Attack the Block Review
By David Kempler
Aliens Pick the Wrong Neighborhood
South London is the setting for Earth's latest stand against the evil aliens. Rather than descending upon a cornfield in Kansas, or the sprawling Tokyo, or every city on Earth simultaneously, these aliens have chosen a housing project in a questionable urban neighborhood. Shouldn't they have known better?
At first it appears that a lone lump of something has come crashing down to earth. The local kids, a collection of young minor-league thugs, and most likely future serious bad guys, are the only ones who have seen it, so they head off to investigate. Their leader, Moses (John Boyega), goes into the darkness to confront the mystery, and despite suffering some injuries in the ensuing battle, manages to kill it, whatever it is. It's clear it has come from far away, and it is plenty unpleasant looking. But to these hardcore kids, the thing is now a trophy, even if they don't quite understand what kind of trophy.
"Attack the Block" takes the viewpoint of aliens getting involved in a very local turf war. The kids aren't interested in the significance of what is going on. Their sole concern is that no one messes around in their neighborhood without paying the price. One part science fiction, one part horror, one part comedy, and one part camp, makes this work once in a while. At other times it totally falls apart. It's a difficult task to make it work on so many levels, but I grudgingly admire the effort.
Joe Cornish's first feature film is disjointed and part of its premise is totally ridiculous. He wants us to believe that these creepy kids that are destined for prison and some very serious affronts to society are somehow redeemable, albeit temporarily, by their role in defending us from evil ETs.
On the other hand, "Attack the Block" reminded me a bit of 1981's "Wolfen", one of my favorite scifi flicks. I'm not sure why it stirred up those memories but I think it has something to do with the aliens. "Wolfen" didn't venture into comedy, though, staying more on the horror end of things. "Attack the Block" will find an audience among those who like scary and might end up drawing a cult following, but I suggest that this is one attack you probably do not want to endure.
