It was never going to live up to the dizzying and unique heights of Shaun of the Dead, so Joe Cornish's debut - a mixture of sci-fi, horror, comedy and grim council estate realism - was always going to suffer a bit, like several flicks before, and no doubt several more to come. It's a shame that the best parts of the movie, and indeed the best laughs, are mostly crammed into the trailer, however this was no doubt beyond Cornish & Co's control ... but someone needed to do a better job of not giving away all the good stuff.
Visually it's a nicely put together film - particularly the eponymous intimidating and monolithic block (which I'm sure I saw in a Nissan advert on TV when I got back from the cinema) - home to a cross-section of London's populace. Included in this cross-section, indeed the protagonists of the entire movie, is a gang of hoody-wearing, knife-wielding petty criminals and soon-to-be-gang-members ... and herein lies the biggest problem with the movie. Our introduction to this gang is them intimidating and mugging a nurse as she walks home (another main character), and come the third act, there just isn't enough made in terms of reparations. This gang of teens show little remorse beyond 'if we'd known you lived here, we wouldn't have mugged you' - and as such, it's hard to cheer them on, let alone empathise with them throughout. They're not cheeky cockney gangsters like you'd find in a Guy Ritchie movie (a cartoonish version of reality), they feel very real, so when the aforementioned nurse berates them for their harmful actions, you're totally on her side.
It's sure to be a divide for audiences - you'll either not mind and go with it, or you'll have no sympathy for most of the characters throughout. I struggled to support the central gang, and only warmed to them slightly towards the end after some cursory backstory information and some light condemning of their actions by their female peers. It's better than nothing, sure, but it's a big ask to be a part of their fight against the big black furry aliens with glow-in-the-dark-teeth (a nifty low-fi creature design that uses CGI appropriately) considering their introductory actions.
However, some of the other characters are easier to get along with - particularly Nick Frost's cowardly pot dealer "Ron" - and there is a witty sense of nicely balanced comedy to go along with proceedings. The funny lines don't feel forced, or out of place in the context of this alien invasion, and the direction is strong throughout. It's just a shame that there aren't some bigger laughs and a better development (and introduction) of the central cast. Good, but not great. It is though, a solid debut from Joe Cornish, and I look forward to seeing what comes from him next. It's strange, in a way, to think that in the late 1990s I was watching him, and comedy partner Adam Buxton, get up to their hilariously inventive antics (and their "toy movies") on The Adam & Joe Show, and now Joe's out there making his own movies.
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. [click for more]
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Originally Posted by bassman
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