Alien Outbreak

The title tells you everything you need to know.

I quite like a good fake review, shows creativity (lacking in said movie), some attention paid to dialogue (also missing in the movie) and hopefully a way with words that develops the plot and tells, rather than shows how bad the movie is.

Shame the production values of the fake reviews match those of the film. Brand new accounts, with only a single review, are a giveaway that they were extras or gave up a weekend to work on the entire movie for free.

Enjoy. If you can...

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

As I sat down in 2021 to watch the 2020 UK sci-fi movie "Alien Outbreak", I must admit that I wasn't really expecting anything overly grand, given the movie's fairly low rating. And truth be told, I am not one that is usually overly keen on the sci-fi genre to begin with.

But I hadn't already seen "Alien Outbreak", so of course I sat down to watch it as I had the opportunity to do so.

And I must say that writer and director Neil Rowe actually managed to come up with a movie that wasn't all that shabby. Yeah, I found "Alien Outbreak" to actually be surprisingly watchable and a fair enough movie.

Sure, this wasn't a stellar sci-fi movie. It does bear witness of being a movie that has that low budget feel to it. But at the same time, then the CGI and special effects team actually managed to do well enough to bring the aliens to life on the screen.

"Alien Outbreak" does, however, suffer from being a rather mundane and slow paced movie. The storyline is just not packing enough punch, and it made for a rather mundane experience in terms of entertainment and pacing. While the movie was watchable, it was hardly an outstanding sci-fi movie, nor was it a movie that warrants more than just a single viewing, as the storyline just doesn't have the contents for that.

The acting in the movie was adequate. It wasn't performances that will leave you bedazzled or knock you back in your seat. People were doing fair enough jobs with their roles and characters, but they were struggling against a flaccid and uneventful storyline.

As for the ending of the movie, well... While writer and director Neil Rowe does leave the ending up for audience interpretation, I can't claim that it was an ending that I was overly much a fan of. It just simply left me with an unanswered question, which made me feel like I had essentially just wasted my entire time sitting through the movie, only to be served an ending such as that.

All in all, then "Alien Outbreak" was watchable, but it just slumped in on itself given its slow pacing and rather uneventful storyline. As such, I am rating Neil Rowe's 2020 movie a mediocre five out of ten stars.

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.