Attack the Block - Movie Review
Written and directed by first-time director Joe Cornish, and from the producers of Edgar Wright’s ‘Shaun of the Dead’ and ‘Scott Pilgrim v.s. The World’, ‘Attack the Block’ is a British Sci-Fi/Action/Comedy about the invasion of a council estate in South London by a terrifying alien race.
The movie follows a gang of teenagers, who in the opening scene try to mug an innocent woman on Bonfire Night. Moses, the leader of the gang eventually has the woman at knife point requesting she take off her ring, but suddenly something crash lands on a nearby car disturbing their whole process. The woman, named Sam, escapes and the teenagers check the car only to find that an alien has crash landed. After killing it they take it to their local drug supplier’s house for storage only to find out later that more aliens are crash landing in their neighborhood. The teens quickly decide to go out and fight the aliens, but their battle quickly changes into a race for their lives when they realize these aliens are far more dangerous than one they killed in the beginning.
‘Attack the Block’ is a fun movie to watch. The characters are great and the actors do a good job portraying them. John Boyega , who plays Moses, does a commendable job the whole way through. In the beginning of the movie he is an easy character to hate but as the movie progresses you learn to like him and you hope for the best for him. Another character that was great was Pest, played by Alex Esmail. He’s the funniest of the bunch and you immediately feel something for him. Most of the characters are likable, but at the same time the movie plays out in a way where anyone can die next, which really surprised me. A lot of movies with a kill count won’t go too much into the characters their killing off for fear the audience won’t want to see them go. This movie doesn’t do that and I respect the writers and director for going this way.
Aside from the characters the movie is funny. I wouldn’t go so far to call the movie just a comedy, though. The movie gives its fair share of jokes, as well as scares, suspense, and action scenes. The action isn’t phenomenal, but I enjoyed the chase scenes between the teens and the aliens a lot. The aliens themselves were also done very well. They looked scary and their overall design was really unique.
'Attack the Block’, by the end, really surprised me. Judging from the trailer the movie looks like just a fun action/comedy. While it is that, without going too much into the plot, it is also a great story of redemption.
'Attack the Block’ is available on Blu-ray and DVD right now. I highly recommend renting or buying it sometime.