Attack The Block - Joe Cornish
Unedited Thoughts - This is part of my unedited thoughts series.
I’d say this film fits nicely alongside Shaun of the Dead. It’s a sci-fi comedy. But like Shaun of the Dead I think that this is only for a particular audience. It’s fine but not great. It does some interesting things but as a whole it isn’t great.
Poor setup of our heroes as villains. We are introduced to our heroes as they rob our heroine. The idea here been that they are an anti-hero – but also they are only bad until something worse turns up and it does. But this doesn’t excuse our dislike for them as petty criminals – muggers. The tone for the scene is all wrong – we are scared for Sam (Jodie Whittaker).
Aliens invade and the lads are here to protect the block. It’s just as ridiculous as it sounds. Normal heirachy is turned on its head – the cops get turned to mince meat. The head drug dealers get what is going on but are still focused on the perceived slight by Moses (John Boyega). This just doesn’t ring true.
The police and military response is non-existant – which makes zero sense. Fine just don’t engage with the world outside the block. But they do – the cops take the kids into custody at the end. Shaun of the Dead gets away with this because: Zombie Apocalypse. There is no excuse for this here.
The aliens are super cool. They have awesome glowing blue teeth. This visual is terrifying and mesmerising.
One of the kids gets stuck in a bin and it looks like it is going to be a good setup for a rescue mission – but then nope. Just comic hilarity. It sort of sums up the movie for – good setups for missed opportunities.
There are some truly hilarious parts in this film. The boisterous kiddy-gansta talk takes the cake for me. The language is atrocious though. Not one to take your nan to see.
The biggest let down for me is that the film-makers try to tie this ridiculous story into the real world. The kids are arrested for the deaths – and they are going away for a long time. This is a huge let down for our heroes – they achieved victory only to end up loosing everything.
