Movie Review: UFO (a.k.a. Alien Uprising)

UFO (a.k.a. Alien Uprising) 

Starring: Bianca Bree, Sean Brosnan, Simon Phillips, Maya Grant, Jazz Lintott, Andrew Shim, Peter Barrett, Joey Ansah, Amelia Linney, Raji James, Sean Pertwee, Julian Glover, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Perry Fitzpatrick, Christian Howard, Emma Buckley, Adam Dakin, Emilyne Mondo, Daniel Bowker, Abigail Burns, Robert Stone, Allistair McNab, Dominic Burns

Director: Dominic Burns 

Hawthorn Productions, United Kingdom, 2012. 

In the beginning special force soldiers are commanded to shoot some civilians. Then the main story begins. Bunch of friends go partying at night club. Robin (Simon Phillips) and Dana (Maya Grant) get engaged. They see some lights in the sky. Robin and Michael (Sean Brosnan) fight with bouncers. Dana does not like it. Also their friend Vincent (Jazz Lintott) comes along. Also Michael's ideal girl he met at the club, Carrie (Bianca Bree, Van Damme's real life daughter) follows them. They go to Michael's apartment and have sex. Except Vincent who calls Ralph on the porcelain phone. So much for any good taste.

Robin and Dana see strange lights

Fight scenes are shaky

Vincent, Robin, Michael and Dana

Meanwhile George (Jean-Claude Van Damme) listens to old radio. At morning the electricity is gone. Then a crazy man (Sean Pertwee) gives Michael a cryptic warning. Next night big UFO flies over their house. People start rioting and looting. Also some people seem to know more about the alien invasion and try to get away. Then the group members begin to have psychological stress and start to strife. The alien attack begins. Near the end there are some cool spacecraft battles, but they seen to be a bit unrelated to the rest of the film. This movie has more psychological and survival style scifi than War of the Worlds style action.

Mysterious Carrie

George

Maybe not so crazy man

JCVD's significance to the movie is a mystery, he has one action scene though. Michael is tough guy, Vincent is somewhat creepy coward, Robin and Dana try to take care of themselves and Carrie is mystery girl whose actions are illogical. The movie uses way too much shaky cam! Some scenes almost made my head hurt (luckily I watched this on DVD and not in theatre).

Vincent

The main characters go shopping

Something is blocking the sunset

The story imitates other alien invasion movies of the recent years, "Monsters", "The Invasion" "Skyline" and "Cloverfield" come in mind. UFO special effects look good, also British setting was fresh but that's not enough. The plot is messy, there are too many plot elements that just come out from nowhere. The alternative titled poster of the movie looks familiar (the guy with ski mask isn't one of the main characters) 

Michael fights with bad cop (Joey Ansah)

Spacecraft battles look nice

Rating: Bad