Alien vs. Ninja

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.

Plot? See title.

Low budget? Yep. Filmed on digi-cam? Yes. Terrible CGI? You bet. Men in rubber suits straight out of Power Rangers? Oh man, you've seriously got to see it to believe how cool it is!

Word to the wise: if you can't appreciate flicks like The Story of Ricky, you may not like this. It's an action-comedy, the effects add to the fun, there are plenty of cool bits and if you like kung fu this should leave you pumped-up.

Watch this film!

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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.

I've never seen an Alien vs. Predator movie, but I can now say I've seen the (probably superior) Alien vs. Ninja.

This still isn't great, but for a movie called Alien vs. Ninja, it could've been much worse. The biggest criticism I have is that it felt a bit like it was trying to be a Ryûhei Kitamura film (what with the crazy blend of genres and goofy action scenes and all), but didn't have the same magic his stuff has. This is no Final Wars, Versus, or Azumi, even if some of its more gonzo moments suggests it kind of wants to scratch the same itch those films do.

The schlock in this film is sometimes charming though, making it better than anything the Asylum farts out. It's one-note as a movie, and all the action/alien scenes do start to feel repetitive, even with the runtime just being 80 minutes.

But it's the sort of movie that made for perfectly mindless weekend viewing, and I had a decent amount of fun with Alien vs. Ninja, flaws and all.

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.