What's this? a new review by me? no, gentle readers you aren't having a brain aneurysm, I have indeed dusted my reviewing hat off (Yes, I own a reviewing hat, picture a dear stalker with viking horns) and I'm going to dive head first back into the fray and do I have a treat for you!
"I can scarcely believe it!"
Neither can I over-excited random fifties woman. Where to start? well, some time ago I stumbled across a trailer on Youtube. A trailer for a movie idea so awesome that it almost made my head explode just from the sheer crazy factor of it. It was a trailer for the movie ALIEN VS NINJA!
When I saw that, I went nuts. It was like a fevered cheese dream had been made real and put onto film. Of course, it was a while before the movie finally saw it's overseas release but the moment that baby hit store shelves, I grabbed my copy and ran home like a hyper-active fat kid chasing after a chocolate cake. Well, not so much ran but caught the bus but anyway, Moving onto the film itself.
Set in ancient Japan (Yet the Ninja have quite modern weapons and armor) the film opens with ninjas doing what ninjas do best, blowing stuff up then getting the hell out of dodge. A small group from the Iga clan are fleeing back to their home after the successful mission where they witness a meteor crashing to the ground. Since the ninja are simple folk they don't concern themselves with it and continue on home. However, the meteor contains a deadly alien creature that's hell bent on destroying everything in their path.
During their trip home we're introduced to the characters, which are pretty much every stock Japanese movie character you can think of. The hot head leader, the stoic best friend, the tom boy female and the annoying tubby one. If you're familiar with a lot of Japanese action movies then you've met these characters many times before. Yet it's all very trivial. After all, you don't watch a film called Alien Vs Ninja expecting to see a deep character study about a group of individuals who've dedicated themselves to what is essentially a nihilistic ideal.
You watch it to see some good ol' fashioned ass kicking and this movie delivers that in spades. The next day our heroes are training when they stumble upon an injured young man. He tells them of a demon which has wiped out his entire village and upon further investigation of the boy's ramblings they are set upon by the alien. I won't go any further with the plot as that's pretty much the set up but from that point on this film goes from average Japanese action movie to a complete balls out, screw loose acid trip of an experience. Despite the film's obvious low budget, they did a whole lot given what they had. The practical effects are not perfect, the Alien resembles the ones from the well know Hollywood only it looks like it was done a third of the budget.
Still, it just adds to the whole over the top grindhouse vibe it gives off. Of course being an action movie it contains liberals helpings of ninja on extra-terrestrial fighting. The choreography while not all that stylised is fast, slick , practical and competently edited and it's definitely worth checking out. This is a film that has to be seen to be believed and if you've been sitting on the fence about this then jump off that fence, into your neighbor's pool then set fire to his lawn because you really need to give this one a try.
So that's all I'm gonna say on this one folks. Feels good to be writing again and I hope you found the new style more easy on the eyes. Having read some of my past reviews I've decided to be a little more concise and breaks things up a bit with images and videos to make my posts a little easier to digest rather then posting walls of text. I'll probably write in more detail depending on the film but for now I'm just trying things out.
Stay tuned folks for more reviews (And I mean it this time!)
