Invader

"Lifeform" starts off with an intriguing mystery. Viking 2, one of the two landers that were dropped on Mars by NASA during the 70's, has returned to Earth. From the start we get the idea that Lifeform's scriptwriter did his homework, as one of the scientists examining the lander starts rattling off real-life technical details about the lander, rather than some spurious techno-babble. From there things rapidly switch to a monster hunt straight out of the '50s, as the scientists bicker with the military when the Lifeform in question breaks loose from it's hiding place in the lander and starts running around the sealed lab complex. It's nothing we haven't seen before, but the script never insults the audience, neither the scientists or the military act like idiots, and the f/x aren't _too_ cheap. There's even a genuine red-herring or two to keep the audience interested, not to mention some clever ideas about the Lifeform's biology. If you can't find anything else on the tube, you could do worse than to watch this.

'Invader' is a decent aliens film, no more but no less either. It is done in the mid 90's, is is clearly a low budget film - so the effects are far from what big studios succeed in similar movies. Directing and acting are quite routine, nothing memorable above the usual TV series level. However, the script is quite decent, and despite some inconsistencies, it keeps somehow the interest high. The end is quite good, kind of justifying the viewer surviving the 90 minutes the movie lasts. Science fiction fans may like it, though we have seen much better. 6/10 on my personal scale.

Even in an auspicious premise over a NASA lander Viking sent to Mars in early eighties, it strangely is back landing at California desert area, in the same time Nasa's Engineer crew members aware of the happening pick up the lander sending it at Mojave closed laboratory there they try figure out why it was back on Earth, due such lander didn't has any pre-arranged device to allow any post-returning, therefore just this element was enough good to developed a better screenplay, instead once again another slime Alien monster aiming for capitalize on the successful formulaic ALIEN.

Aftermaths the Pentagon notifies the US' Army to take over the incident and remove the lander Viking to a top-secret place to clarify the sudden appearance, turns out that inside a spheric pod came an embryonic egg of an alien form, who growing faster and hides on the facility, to worsen the lame script mixing a struggles against a hermaphrodite Alien, even once dead is growing inside another being, the came up the unexpected matter, a soldier suffering of appendicitis needing a rush surgery, what a mess, just wait for strong emotions, it just the beginning.

Thanks for reading.

Resume:

First watch: 2024 / How many: 1 / Source: Youtube / Rating: 5.

As my title says. Not bad. Not great. But for a low budget dtv movie made in '96 it actually holds up well; the acting isnt horrendous, they didnt try to do too much with the special effects, so while they are minimal they arent (too) cheesy, the plot does move along at a decent pace, and there are no glaring holes in the plot (the scifi element is pretty standard), not too far fetched, lastly the production values (sound, lighting, etc) are those of a made for tv movie (ie good not great- but you can see/hear/understand everything. Definitely suitable for family sci fi movie night (but make it the 1st in a double header). And the best part?-- there is room plotwise for a sequel (30 yrs later....)

A mysterious object enters the airspace of a military base in California going at a tremendous rate of speed. A team is sent out to investigate. It turns out to be one of the Viking landers from that we sent to Mars. How did it get back to Earth? Why is it here? Is there a big nasty alien that's going to end up popping out of our chests if we touch it? While the last question is a bit of a joke relating to the obvious Alien (1979) influences on Lifeform (aka Invader), it's no secret that the film involves, well, an alien lifeform. What seems to be more of a secret is the film's existence and the fact that it's pretty good.

An obviously low-budget affair, writer/director Mark H. Baker overcomes this limitation with a smart, well-constructed story, plenty of sci-fi horror tension, and fine performances (including from an amusingly young Ryan Phillippe). A lot of the budget appears to have been spent on building the Viking replica, the costumes/military accoutrements for the human cast, the creature costume and special effects. It was money well spent. The effects are amazing for such a low budget film. The creature costume is as good as most big studio efforts, the Alien-style cocoons and eggs are well done, and there is a great, visceral autopsy scene.

Except for exterior location, Baker wisely keeps all of the action in a nondescript government facility. "Nondescript" may not sound very attractive visually, but it's believable. That's how government facilities look. Besides, Baker is skilled enough to make it interesting visually. The bulk of the plot is divided into two modes: (1) figuring out what the Viking lander and then the alien are doing there, and (2) "monster" chase and attack scenes.

Baker gives us fantastic sci-fi writing for both. We have a team of bright, multi-dimensional scientists examining the lander from a "hard science" angle, with dialogue that's not gobbledy-gook yet that's easy enough to understand. They propose intelligent theories and make intelligent moves. As the military becomes more involved and we begin to enter more of an action/horror sci-fi mode, Baker doesn't have his characters leave their brains at the doors. They develop an Alien-like sulfur detector to find the monster, and they have insights into its behavior that help them.

Still, the material is very suspenseful at times, and it is consistently captivating. There are clever subtexts. One is keyed to an important piece of dialogue--"Why are we exploring space if we're just going to blow-up every lifeform we come across?" Even though there is little reason to believe that the alien has ill intentions, most of our protagonists assume that it does, and they all assume that it at least poses a great danger to them in the form of unwittingly transmitted viruses, for example. They go so far as to issue a quarantine and consider drastic worst-case-scenarios and options. Baker seems to have a pessimistic view of human tendencies in the face of the unknown, and probably deservedly so.

Although there are some flaws with the film (otherwise I wouldn't have subtracted two points), including strange moves by characters, such as one wearing a face mask to guard against biological contamination and another standing a foot behind and not wearing a face mask, Lifeforce is unusual (such as its strange but refreshing nihilistic ending—apparently, fortuitously precipitated by budget limitations) and well worth watching.