Blat Blat Blat

Here are the coolest evil creatures I can remember seeing. They're very simple and remain scary, even when dead. The production utilises them well, seemingly using a good physics model for the movement, making it very believable and organic, rather than some crass robot model. I also liked that there's a sense of heft to them and that they aren't impossible to beat.

The monster aliens invade a council estate in London. More praise is due for making use of the setting well. You get a sense of the building, three-dimensionally. The architecture is shown-off pretty well. There's also praise for localising it instead of making it another science fiction epic without the epic gut impact it needs to sit well. This decision equals blat blat blat instead of po po po. I propose informally calling this the Dawn of the Dead clause.

The good guys are a small non-legit gang of Black London kids who have attitude. They're reserved (a bit) which elevates their attractiveness as leads. They obviously aren't good guys and this (plus some other meta issues) are dealt with in a number of solid sequences. There's a strong sociolect/slang involved which adds colour and generally adds even more depth. The odd girl out is Jodie Whittaker who's Caucasian and is ambiguously good/bad, just good. She's stuck with these kids and there's an uneasy relationship here.

Everything is above average and I only wish they incorporated more scares to make it even better. Going back to the meta issues, maybe it's a case of expectations. This, coming in, I was expecting a fun romp. A proper action flick. This had that. Then added small bits of social issues which were appreciated. But the end was a bit too much for me, I'd even call it a bit pompous/preachy. Too bad. More nitpicking would point to the whole explanation thing. I liked it more when these things were just killing everyone. It was action primarily and had some fun bromance bits then the smaller slips of social issues. This sequence opened up a slot for social issues to show off again. Again, not what I would have done. Again, too bad.

(Attack the Black - Joe Cornish)