Alien: Reign of Man

I rated this movie a 1, and that was only because I couldn't give it a zero.

The worst thing about this movie is that the sound is so mismanaged and the actors speak so unclearly that you can't understand half the dialogue. Fortunately, after a while you won't care. The plot is pointless, the aliens aren't very threatening, things happen without explanation, and there are some continuity problems especially at the end that make you suspect that they ran out of money and cobbled something together from the scenes they had managed to get filmed. One of the characters reminds me of the actor who replaced Calculon on "All My Circuits". Most annoyingly, one of the characters wears a space suit with her bu** length hair flowing free. I've had bu** length hair, and you aren't going to do that. Some grade B movies that are projects cobbled together by filmmakers and actors who can't get work are gems, like Phil the Alien or the Sorcerers, but this ain't one.

Where to start...horrible writing, acting, directing and costuming. I would call it a fan made film, but that would be an insult to fan made films. I rent a lot of movies and quite often choose low budget films because they can be pleasantly surprising, good writing, interesting story line and decent acting don't necessarily require a multi-million dollar budget. However, aside from the location, there is nothing at all good about this film.

On the plus side some elements were well done, like some of the uniforms, planets, while other costumes were really bad. Budget problems maybe? Scenes were well lit while most movies choose almost complete darkness so that was nice.

Yeah the CGI were not all the high end, big budget, type but I liked that. Creatures seemed more alien in movement and they actually looked alien. I'm pretty tired of the high end big budget effects which seem all the same and alien creatures move, act and sound like regular earth creatures. So points for monster creation.

On the negative side, slow...everything. I didn't notice any character development. I couldn't guess what the movie was about.

To be fair I could only make it through the first 25%. Watched on YouTube so I was able to increased play speed 2x and enjoyment was greatly improved. Couldn't understand the dialogue but don't think I was missing anything and I could make up my own.

Films involving aliens admittedly do spark my interest and there are some fun ones out there, and some obvious masterpieces (won't name them at the risk of sounding unfair). Low-budget alien films on the most part do not have a good reputation and it is not hard to see why with most of them being intelligence insulting and making one seriously question how much effort went into it.

While far from the worst case, compared to the attempts especially made by SyFy and The Asylum (and a couple of others), 'Alien Reign of Man' does nothing to convert my general negative feelings on low-budget alien films. It's an incredibly bad mess and came incredibly close to having no redeeming qualities because of how much it does wrong and in a way that's jaw-droppingly awful. Oddly enough though there were a couple of small things that just about stopped it from falling into that category.

'Alien Reign of Man' is saved from total doom by the photography, even if far from exceptional, having some atmosphere and skill and actually not making me nauseous.

There is the odd fair costume and a few effects that look as if effort was made into them.

However, they are completely eclipsed by everything else being so dreadfully done. 'Alien Reign of Man' has a very drab look, and that a vast majority of the costumes are shoestring budget and that the rest of the effects are at best afterthought-looking pathetic further cheapen it, which makes the effort that went into the photography a waste. Editing was choppy too.

The music is too loud, very annoying and doesn't fit with the atmosphere at all, actually sounding like it was written for something else. The sound effects are bizarre and muffled, which does affect the dialogue and the balance between that and the sound. The dialogue is extremely stilted and without any bite, intrigue or urgency. That is when it is comprehensible, unfortunately most of the time it is not.

Something that affects the story coherence too. Further bad news for a story that's already paper thin, slow as molasses (and that is an insult to molasses) and well overdone on the ridiculousness. The characters are like robots in personality and have nothing interesting or distinguishable about them. The direction is pancake-flat.

While the actors are not entirely to blame, they throughout, and without exception, look as unfamiliar and indifferent to the material (characters and dialogue) as the viewer is.

Overall, a couple of small redeeming qualities but generally a big mess. 2/10 Bethany Cox