Alien Outbreak

I wanted this to be a good movie the first time I watched it in 2020, and I watched it again today in hopes that I had been too critical of it the first time I watched it. The aliens are the best aspect of this movie. In fact these are among the best of the best aliens I've ever seen. Whoever is responsible for creating these aliens is a freaking legend. These things creep me out on a whole other level. In most of the shots with the taller beings, I was shocked by how real they look. They are so well made, that it is borderline indiscernible from fact or fiction. If someone showed me some of those alien scenes and told me it was real, I would probably believe them.

Sadly. The acting is terrible. The lead actress is by far the worst of the bunch. Her body language does not mesh with her emotions at all. She's very disconnected and bizarre, and the other characters are pretty bad as well.

The script is terrible, plot is terrible, dialogue is terrible, character interaction is terrible. The constant attempts to save the other characters long after they reached the point of no return is beyond annoying. Enough of your morality nonsense.

Also the high strangeness and mysterious nature of these beings is also amazing. I am truly creeped out by them.

Also, someone should have told them that when you shoot a gun, there is recoil. Standing there still as a rock while supposedly shooting high powered rifles... horrible. Even paintball and air guns have a recoil. Too bad.

I am in no way connected to this movie, just a fan of scifi that loves finding hidden gems online.

The special effects are good to excellent for this type of movie. The acting of the supporting characters is doable but Sgt Zoe keeps waking you up from the illusion.

I think the actress has a wider range than what she shows but I've seen more emotion from the animated rug in Aladin than her. Maybe it was intentional, being coached to act "in shock" but the writing certainly didn't help. At no point do you believe she is a trained police officer,let alone the highest ranking one in the area. The writer has her throw out police procedure from almost the very beginning and every other decisions she makes is a facepalm moment. Certain story arcs go nowhere or add nothing to the story. The bit with the armed units arriving was extremely bad and I think the last person they meet was only in there to get to a 84 min runtime.

I know a lot of people did their best for this movie so I gave it 4 stars but Neil (writer&director) you have to do better. Give it a go if you really want to watch it but you have been warned, this is for hardcore fans of the genre.

In fact probably one of the better indie b movies for aliens. CGI was good, twist was good... but that is pretty much the end of the good and must be where all of the budget went. acting sub par but kept me interested.

4.9

My thoughts pretty much go along with TheTopDawgCritic's review, but perhaps a bit more favourable. His Title states that he 'Wanted to stop watching, but couldn't' Well, in my lowly and wretched opinion, I honestly felt that the movie was fairly well put together and quite engrossing. There isn't a lot of huge action and effects, so expect definitely a tense, but somewhat lower key film.

Usually, at least for me with these kinds of movies, is that most of the time there are numerous BAD things about the way they are done that definitely detract from the story and make it less enjoyable. But, that is what I liked about this one... There is nothing hugely amazing or monumental about it, but being an avid Science Fiction fan, especially of the more 'serious' type, I truly felt that it was a solid little film that was made well and put together in a competent fashion. YES, the 'shaky camera' got to be a little much for my taste at times and therefore I probably would have personally preferred a slightly more Classic approach that way, but I can see where the film makers were going for more of an intense, 'this is really happening' kind of vibe. Which, for the most part seemed to work fairly well.

The acting was nothing to get too excited about, but I felt that it was serviceable to the story and got the job done. Some complained about the lead woman, but I honestly felt that the way she came across was just the right balance, which I feel in this kind of role is hard to get right. She was strong and competent, but at the same time she didn't come across as artificially overbearing and obnoxious, which is how some woman in roles like this are superficially portrayed to beat the audience over the head with the fact that she is 'tough' This actress didn't have to do that, but just quietly but I felt believably took the lead as the 'sergeant' in a realistic, but low key way. Everyone else was just okay...

BUT... the thing I really liked about this movie that others have mentioned too was that I really dug the effects, robots, ships, and eerie creatures and the way they were portrayed. Whomever was behind this part of the production I felt did a great job! And yes, not to give anything away, but the ending may be a little unexpected, and it DOES kind of leave you a bit up in the air. But, I thought it achieved the effect the creators were going for.

Unlike some other reviewers here, I thought the Suspense was VERY palpable and intense at times and quite effective. And, something that I really appreciated which I referred to earlier on was that there weren't a bunch of STUPID things that were done that could have easily taken away from and diminished the effectiveness of the story. To me when I write these reviews from time to time, the PRIMARY thing I always try to stress is, 'Is the movie made well...?' A person may not like the type of film or may prefer a different kind of Science Fiction, but whatever the case, again, is it done well...? And, I feel that yes it was. MUCH better than many, many others out there that rely on a bunch of artificial, shlocky, Drama and screaming and nonsense. Just a good, solid story told in a decent way.

I would say that if you like fairly serious Alien-oriented Sci Fi and you can appreciate a fairly simple straight forward story, but one that has a strong sense of Suspense and Mystery and some pretty nifty low key effects, then there is a good chance that you might enjoy it...

...if you believe any of the praise that is here on this page. Poor casting, acting, writing and remedial CGI, but at least there's little of it.