don't really mind the low budget effects. And frankly, they were working quite well most of the time. The small creatures that went inside people's nostrils and throats were cool as well.

"Alien vs Ninja" has a lot of fighting scenes in it, and these work quite nicely as well. They are well-choreographed and looks good on the screen (despite the cheesy alien).

All in all, I found "Alien vs Ninja" to be surprisingly good. I was thoroughly entertained throughout the entire movie. Highly recommended for fans of Japanese movies, and for those liking gore and high-octane action.

Again and again people are having trouble with flicks coming from Japan. They used to be extremely gory but the scene over there evolved too and got a bit away from the gore. Still, they deliver weird flicks with fast moving ninja's or other persons. In other words, you have to understand there way of living, I mean the Eastern philosophy, to appreciate such a flick. I've waited a few months to get my hand on an official release, finally it's out in our region. And it was worth the wait for me. I enjoyed it because it had a bit of humour and gore in it. Naturally you have to dig ninja to enjoy it. First of all, the alien will be a let down for so many people. It doesn't look like "alien" it's more based on Godzilla and sometimes it's CGI and sometimes it's a man in a suit. Even the ninja's look a bit weird, you have the macho type more busy with his hair, a coward too old to fight and a real ninja. Naturally there's a female ninja too and it's funny to see that the alien wanted to grap her breasts. There is so much fun in it that you can't take it seriously. But it clocks in under 90 minutes and that's good. The first 20 minutes is all about stupidity and comedy, after that the gore and red stuff appears. If you know that the director also was responsible for "Ninja" then you know what I mean. You love this one or you will hate it, there's no in-between.

Unfortunately this promising title fails to deliver. When I started watching this I didn't expect so much goofy and campy humor.

Im a great fan of Keita Amemia's work, especially the ZEIRAM series and MIRAI NINJA. So when I saw the poster and the trailer for this film I expected something similar - cool Asian sci-fi action, with great atmosphere, created by the blend of genres. Aliens and ninjas - looked like this can't go wrong! But it did. There are a lot of boring dialogs. The movie's pace is messed up. Even for its 80 minutes it is still slow. It starts with a great opening shot that leaves you thirsty for adrenaline and you don't get it for the next 25 minutes. The real problem is the poor comedy attempts. The parody elements are annoying and they just ruin it all, which is a shame. It has a production value high enough to make it a modern B-classic.

It's obviously a B-movie and no one expects state of the art effects from it. Actually I prefer the practical effects - puppets, costumes and animatronics are a breath of fresh air in this CGI era.

What I like the most about it is the work of the art department. The character and creature designs are cool and the costumes are really neat. Some look like live cation versions of manga drawings. I guess that Ninja Gaiden fans would appreciate the looks of the main character.

The martial art scenes are decent, but nothing really remarkable. Directing, camera-work and acting are mediocre at best.

Alien vs Ninja is a great concept and I regret to see it wasted like that.

A great little romp of Japanese cartoonish madness. If you love weirdly titled, poorly shot films, then this is for you. It has bad CGI and even worse suits/puppets. How can I possibly defend it? I enjoyed it dammit. It had action, adventure, betrayal, and never let its budget get in the way of imagination. The little alien critters were grotesquely simple, while the big alien dudes were uncomfortably phallic. The comedy mostly came from bizarre deaths, and though these were more normal than usual (for this type of movie) the sword fights were more than convincing enough. This is the kind of film that young teenagers make with their friends on a nice summer afternoon. Only difference is, that here we have grown-ups that should know better, and with that immaturity comes innocence and excitement.

This is another weird, wacky Japanese genre effort in the same vein as Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl and Robo-Geisha. The title says it all: a group of ancient Japanese ninja end up going claw to sword (and eventually sword to sword) with some monstrous aliens (that look suspiciously like people in moderately expensive Halloween costumes). 

There's really no more story beyond that and a hinted at love triangle between two of the male shinobi and their female counterpart. Nothing about the "aliens" is explained, they just show up and start swiping people's heads off and fiercely trying to grab boobs. Alien vs Ninja isn't as gross or ultra-violent as many similar movies can be, but it does have its moments. People get ripped in half and have little mind-controlling aliens crawl up their noses, and plenty of pink pepto bismol alien blood flows all over the place. 

AvN won't win any awards for storytelling or production values, but it's a goofy and occasionally fun way to waste some time. There are better similar movies, but genre fans should find it worthwhile.