Netflix A-Z: Attack the Block (2011)

We’re back for Round 2 of Netflix A-Z! Are you ready?

Some of you know that I’m part of The Random Chat Show and if you haven’t, well, I am.  You should go check it out over at That Moment In. I have two amazing co-hosts and while we didn’t go into an in-depth conversation about Star Wars: The Force Awakens, I did retain one recommendation for a film John Boyega did and that is Attack the Block. And you know what? That is exactly what I’m choosing for the A selection. I need a good movie to start this off and I trust Melissa’s (aka The Creative Fox Den) recommendations.  Especially since it has been on my list for a while and I had wanted to start it up a few times but never got around to it.

Let’s check it out! 🙂

Attack the Block (2011)

Director and writer: Joe Cornish

Cast: John Boyega, Jodie Whittaker, Alex Esmail, Leeon Jones, Franz Drameh, Luke Treadaway, Nick Frost

A teen gang in South London defend their block from an alien invasion.-IMDB

Its always hard to imagine a great recent alien movie nowadays.  You know, one that isn’t too serious but still packs in a lot of fun.  Attack the Block really does have it all.  Its fun and action-packed with great creature design and a nice motive behind the alien invasion.  The movie itself is packed with young actors and the only familiar faces you  might see is Nick Frost and Luke Treadaway.  We’ll take a look at the cast in just a bit.  Attack the Block is around one neighborhood or even just mostly one building.  It follows these young gangs who really aren’t all that dangerous.  They each have a snippet of their families and backgrounds and you can see their personality shine through with their own skills and abilities that makes this group well-rounded.  In between the pretty thrilling adventures packed with a mix of scares and British humor, it even manages to get us to think about the social situation going on.  Plus, the gang turns from a bunch of muggers into the hunted and before long you will start cheering for them, hoping that they’ll manage to get rid of this alien invasion or at least survive it.

I have to say that I went into Attack the Block completely unsure about where and how this was going to go. Just to say, there’s a ton to love about this movie. I’m not big on groups of kids acting tough but these guys and their friendship was put together really well. Each of them have a pretty fun personality that defines who they are and to make me connect and care about them during the movie that I was worried about their survival was a true feat.  John Boyega is definitely a talent here.  He pulls off the leader of the group and you can feel a bit of his character.  The movie never dwells too much on their backgrounds but I think that is okay for its length.  It focuses on the issue on hand and that is the alien invasion.  It is random and came out nowhere.  There are enough questions as they get chased down and the key one is why their little South London block was the main target and why they were the focus and the final big one: how do they stop these raging creatures? If the kids don’t make you feel enough thrills and the occasional laugh, Nick Frost and Luke Treadaway’s characters dialogues will give you the bit of humor to break some of the crazy tension that some scenes do build. Since I’m on that point, Luke Treadaway NEEDS to do more movies.  I really like him a lot! (Have you seen him in Tonight You’re Mine!)

One of the biggest positives of Attack the Block has to be the creatures.  This one proves that creatures don’t need to be complicated.  They go back to a very simple logic of why the creatures landed here.  Its a simple explanation of why they chose the block and its a simple solution (in concept and not so much execution for the characters). Who knew that a set of glowing teeth was all you needed to make a menacing alien, right? Fact is, that is all Attack the Block needed to make the convincing character.  The movement and features was like a few creatures that we know all  meshed together and they way they work turns out to be much more simple than even this group actually thought initially and yet, its super efficient in delivering the tension and the scares.

Overall, Attack the Block is really great. I honestly don’t have much criticism for it.  I like the story, the characters, the length, the balance between the scares, thrills and humor and especially the creature design.  It works really well for me and its exactly how I’d like to start Netflix A-Z for the beginning of the year. Attack the Block deserves a view and I highly recommend it.

Have you seen Attack the Block? Did you like it? 

Any idea what the B selection will be? Hint: Asian Horror

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) (from someone who knows almost nothing about Star Wars prior)

If you are not the millions and billions of “fanboys” of Star Wars, I think you may have just arrived at the good review.  Before we go into this, we’re going spoiler free (as always) for Star Wars and on a completely honest level, I’ve only seen Episode 1 The Phantom Menace and parts of Attack of the Clones and Return of the Jedi.  Its been so long that I don’t even remember much other than Jar Jar Binks, Luke Skywalker, Yoda, Anakin Skywalker, and Darth Vader and that Hayden Christensen, Ewan McGregor and Harrison Ford is part of this along with a hairy creature called Chewbacca and two robots/droids called C3P0 and R2D2.  The only reason I went to this was for my friends and standing in line for 2 hours was tons of fun catching up and whatnot. But, this review is from an *almost* first timer experience.

I went with actual first time viewers also along with seasoned fans and we did discuss it a little afterwards.  Judge me all you want for my lack of knowledge in Star Wars but I will promise that I will get on watching all the previous episodes and rewatching this to give a more fan-based sort of review eventually. However, I do think that I can be more objective because I’m going in with an almost fresh view of this.

Let’s check this out! 🙂

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

Director: J.J. Abrams

Cast: Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Lupita Nyong’o, Mark Hamill

Three decades after the defeat of the Galactic Empire, a new threat arises. The First Order attempts to rule the galaxy and only a rag-tag group of heroes can stop them, along with the help of the Resistance. – IMDB

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is episode 7 of this pretty phenomenal franchise that has a huge fan-base. As you can see, I’m not a fan mostly because my exposure to it has been limited.  I just wasn’t brought up with Star Wars.  This movie is also supposed to be THE blockbuster of the year.  Especially with J.J. Abrams directing it and bringing it back to life. Now, I may have skimmed a few reviews before going into this one and some of them do talk about giving credit that first time viewers will appreciate it as much as the fans.  That statement, I disagree with. The Force Awakens does almost nothing to introduce to the situation.  It throws you into the world that has been built 30 years after the events with a lot of action.  Its with this, I make one statement about the storyline.  I wish it did more to pull in the new generation of viewers of people who don’t know much about it without having to throw down $100 and plus to see the complete 6 movies beforehand. I’m not only saying it because I was confused and it took a lot of effort to understand what was going on and what led to this but because the first time viewers that my two friends were, came out feeling like there was no beginning and no end to what they saw.

Now, does that mean that I discredit the movie completely? No. The Force Awakens is a good effort.  Putting the story aside, which I think is highly rated only because of its hype, the cast is done well.  I also appreciated the action sequences a lot.  There was a lot to love about the characters they put showed and especially with the modern day, we still have a lot of quality effects with a decent story to go alongside it.  I can’t discredit the story because I don’t know what came before.  It seems like it was a solid balance that they tried to put together and for that, I respect this episode of Star Wars. Even with my limited knowledge, I really loved that they brought back the Millenium Falcon and Harrison Ford as Hans Solo along with his pal Chewbacca had some really great scenes together. The new generation also wasn’t bad.  I couldn’t help thinking that Daisy Ridley who plays our new heroine, Rey in The Force Awakens looked a lot like Keira Knightley but I did think that her character was done well.  This also includes the fun interaction and partnership with our new young guy here, Finn, played by John Boyega. When old meets new, if you even have a little of exposure of Star Wars, these iconic characters will resonate even with the relatively newer viewers that aren’t die-hard fans.

I’m not going to go into depth with this.  Star Wars: The Force Awakens had all-time favorite bit and that was the little droid, BB-8.  That little guy is adorable and gave me a ton of laughs.  BB-8 and Chewbacca both have that same sort of making sounds while our cast understands what they are saying. Those are some of the best scenes.  However, my issue with this movie was the length.  It just dragged on and on.  I’m not going to lie.  I was tired when I went into this and I passed out somewhere in the middle where something was supposed to be resolved and they ran off and when I woke up again, it was done and I was at a key finale scene rolling into the final fight and whatnot. At least I didn’t miss any key parts, right? After that first hour was when I started feeling like my focus was wavering a little.  Its a problem I have with long movies (same as with James Bond movies for example), where there’s one plot and then it goes onto another plot line to extend it. One of the girls did ask if one of the action sequences was dragged out so not exactly just a “me” problem apparently.

Here is a good spot to end this little write-up though.  If you have no exposure to the original franchise, I think it may get complicated to start with this one.  Although, in all honestly, why would you do it unless you had another objective (like me for my friend’s birthday gathering).  Although, I do seem to criticize it a little and I’m not hyped up like all of the fans out there, there are a lot of good for The Force Awakens and I do want to do it justice with a more thorough review when I catch up with the previous episodes and come back more knowledgeable and invested so that I can actually connect with the characters more and actually care about their life and death because I only really cared about  Hans Solo, Chewbacca and BB-8. I think I missed the point of Star Wars but like I said, I believe that it does deserve a second viewing to fully appreciate this for what it is and to be more fair for the quality of this one.

Have you seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens? Are you a fan? Did you like it?