Attack The Block

Alien invasion. London. Nick Frost. What else could a girl want from a film?

Attack the Block follows a group of teens and a few others in the middle of an alien invasion in South London. The film has been compared to Shaun of The Dead, which happens to be one of my favourite films so the stakes were high.

The film opens when the gang robs a nurse called Sam, without knowing that she actually lives on the block just like they do. They later have form an alliance to get through the night, when the aliens follow the kids to their apartment block and all hell breaks loose. Trust, responsibility and courage form the film's themes we explore through the eyes of adolescent individuals from the wrong side of life.

I first saw this at a film festival, where this was screened as a surprise film, we only figured out a week before the screening what we were about to go see. And I admit, I was really disappointed when I heard that I spent money to go see this, I had no interest in this film. But, I was surprised, because I walked out of the theater with a huge grin, because this film was funny and scary and surprisingly impressive.

Let's start with the cast. A bunch of unknowns, only one I recognized was Nick Frost who seems to be in every British comedy. The cast felt fresh and real. You really can't have glamorous A-listers shouting out "ALIEN INVASION, BRUV!", now can you? The language is something that I truly loved. Since I'm not British, it was kind of hard to understand at times (the screening nor my dvd had subtitles...) but it also felt like a piece of true inner city London. There is nothing glorious or fancy about the situation, so why shouldn't our protagonists swear and use the proper language? The slang can also be a major turn-off for some, because it sounds so foreign and weird if you are not a Londoner. But I liked it, I just didn't understand everything 100%.

AtB is Joe Cornish's first film, but you could never tell that from the film itself. It's made with confidence and steady vision. It pays homage to the great alien movies made before, but also tries to reinvent the genre a little bit. We don't have the unfortunate hero, who just happens to be in the wrong place and just has to save the whole world, possibly even sacrifice himself in front of his new found love interest. Instead, we have a group of kids, who are way over their heads, who gear up (baseball bat, a sword, fireworks...) and plan to invade their block back. It's not about survival, it's not about life or death, it's about territory. The kids are of course scared and fully aware that it's dangerous, but they face dangerous every day living in the block. It's their world and they are going to protect it.

The aliens. Very interesting and weirdly, very fuzzy. There were things that I absolutely loved about them and things that I missed. A huge plus was to hide their eyes and only show their glowing jaws and teeth. I also liked to black ("It's too black to see") colouring, but they were a bit funny looking, because of the hair, was it hair? and the way the moved on all four legs. They looked like a gorilla and a Xenomorph had a baby that hit puberty and decided to dye its' hair black. But overall, I think the aliens were scary and were presented well.

That said, I think this is one of my top5 alien-movies. Attack The Block delivers laughs and a few gags as well. It works perfectly when you're searching for an entertaining alien film with gore, but don't expect too much emotional drama.