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.