#alien invasions

[virovac]

Starship Invasions has an interesting idea for a terrible movie

Surveyors species of aliens looking for a new planet find out they actually descended from transplanted humans, contradicting their religious scripture

Humanity has to die not just so they can take our planet, but to erase all evidence and “preserve the faith”

Also apparently they have to be quiet about their genocide so the galactic League doesn’t notice.

[wetalkfilm]

[espanolbot2]

Continuing my Halloween Film Watch with the alien invasion film Rim of the World! No live reaction this time, as I was having to work on something else at the same time.

Premise: Misfit kids get sent to a remote summer camp outside of Los Angeles, only to end up stranded following an unexpected alien invasion.

S’okay film. Oddly dated in a lot of respects while also pointing out the dated stuff at the time time? Which was weird. Kinda creepy how much sexual humour there was involving kids who are meant to be, what, 13? That was gross.

Despite this, the kids are all individually rounded off in their own ways (Zhenzhen, played by Miya Cech, was the best one), even if the tone of the film seemed unsure if it was going for an adventure movie which happened to have gruesome deaths in it (like Jurassic Park etc.) or an early to mid-2000s action film that happens to star children... despite being released in 2019. Weird.

Amusingly the plot hinges on some Cold War era satellite defence tech which, despite very much being a trope in action films of all stripes, was never actually viable and was pretty much another example of Ronald Reagan wasting taxpayer money.

Also, James Corden survives the apocalypse, which gets it negative a million points!

[omercifulheaves]

TV promo for the War of the Worlds televsion series. Man oh man, did I *love* this show as a kid. I was already a big fan of the 1953 George Pal movie, so y’know, “Hey, here’s a TV sequel with Poncho from Predator in the main cast!” was a pretty easy sell for me. (Even if yes, even then I realized that they basically just grafted War of the Worlds on as the backstory for a serial numbers filed off Invasion of the Body Snatchers show) And man, that image of the alien hand rising out of the cannister haunted me. Remember it being surprisingly gory for a syndicated television show, too. Man, we need another creepy, gruesome alien invasion show.

[spookcataloger]

Dumbass American Ayys (2017)

[adamwatchesmovies]

Captive State (2019)

I’m not saying a film's release being delayed necessarily indicates the studio has no confidence in it. Oftentimes it may mean quite the opposite. Considering how little marketing Captive State released and its completion in 2018, I have a feeling someone tried to bury this one to avoid further financial loss.

Years have passed since the extraterrestrials arrived on Earth and society surrendered to them. Most have accepted humanity’s position as servants of the Legislators, believing the governments’ lies of a crime-free, unified world. Chicago Police Officer William Mulligan (John Goodman) is tasked with finding any dissident groups. He suspects Gabriel Drummond (Ashton Sanders), the brother of believed-to-be-deceased rebel leader Rafe Drummond (Jonathan Majors) is involved in a plot to disrupt the upcoming “unification celebration” and is determined to stop them.

What should be a relatively straightforward film rich with parallels to our society is handled with the delicacy and care of a four-year-old building a house of cards. First of all, you don’t really know who you’re following. Gabriel isn’t an interesting character. He’s not actually part of the rebel force and whenever he takes any action, it’s only because someone bigger than him told him to. He’s also absent from large chunks of the film, which follows either his brother, or Officer Mulligan. There should be intrigue brought in with the numerous side characters, which include Vera Farmiga in a role I think you’re supposed to be surprised by but doesn’t fool you for a second. The characters are sketches and the story murky. Maybe if you cared you'd put the mental effort to fill in the gaps but it doesn't seem worth it. Your only hope is a climax where war erupts we get to see the aliens pull out some cool weapons and humanity heroically fight back in a tooth-and-nail climax that makes you forget how bored you were for the rest of the film. Once you get a clear view of the aliens, you know that's not happening.

Captive State is the kind of bad film whose badness is obvious, but also not really. It’s this misshapen, shambling thing wriggling just enough to be considered alive. It MIGHT recover and isn't entirely without merit. It isn’t like the special effects are bad, dialogue is poorly written, or actors wooden but you'd be doing it a favor by putting it down. Nothing about it stands out. It’s doomed to obscurity, an alien movie you’d end up accidentally owning because at Wal-Mart they sell it in a 4-pack with two other good John Goodman sci-fi movies and another one you saw that one time and thought it was alright. Oh, and as a bonus, you get Captive State, I guess. (Theatrical version on the big screen, March 16, 2019)

[listoriented]

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified

When & Where: The Bureau: XCOM Declassified came in the Humble 2k Bundle 2 back in 2016, the one that came with Battleborn and a whole buncha other stuff, back in the mostly recognisable near past when this sort of thing is more regularly what Humble Bundle did.

Who: Although it emerged in this form in 2013, it seems to have had a pretty topsy-turvy development process, beginning at Irrational before they were bought out by 2k, and then being tossed back and forth between 2k branches at different times, particularly 2k Marin (RIP) and 2k Australia (RIP). 

What: I played The Bureau: XCOM Declassified for a couple of hours in December, and the residual impression of it is such that even the thought of re-launching it to give myself a refresher before writing a bit on it for this blog is making me grimmace inwardly, let alone facing the idea of having a whole ‘nother go at it, putting in a good stint, seeing if it comes good after a while and so on. We can safely put such ideas aside, for now, I think. The thing is that The Bureau seems perfunctorily fine, so far as these things go – a true 7 out of 10 squad shooter, as I’d read some time in the past. But dear lord, this isn’t what I want right now. If I’m going to be procrastinating at the moment, it isn’t going to be with something this mediocre.

I’d add a bit of adding distaste/resentment at how The Bureau quickly manages to mince what seems to be a pretty promising premise, which is peak cold war suits responding to an alien invasion. I mean, cool! But no. Too much killing of the mystery, too quickly. Too many clichés, too many nothing lines of dialogue, too much forced bombast. How quick the milk sours here.

I might also caveat that the squad shooter gimmick just doesn’t feel like it’s for me, or at least me at this present point in time. Soz, I just don’t have the patience to micro-manage my AI buddies when I’m trying to gun down goopy alien invaders! That part’s prob not the game’s fault, true.

next is Burly Men At Sea  

[pointless-letters]

Never mind alien invasions, robot uprisings, nuclear war or apes taking over the planet: Neil only needs two sentences to paint a *really* nightmarish vision of the future.