When aliens attack a South London neighborhood, a teen gang pulls together to protect their turf by any means necessary. But extraterrestrials prove far more formidable than anyone they ever jumped on the streets.
Alien invasion movies as of late have been quite disappointing. I Am Number Four sucked, Battle Los Angeles was unfortunately unforgettable after that awesome trailer and in films like Super 8 and Cowboys and Aliens, and the aliens were the worst parts of their respective films. The one thing all four had in common was a budget north of fifty million dollars. A lot of the time when a film has a bigger budget you tend to become a bit lazy in the storytelling and character development sections. The much smaller budget seems to be Attack the Blocks secret weapon. They took a cast of unknowns, used the CGI aliens effectively, and relied more on tension then full on action.
Attack the Block surprises you in a lot of ways. The alien invasion is front and center, but the entire film focuses on the small gang of kids that first encounter them. The small scale of film adds to its attractiveness. Why are these aliens here, why are they only in this “block” so to speak and how can you kill them? The way the film handles this feels entirely fresh and is a great change from the repetitive takeover scenarios we are accustomed too. I will take creativity every single time. The way they designed the aliens added a whole lot to the film. They have pitch black fur they leave them hidden away in scenes and are able to jump out and actually scare you at times. The only traces they leave for you to see are bright glowing green mouths that only add to their viciousness. It seems that some of the best CGI in films are when the films have to become creative with it because of that limited budget and this feels like the perfect example alongside District 9.
The stars of the film are a group of unknown British teenagers that do a great job in establishing themselves so that you root for them despite the fact that they are bad. The film does a great job of displaying how their environment shaped them into these criminals, but at the same time showed the other side of how this affects them. They don’t want to be criminals, but they think it’s their only option. It’s not anything groundbreaking in film, but it was nice to see the film playing both sides of the situation at hand despite an alien invasion going on at the same time. The character to look out for is the gang leader Moses. John Boyega is the unknown cast in the lead, and seeing it as his first acting job, he did a great job and I expect a lot of big things out of him.
I walked into this film expecting to be disappointed because of my high expectations, but I came away feeling completely satisfied. It’s a lot less funny and a lot more tense then I thought it was going to be but because of that I felt surprised. It’s one of the best and most fun movies you will watch all year and if you’re a fan of Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz you’ll go gaga for this. It has Edgar Wright’s style written all over it. Whenever you get a chance to watch this, do it and don’t wait on it, it will be a guaranteed good time.
Overall Score: 9/10
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