Snyopsis
The film pits a teen street gang against an invasion of savage alien monsters. It turns a London housing project into a sci-fi battleground, the low-income apartment complex into a fortress under siege. And it turns a crazy mix of tough street kids into a team of kick ass heroes. It’s inner city versus outer space.
The concept of this movie sounds incredibly ridiculous from far away. Seriously? Aliens somehow find their way to the lower income side of London to cause all sorts of mayhem? It does sound pretty bad. BUT! The movie is a bit deeper than that. While there is a lot of social commentary with lower class versus upper class in the film, as our heroes are angry teen thugs that are bored and bitter, the best part of the movie develops when the aliens actually begin to attack and the film becomes a sci-fi horror really quick. The teens who had nothing to do quickly find they are smack in the middle of saving London. The lead character, Moses (played by John Boyega), becomes more than just a leader of the gang he’s in; he becomes someone who is self-sacrificing and that is leading his people to safety (thus the name). So while you get a funny, wacky vibe from the trailer (below), please understand that the film has a lot more depth and less blow-the-head-off-an-alien type of situations. Without the deep characters that develop properly this movie just becomes another sci-fi horror fllm, but thankfully it’s more that.
Speaking of aliens, the horror side of the film goes from silly to ‘wow that’s creepy’. The first alien that hits the block is ugly and semi-scary. The aliens that are after the first are pretty darn frightening, especially when the lighting becomes restricted in certain scenes. The creatures have a black, furry ape-like body and glowing blue teeth and eyes. Picture a bunch of those in a hallway chasing after a group of kids as the lights begin to fizzle out. Those suckers are absolutely scary, which is perfect because you will end up taking the film a lot more serious. If you think the antagonists are goofy looking then you won’t get the full scare from them, which is thankfully not the case with Attack the Block.
Are there any downers to the film? Well, the only thing I can say bad about the film is that without subtitles I would have been completely lost. Attack the Block is very British. So much that if you aren’t from the country then you’re going to have a helluva time keeping up with the dialogue. I’ve run into only one film that has ever given my issues when it comes to the British accent (The Man that Would Be King), but like that film I toughed through it, as I did with Attack the Block. Just add some subtitles and sit back and enjoy.
As for the Blu-ray portion of this film, it looks good, but because of how it was shot (and probably what budget it had) the film isn’t the highest quality HD that I’ve seen. With restricted lighting situations, it’s tough to see all the pretty HD that the film has been transferred in. When the film goes into lit areas, like in front of the elevator in the block of flats during several scenes, you can see rich, crisp colors of the kids clothes. You can also see how positively clean the environment around them looks in HD. There is literally no graininess or artifacts anywhere to be seen. As soon as it shifts back to the darker scenes then the HD loses its luster, though there still isn’t anything in terms of graininess or artifacts (or color banding issues), but it’s nothing really gorgeous. Regardless, it’s still a good quality of HD. The audio is especially good in the transfer, as it makes the horror film that much scarier.
Finally, here’s what you’re getting in terms of special features:
– Behind the Scenes Documentary
– Creature Feature
– Meet the Gang
– Unfilmed Action
– That’s a Rap
– Commentary
For a film that was pretty much an independent this one packs some punch in the special features category. Lots of good information mixed with some great commentary.