Month: December 2024

Today’s quick review: Alien Rising. Lisa Morgan (Amy Hathaway), an agent on leave from the DEA, gets kidnapped and taken to a top-secret government research facility on a remote island. There Colonel Stephen Cencula (Lance Henriksen) and Dr. Bainbridge (Dave Vescio) use Lisa’s residual psychic connection with her dead twin sister to communicate with an alien captured from a derelict spaceship.

Alien Rising is a budget sci-fi action movie about secret government experiments to turn a psychic alien into the ultimate weapon. Alien Rising aims to be a thriller action flick filled with mystery, spectacle, and betrayal. In spite of a credible effort with the resources at its disposal, the movie falls well short of the mark. Poor stunts and special effects, confused storytelling, and a generic plot make Alien Rising a major miss.

To its credit, Alien Rising appears to make an honest effort. Other budget titles are stingy with their action and their special effects, but Alien Rising aims big. Firefights, explosions, hand-to-hand combat, CGI aliens, and a sprawling island facility are all shown proudly without hesitation. This is not necessarily a wise decision, given that it stretches the visuals to the breaking point, but it shows a real faith in the movie’s vision.

Unfortunately, Alien Rising’s confidence cannot make up for its clumsy storytelling. Snippets of the story are coherent, but they don’t fit together as a whole. Motivations change from scene to scene, characters temporarily disappear with no explanation, and the stakes are never entirely clear. Even the frequent action scenes are no help, given their unimpressive choreography and cheap CGI.

The result is a movie with very little to fall back on. Alien Rising avoids the usual budget sci-fi trap of showing nothing interesting onscreen, but it has neither the craftsmanship nor the creativity to make up for its limitations. Ultimately, Alien Rising is a hard movie to get through, and apart from the occasional charming moment, it has nothing to offer most viewers. Steer clear.

For budget sci-fi with a better take on alien contact, check out 2036 Origin Unknown. For a smarter budget sci-fi movie about experiments in telepathy, try Listening. For a more horrific movie about unnatural experiments at a military facility, try Day of the Dead.

[3.0 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1737796/). I give it the same for earnest but badly flawed science fiction.

Today’s quick review: Exopolitics. Shortly after Tom (Maximillian Anthony) breaks up with his girlfriend Nina (Mar Alsius), the appearance of a UFO plunges the world into chaos. Before he can go look for Nina, Tom’s paranoid neighbor Karl (Ben Vinnicombe) kidnaps him to keep him out of danger. Now Tom must follow the psychic transmissions of a mysterious man (Giles Gambino) to break free, find his ex-girlfriend, and make sure she’s safe.

Exopolitics is a psychological thriller posing as a science fiction movie. Set against the backdrop of an alien invasion, Exopolitics follows Tom on a surreal journey to reunite with Nina, the woman he foolishly threw out of his life. Exopolitics is a patchwork of ideas that fit poorly together. An unclear setup, poor pacing, unlikable characters, and the usual budget issues all contribute to an unsatisfying watch.

Exopolitics never quite decides what the audience should focus on. The opening of the movie introduces Tom and his relationship with Nina, but the sudden arrival of the UFO irrevocably jumbles the movie’s priorities. Crazed neighbors, opportunistic prostitutes, and doubting Christians all take the spotlight away from a supposed alien invasion that’s never properly explained and only rarely commented on.

All of this tips Exopolitics over into the realm of a psychological thriller, albeit not a very capable one. Tom wanders around the city in a daze, asking shady characters whether they have seen Nina and receiving cryptic responses. Even if these events are not meant to be taken literally, they are confusing and poorly communicated. None of the segments build well off the previous ones, and the finale does very little to tie them together.

Exopolitics explores an experimental type of storytelling that other movies have done far better. Those interested in seeing where a movie can go with an offbeat vision, a limited budget, and a loosely science-fictional premise may want to give it a shot for curiosity’s sake. But Exopolitics delivers none of the concrete speculation or thematic depth it needs to be a worthwhile watch, making it an easy movie to skip.

For a psychological drama that handles similar themes with more skill, check out Revolver. For a darker thriller with a similarly surreal storytelling style, try Urge. For a sci-fi movie that works in more interesting psychological elements, try A Scanner Darkly or Southland Tales. For a more direct low-budget take on an alien invasion, try Horizon, Alien Uprising, or Occupation.

[5.9 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14899034/). I give it a 3.5 for a jumbled story that largely misses the mark.