Gemini Rising

I bought this movie because of the trailer. The simple fact is the trailer isolated all the good bits and sold a much better product than Alien Rising actually is. The story fails for critical reasons. There is an obsession with fighting ability, an obsession that has no bearing on the story at all. All this fighting is designed to show us that the heroine is the best at fighting with all the men (aside from this star there are only one or two unimportant other women). I'll be honest. This aspect was so juvenile that I only got half way into the picture before I stopped watching. There is a lot of cgi, which is used for wide shots of the facility, spaceships, helicopters, and the aliens, and even, I suspect, for the sea. It was only ever OK quality. This is a 2013 movie, a good decade after good cgi became available. The sets were unimpressive, as was the script. I'm prepared to give Alien Rising 4 stars because the story had begun to have some sci-fi originality before I stopped watching, and that's important to me as I love any expansion of good sci-fi writing. But that originality was also riddled with tensions around the heroine, whom in the matter of a couple of minutes rejects a former lover and starts a new love affair with another man. It's all bits and pieces, and in the end it was obvious that the set up was to confirm who survived and whom got killed in the second half of the movie, when, I venture, the alien escapes. One day I'll go back and see if I nailed it. This is yet another sci-fi movie that has not had sufficient overview before, during or after production, and we the public have had to suffer another dud.

There are some movies that defy most of the rules of proper film making, not because of the intriguing talent of their makers, but because of their sheer incompetence.

This is one of them. I took it as an. Opportunity to switch off 95 percent of my brain for the sheer purpose of total relaxation.

That worked very well as a preparation for a good sleep.

Towards the end, the movie gets so trashy that I even had a few laughs, though I am not into trash movies. As a bonus, I got to watch Lance Henriksen, whom I like very much, in one of his typical roles where he has not much to do but being Lance Henriksen and maybe have some fun on the set.

I give two stars, one for Lance, and one for the bold move not to destroy all copies before release.

Well, I'll start out by being charitable. The plot had some potential. The acting wasn't as horrendous as some I've seen, and the filming wasn't bad. However l, having a 120 lb female Rambo-ette taking out all the trained soldiers was....well, it was just embarassing to watch. I suppose in some deluded Feminazi mind it must have made sense, but it completely stripped away any realism this movie MIGHT have had. And yes, I am a woman.

The epitome of not caring about your movie ... ... Some movies fake up a real-looking police report when someone is reading a dossier. This movie just handed the actor a copy of the script to literally read from AND THEN SHOWED IT IN A CLOSEUP!

Some pictures actually train their female kick-fanny leads to at least look like they can throw actual punches and kicks ... this movie figured why bother, so they get the look of a high school play.

Some movies have real dialogue ... this movie almost seemed to wing it with bad cliches.

I am usually one to give credit where credit is due, but the crud in this movie are SO bad I can't bring myself to give it better than a 2.

I didn't know they were still allowed to make such movies in 2015!! I mean, if you do get to take a look at it, around 20-30 minutes is all that is needed to realize that this is as cheap as they come.

And you know what? I'll stop blaming the budget. Cameron had a different idea for Terminator 1, he wanted to make it like T2, but budget and special effects would not allow him such a thing back then. Wes wanted to make Freddy like the one in the New Nightmare, again, restrained by budget and CGI he chose differently. Results? Work of arts!

Therefore, Alien Rising is just bad. I graded it a 3 stars and not 2, because the plot, the origin, had a nice idea that could have been developed into something better. But it was a roller coaster of clichés. Stay away from this one, it really is 3 on a scale of 10.

Always a pleasure seeing Henriksen on the screen, I think he could do a lot better tho. One of my favorite actors sinking more and more.

Cheers!