Director: Joe Cornish
Writer: Joe Cornish (Screenplay)
Starring: Jodie Whittaker, John Boyega, Alex Esmail, Leeon Jones, Franz Drameh, Simon Howard, Maggie McCarthy, Danielle Vitalis, Luke Treadaway, Nick Frost
Plot: A teen gang in South London defend their block from an alien invasion.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Unique and Original
Story: Attack the Block starts as we meet young woman Sam (Whittaker) who lives in the London estates, while walking home she finds herself being mugged by Moses (Boyega) and his gang Pest (Esmail), Jerome (Jones), Dennis (Drameh) and Biggz (Howard) only for an alien invasion to interrupt the incident.
Moses getting attacked by one of the aliens hunts it down with his gang and kills it, Moses goes on to wonder what to do with these new unknown creature as we see how the teenager is getting controlled by the drug dealers in the block.
When Moses sees more aliens arrive in the block the gang head out to kill the rest and an unlikely partnership between the gang and Sam rich boy Brewis (Treadaway) and local drug dealer Ron (Frost) starts as they battle for their home against the alien invaders.
Attack the Block gives us an alien invasion story which comes of fresh in the world of heavy unoriginal alien creations. The film does capitalise on the spin of putting a certain select group of people against an evil which all works because the unity within the neighbourhood would be close enough to fight off any enemy. I will say we should have had slightly more focus on the Sam’s realisation that these kids have never had a chance of a future and that is why they act the way they do but otherwise this is a good fun alien invasion story.
Actor Review
Jodie Whittaker: Sam is a recently graduated nurse living in the rough block in London, after she gets mugged by a teenage gang that is only the beginning of her nightmare as she has to work with the gang to fight off the aliens. Jodie
John Boyega: Moses is the leader of the teenager gang who spends his time mugging people around the block, when the aliens interrupt one he kills the creature but this only drags more aliens into the area as he leads his gang in a battle against the aliens. Moses is the age where we get to see these teenagers make the big decisions with their life choices as we see how he is getting ordered around by older members of the block but we also see him want to make his own decisions. John
Alex Esmail: Pest is a member of the gang who loves to use his fireworks as a weapon, I will say Pest is by far the most annoying of all of the characters but that is a character design. Alex does a good job to make us get annoyed by this character.
Leeon Jones: Jerome seems to be the brains of the gang who seems to only been there because he was born in the wrong neighbor. Leeon is good looking like part of the gang with ease.
Support Cast: Attack the Block has a supporting cast that you would expect to see within the neighbourhood with everyone making us feel like this is a real community struggling with life issues.
Director Review: Joe Cornish – Joe gives us a unique and original spin on the alien invasion genre by setting it within a London council estate.
Action: Attack the Block has good action throughout the film with a lot of the action being used to create the comedy in the film.
Comedy: Attack the Block uses the comedy points for this film to make fun at the ideas of having to beat off any enemy.
Sci-Fi: Attack the Block brings us a new form of alien which helps hugely because we needed something new in the alien style film.
Settings: Attack the Block keeps all the action in and around the block showing how they seen the world against them.
Special Effects: Attack the Block keeps as much of the special effects as practical effects which adds the extra fear about the creatures.
Suggestion: Attack the Block is one for the fans of the action horror genre to enjoy because of the unique spin on the aliens. (Try It)
Best Part: The alien original and actually scary.
Worst Part: Slightly too stereotypical London Estate characters.
Believability: No
Chances of Tears: No
Chances of Sequel:
Post Credits Scene: No
Awards: Nominated for a BAFTA
Oscar Chances: No
Budget: $13 Million
Runtime: 1 Hour 28 Minutes
Tagline: Inner City vs. Outer Space
Trivia: John Boyega found out about this film from an ad placed on-line.
Overall: One of the best and most original of the alien creation films out there.
Rating
