High Plains Invaders

Interesting flick. Original plot line. Mediorce cgi. James Marsters (Spike, Buffy the vampire series) plays the lead character in a sci/western about invading aliens. Faced with certain death, Marsters, (Sam) chooses to fight the alien invasion with his own resourses.

I truly wish that the Canadian company that produced this had invested the money to make this film correctly. The actors have nothing to apologize for, they did the best with a small budget.

This film is worth a watch. Pay attention to the acting of the actress playing the bounty hunter Rose. Other than Marsters, she is one to watch.

Well I made it through this bizarre western/sci-fi mash up, that's about all I can say about this. It's a definite B-movie with the aliens reminiscent of (copied from) 'War Of The Worlds' only on a smaller and much cheaper scale as is the whole tone of this weird movie.

It follows (best I can figure) a condemned outlaw (train robber Sam Phoenix -James Marsters) who's eminent hanging is abruptly halted by an invasion of aliens. Outlaws and townspeople must then join forces to survive as the ragtag group find sanctuary in a church. Yeah this was a tough movie to get through. I found the female gunslinger/bounty hunter character super annoying but was strangely fascinated by James Marsters' hair which look great throughout. 05.13

The Good:

-Neat, Original Idea; Aliens v.s. Cowboys. How can you screw that up?

-Nice set design, costumes, casting. Looks like what I imagine a real Western town might have been like if I wasn't being overly critical.

-Marsters is fun to see playing the hero.

-The production values, action and running around and hammy story-telling was all very formula, but nonetheless executed with competence. It was as good as any average hour-long TV drama, and we've all sat through enough of that stuff without complaint.

The Bad:

-Dreary lighting. This might have been on purpose, but I found it a bit tiresome. Some clear sunlight would have gone a long way.

-The sci-fi thinking is about as sophisticated as a mediocre old Star Trek episode (minus the Kirk/Bones/Spock magic). The alien bugs eat, get this, *Uranium*. -Now, if this were the 1950's when, in the minds of the public, uranium was akin to magical pixie dust; the Gee-Whiz Science of the era, then it might not have seemed hopelessly silly. But today, it's simply not that impressive a trope to run a whole story around. Though, apparently the writer slept through high school science because in his world view, uranium, being the fuel of leading-edge human science *seventy* years ago, must clearly also be the core ingredient of any super-advanced alien society as well.

And for some reason, when it comes to this particular brand of silly, other levels of child-like thinking crop up. Because the aliens don't just eat uranium; oh no! It's also their primary weapon! But they don't use radioactive space rays. No sir! They shoot big Indian arrow head chunks of the stuff out of their tails. Uranium is probably the life blood of their entire alien empire as well, but I wouldn't know, because I had to give up two thirds of the way through the story. It just got too dumb for me and I started cringing.

-The dialogue was hammy; it sounded like what a child thinks the adult world sounds like. The actors did their best with what they had.

Conclusion: "High Plains Invaders" looks pretty good if you don't examine it too closely. If you're a (young) kid, this would probably be fun. But if you're a discerning adult, the whole exercise is tiresome and unrewarding. It's not so bad that you'll feel abused, but I say that after having hit the 'eject' button before finishing.

Only watch this if you're under the age of 10, stoned or have absolutely nothing else to do.

In the Old West of 1892, a bank robber is about to become guest of honor at a neck tie party. Suddenly, giant metallic scorpion type things appear and break up the party. But just when this looks like it will be another body-count sideshow, an interesting story emerges.

The budget isn't extravagant, but much is accomplished with what they have. The style of the story is a tip of the hat to the vision of Jules Verne (who is mentioned in the film), and it shows some real imagination. The invaders also look to be of the sort H.G. Wells might cook up after a bad nightmare. The plot draws you in, with an intriguing mystery of just what do these rampaging creatures want, why are they here, and where did they come from. The film wisely withholds some of that, and releases just enough information to the characters and you at a very well constructed pace to keeps things interesting. It isn't even too clear if these things are machines or organic life forms until deep into the movie.

A weakness might be that the characters are written as western clichés, but they are developed in an adequate fashion. The acting is actually superior, and most of the cast rises above any limitations the script gives their roles. CGI effects are done well enough to make these hostile invaders threatening. The dialog supports the action, and doesn't fall into the cornball quips trap that so many films do. The ending is perhaps too abrupt, with no epilogue given at all.

Overall, not a bad watch.

The concept of the movie interested me but unfortunately the film itself while decent still isn't something memorable. Technically it's better than the average syfy movie but... that's not really a compliment.

The characters actually are slightly deeper than most stock archetypes you'd find inhabiting similar film scripts. Unfortunately long before it's necessary too many sign the "doomed" roster, and honestly knowing who's going to survive or not takes away from the film too much.

Interesting creatures. Unfortunately that only means we're not going to be seeing them appear in one of the occasional good syfy movies. Ultimately I was hoping for another film like "Aztec Rex" where the cheesy scenario and interesting characters in danger provide an entertaining film; apparently it wasn't to be.