Alien Planet

So what we have here is yet another solid entry from Alan Maxson, from the so bad it's good (or perhaps just plain bad) Christmas with Cookie series we moved to the incredibly impressive dark comedy Patina. Alan has managed to take the quality of Patina and put that in to a full length feature. The effects on display here are impressive, and gory! The pacing is great, the cast are great, the directing is great. Whilst the story isn't necessarily breaking new ground, it is solid enough. Some moments seem a bit under developed, whilst others exceed expectations. If you are a fan of indie movies and a fan of sci-fi you should check this out.

Don't waste you time watching this, most syfi films from the 80's are better than this drivel the acting is sub standard, the costumes are straight out of the 70's, the acting is very bad from all actors and the set design well don't get me started, so much plywood and old technology with more plywood applied over the top. Lighting is also totally wrong and the story and script writing are laughable but not in a good way. The video editing of this film is badly done, the the cuts and color correction are so bad.

My recommendation is that this film is only worth watching, if you want to see every thing you shouldn't do when making a film.

Of course I had never even heard about this 2023 sci-fi movie titled "Alien Planet" prior to stumbling upon it by random chance. Normally, then sci-fi is not my go-to genre of movies, but I do sit down every now and then and watch something sci-fi. And thus, I opted to sit down and watch "Alien Planet".

I can't claim to be harboring much of any great expectations to writer and director Alan Maxson's 2023 movie "Alien Planet" given the fairly low-budget-looking cover/poster for the movie.

The movie actually was watchable. Not a great movie though, but it was adequately watchable, if you don't mind watching low budget sci-fi. The storyline in the movie, as written by Alan Maxson, was pretty straightforward. And the movie looked and felt like it was made with a lot of heart and spirit put into the project.

Needless to say that I was not familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie. But then again, the performers were so heavily disguised under prosthetics and make-up that they would be unrecognizable.

The special effects in the movie were fair enough. Some of the effects were good, such as the lasers and the make-up and prosthetics. However, the space-cat, Giree, looked horribly fake.

If you are a hardcore sci-fi fan, then you might get much more enjoyment out of "Alien Planet" than I did.

My rating of writer and director Alan Maxson's 2023 movie "Alien Planet" lands on a four out of ten stars.

I loved the practical effects! So many movies nowadays lean too heavily on cgi, so this was a refreshing change. It was great how this movie really leaned into the campiness with the excessive fake blood and alien curse words. I mean, alien cat vomit has miraculous healing powers! Alien Planet really has the feel of a Star Trek episode, particularly Voyager or Enterprise. I think my favorite character was either Giree or Lock. I do have a few criticisms, though - some shots lasted twice as long as they really needed to, which is part of why the plot felt like it was dragging its metaphorical feet for a bit there. But the main reason this only has 6 stars is the ending. If the point was to piss the audience off, it was a complete success. The movie ended with a cheap "shocking twist" that left my dad and I deeply dissatisfied. We're still arguing over whether it was a budgeting issue forcing them to change the script at the last minute (which is what I think) or a deliberate attempt to make a statement (what my dad thinks).

Tl;dr super fun and campy; I would've loved to be in the cast or crew of this! The ending sucks tho :/

EDIT: For the record, my dad and I have no connection to the cast/crew. This just came on a queue of the B movies my dad watches while working at home.

It wasn't worth it. Was reminded of Saturday morning kid's scripted fantasy tv programs from the 70s. So cheesy.

Replete with smarmy sarcasm and hostile speechifying by the seemingly emotionally immature, laced with lame smack-talk, and even saying it to the unconscious.

It has dialogue with full sentences that consist of, "Ugh, this arm is never gonna heal." and "This damn plant." Also, "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you right now."

The writing, acting, directing, are all about as bad as in the Extinct (2017) series, which was written and directed by BYU (Mormon) grads. The sophistication level is middle-school, like not totally stupid, but almost hopelessly underdeveloped.

The editing was also biffed up, to where an injury changed sides of the body, and changed back because they flipped footage a few times.

Some of the costuming decisions included Tabi Japanese Split Toe Shoes, or Ninja Jika Tabi Split Toe Boots, because those are totally 'alien.' My, my, my what this says! (Although, they're supposedly good for bunions, so maybe those aliens got Foot probs, not just food and water probs.)

I did sort of love it when the puppet/animatronic-looking Healing-Pet growled out it's master's name, fully articulately. L'il Spewy also snarls "NO" and "O. K.," in a grossly charming way.

Anyway, it had a zero payoff ending after being terribly predictable, too.