Attack the Block

An amazing movie with some of the best creature design I've ever seen. Attack the Block is a sort of London hoodlum version of Goonies. Only instead of innocent children going for X marks the spot treasure. These are kids no one cares about except their own. And they face off against an alien threat. It's easy to assume based on descriptions that these characters aren't likeable because the first act of the movie is the gang robbing a nurse of her stuff (including her wedding band) on her way home from work. A home that she will turn out to share with these kids. But the movie is more than that one scene. The characters are fleshed out. Their actions in that moment while never justified are explained. When the world hates you and yours you develope an us vs them mentality and that turns out to play a strong role in what happened in that very short opening scene. But there's so much more to the movie to love. A character literally named Moses who has to lead his crew to victory first to the promised land of a step up the gangster heirarchy ladder and then to the fighting back against the alien menace. A menace that is very real and very realized in this film. Good kids don't make it and bad kids do. Even with the help of the nurse they don't have the easiest time. But the movie is a triumph of character that while primarily a sci-fi action set-piece has scenes of comedy that are some of the most emotional in the whole film. A must watch film. The lead character is so captivating I couldn't to see him in something else. A few year later I would get my wish.

To be honest I thought about watching another trash movie which I will quit during the first halftime... But the movie was quite enjoyable.

The effects are enjoyable and fun to watch. Of course it is no masterpiece in things of acting or story (do we really need a story for this setup?) but it had its moments and definitely made a nice watch.

Thought it was a solid movie. Didn't bite off more than it could chew, rational characters (based on the fact that they're teenagers!), didn't oversaturate with unecessary character development, and honestly believable... which is a feat for a movie with furry gorilla monsters with no eyes and glowing blue teeth.

[7.7/10] I had a hard time getting into *Attack the Block* at first. It’s not that the film wasn’t well made or well acted. It’s that we meet our perspective characters when they’re mugging a poor, frightened woman and roughing her up when she doesn’t turn over her worldly possessions fast enough. It’s a terrifying scene, one that made my blood boil a little bit when it became clear, after the film got going in earnest, that it wanted you to be on the muggers’ side.

The most impressive trick writer-director Joe Cornish pulls off in the film is not the well-crafted script or impressive special effects or the wonderfully-built horror and tension. It’s the fact that by the end of the movie, you are on their side and so is their victim. It doesn’t come easy. But as the film progresses, you learn more and more about why the kids are like this, the choices they have and don’t have, the environments they grow up in and hassles that come with it.

Those things don’t erase what happens in the film’s beginning, but they explain it. Apologies and youth and understanding become enough to sway you of an inner decency in Moses and his crew that, if fostered rather than stamped out, could make a hero out of a mugger.

With that backbone, it’s hard to pin down a genre for *Attack the Block*. The best way I can describe it is as *The Warriors* meets *Alien* meets *Kids* meets *Die Hard* meets *Night of the Living Dead*.

It is a film about the different crews and cohorts operating in and around the titular block. It’s an alien invasion story, with snarling and fearsome monsters lurking around every corner. It is a frank look at the slang and manner of young men and women getting by despite poverty and a lack of supervision. It is a rollicking action film bolstered by the claustrophobia of it taking place largely in one building. And it is a story about people from different walks of life, forced together by circumstance, finding common cause and common ground in desperate times.

Cornish makes all of those disparate elements work by integrating them all together with vivid characters. His script treats each of the residents and visitors of The Block like wind-up toys, spending much of the first act winding them up and then devoting the rest of the movie to their frantic movement around the game board, bumping into one another. Whether it’s a street gang, stoners, nurses, cops, gangsters, nine-year-old wannabes, a group of young women, or even the alien attackers, Cornish and company mix and match the pieces brilliantly, with humor and sparks flying at each new combination.

Those sparks (often aided by exploding fireworks) dovetail nicely with the impressive set pieces, cinematography, and production design. *Attack the Block* looks remarkably high quality for a film made with a $10 million budget. It’d be too much to say the film feels realistic exactly, but Cornish and director of photography Tom Townend give the movie a washed out, green-graded, Fincher-esque look that exudes a certain lived-in realism even within the plainly heightened reality of an alien invasion flick.

That’s aided by the look of the creatures themselves. The alien, hulking black masses of fur with multiple layers of glow-in-the-dark teeth, are the perfect antagonists from a visual standpoint. They allow the film to take the *Jaws* approach, leaving more of the terror to suggestion and expectation, then having to show the beasts full-on. The editing matches that, with us rarely getting a clean look at the monsters, just their bright gaping maws, reading to snap and bite.

It’s no surprise, then, how well *Attack the Block* works as a horror movie. The kills are doled out judiciously, and the threat level escalates accordingly. Those threats come from both the extraterrestrial pursuers and the ones native to The Block, each emerging to torment our heroes at inopportune and unexpected times, and even running into one another. Through all of these sequences, whether they’re frantic chases, smoke-filled brawls, or daring final stands, Cornish and his team shoot for maximum suspense and heart-pumping investment in everyone’s fate.

The movie also gets some extra juice from being something different than the standard alien invasion movie. Beyond just the clever explanation for the extraterrestrials’ pursuit of the main characters, the focus on a localized, poorer, urban setting distinguishes the film from the globe-dotting, worldwide fare like *Independence Day*. That gives *Attack the Block* a more intimate feel, making the menace seem realer and giving the film more space to explore the particulars and real world specifics of that space and those that inhabit it.

That ties nicely into Moses’s story and the broader metaphor the adventures of him and Sam, the woman he mugged, represent here. There’s the sense of Moses at a precipice, trying to decide between rising above petty crime into the hardcore drug world or follow his better angels and become the better person that can save the day (and, not for nothing, earn the approval of his crush). John Boyega, in his film debut, plays the role with a low-burning intensity, that conveys an inner life to the otherwise stoic character.

That is, ultimately, the broader project of the film beyond its alien-infused horror and humor. The audience, like Sam, slowly but surely comes to know of that inner life, and the more complicated and pitiable treatment and circumstances that have made Moses into the person he is and the person he could be. There’s plenty of less-than-subtle critiques of the police and the government who contribute to The Block being the way it is, giving its residents a sense of being under attack long before alien monsters arrived. But they find purchase in an unlikely hero, made all the more unlikely by the way in which Sam and the viewer meet him and, over the course of the film, gradually but firmly come to understand and root for him.

As a youngster who grew up in East London, I loved this film so much as a kid as it captures how it feels to live in the run-down area's of London but also how misunderstood some of the kids are from these areas. Attack the Block starts off in such a way that you hate the main gang of boys but by the end, you understand their characters and even start to love some of the characters.

I have to say this is due to the batsh*t crazy plot of this film which starts off as your regular gang film and turns into Aliens but in a tower block in London, sounds like a stupid plot but it is so genius as it gets you behind characters that you usually wouldn't want too. If this sounds like the plot of a film you'll love then please watch it.

Does not surprise me Joe Cornish has become a very reputable filmmaker after this film as the screenplay and direction are superb. Also doesn't surprise me that John Boyega (Moses) started to get bigger and bigger after this, but the entire cast deserves a round of applause.

"Attack the Block" managed to captivate even a viewer like me, not typically drawn to sci-fi films. The film's standout feature is the fantastic chemistry among the cast, led by the talented John Boyega. Their authenticity brings humor and relatability to a plot that could have been generic.
What sets this film apart is its clever use of camera angles and reliance on practical visual effects. In a refreshing departure from CGI-heavy productions, "Attack the Block" crafts intimidating monsters through practical effects, proving that a film can be suspenseful without an abundance of computer-generated imagery.

While not my usual cup of tea, the film's unique blend of humor, social commentary, and genuine character development, coupled with impressive practical effects, make "Attack the Block" a commendable entry in the sci-fi genre. It stands as a testament to the creativity of its filmmakers and the power of a well-assembled cast.

>"That's an alien bruv, believe it."

Man, what a refreshing adventure/sci-fi film. Just a couple of kids fighting back against some really cool-looking aliens. Good action, witty banter, funny moments and well executed. Boyega and Whittaker are standouts for sure.

My one issue with this film is that it is too short and also it is a very basic premise, otherwise this film is some really amazing British film making. Having grown up on a tower block in London, I can say that the depiction of the kids in this film is very accurate as they are just kids trying to be adults and what I love about this film is the moment the alien invasion starts, all of the characters start to show their true colours.

The premise is super simple, group of youths mug a lady at the start and then have to help / team up with the lady to get through the night and take down these aliens which have chosen to invade a small area in South London. But the simplicity is the reason this film is super rewatchable, the direction in this film from Joe Cornish is great and I would love to see him work on more Star Wars films or bigger budget sci-fi films.

Also, everyone acts their parts really well with John Boyega (Moses) and Jumayn Hunter (Hi-Hatz) absolutely stealing the show. I also think that the way the film can go from a serious moment to a really funny moment is so great. If you have teenage kids then I recommend watching this film with them and I am sure you will all have fun with it, just don't take it too seriously.