Review of Attack the Block (2011) by Robinsnest — 09 Feb 2012

Let's be clear, this film is unintelligible. Even with subtitles I had no idea what they meant. I must be out of touch with 15 year olds, a new language is being taught in school (or online) or the culture just has dialects that are foreign to me.

There is also one fatal flaw: the hero is a bad guy. He starts out with his gang surrounding a woman in (on?) the "block", robs her and may be just a heartbeat away from doing worse. As the film progresses from I'll do anything I can to be bad, make money or be anti-establishment, to reluctantly taking in his actual victim to some kind of admiration for this kid, I'm supposed to rally behind him? He's still a bad guy and most likely will continue the same behavior.

We have the same inept government people not knowing what is going on, focusing on the kids and not the real cause of the mayhem-the aliens. Their is a goofy premise which surfaces in many of these types of films, and the alien effects are less than average.

Having said all that I liked the way it was directed and there are some interesting male characters, save our heroine the other girls are depicted as airheads. The pacing was very good and I got involved in the chase and how it was going to get resolved.

But with the two issues from above, I do not recommend it (C-).