Review of The Fourth Kind (2009) by Tero H — 30 Dec 2012

This interesting fake documentary-film sort of left everything completely unexplained and resulted in a sort of a pancake-effect. First it got all big and fancy looking, but in the end it just ended up just flat. That happens when youre 'hopes' are raised for a great movie but then the movie just doesn't measure up to those promises it allows its viewers to develop. It just didn't give any kind of resolution but the watchers are left standing wondering what happened in the end.

The handheld-camera sequences or recordings are very cool and work great, despite being distorted and messy. What bothered me a bit about Milla Jovovich's acting was that she didn't appear anything like the Dr. Tyler in the camera sequences. Perhaps intentional to make the 'actual' Dr. Tyler seem more ordinary and reliable - not to state that Milla Jovovich's character didn't appear reliable - and thus more believable. Certainly Milla was doing fine, but I have seen her acting even better in films like Jeanne D'Arc or the Fifth Element. Will Patton's solid acting is always nice to follow. I tend to remember Armageddon or The Mothman Prophecies when I see him.

I don't normally compare movies after just watching both of them in a row, but in this case I would like to point out that when compared to Paranormal Acticivity, this movie is just as cool or better. Sure, that movie had a couple of thrilling moments, but this one has even more of them and spookier. Also, the film has a bigger budget and more experienced actors than that movie I also watched yesterday..

I just looked at my movie-experience, that's all. No evaluations based on what the movie producers or advertisers did or did not do - I just look at the movie itself. Although I am not a believer in alien abductors, I do remember some of the typical traits I read and they are certainly there in this movie as well. So the story is well-written in that sense. But like I stated earlier, the movie sort of leaves you standing wondering in amazement what was going in when the movie ends.

I really liked the bit with the ancient sumerian I think that on that point the film goes a bit Daniken on you, but then again, its hazy enough to keep you interested in its semi-scientific string of thought. I think that the movie's not going to show UFO's or aliens directly on screen was a better decision than showing them: in this case it adds up to the mystique of the alleged phenomenon.

Not delving here into X-files or anything, but I do remember one case where several people actually were claimed to have vanished when alleged alien abductions took place. Words that came to mind were: Strieber, X-Files, electrical disturbances etc. So the movie isnt really a documentary, but a fake documentary: yet I didn't think it was really that similar to 'Paranormal activity' in style, in the way of mimicking that film or something like that. I thought that this film was indeed unique in its representation of alien abductions.

Oddly - before I bumped into this movie yesterday, I had found an old VHS tape of mine featuring an old three-hour film on alien abductions and it was quite similar to this, except with no screaming patients etc. I have no idea what it was titled originally in english, the finnish translated name of that movie was "Lords of Fear". The reason I mention is here is because the movie had many similarities in style: terrible memories of abductions discovered in hypnotic regression therapy, abducted children, strange tests done on helpless people, electric shortcuts etc. but the style was more positive and easygoing back in the 90's.

Here with the Fourth Kind the feeling is very different. The aliens are ruthless and violent - not benevolent in the least. Here its all about scepticism unlike back in the 90's Ufo-films when it was about the aliens having some kind of master plan. Then, perhaps also reflected in X-Files where they plan running over the planet, the mood in the movies began to reflect more violent and outright disturbing images of the aliens. Now there was no kindness, it was all scare, again reflected in the books written by mr. Whitley Strieber, a known phantasy novelist, and other less action oriented alien movies of late, such as "Signs" or "Altered". Perhaps this movie is the pinnacle of this development in the common collective view on the aliens: the threat is now more unknown but much more immediate and deadly. People are here maimed for life, not taught by some wiser, older "alien brotherhood".

I was not disappointed in this movie. Its an interesting film, and pardon the comparison but it was much better than your average X-files tv-episode.