Attack The Block
Reviewed by: Kiron Ramdewar
ATB begins with a gang of youths mugging a lonely woman on a dark night. After this they chase, attack and kill a mysterious creature, by doing so bringing an alien invasion. Their initial response is to ‘tool up’ and destroy the new invaders, but after some grizzly deaths, the teens must then join forces with an odd-group of companions in order to survive.
The movie is funny with some great moments that are reminiscent of the lighter parts of Kidulthood. The odd group of teens’ banter creates most of the laughs, with insults flying back and forth. The film has a few ongoing gags, which are hit and miss. The best of these are two smaller kids who call themselves ‘Props’ and ‘Mayhem’. This duo made the entire cinema laugh whenever they appeared on screen.
While the comedy works well, the horror elements are nothing special. The aliens’ colour is pitch-black, meaning most the scares come from something jumping out from a dark corner and a loud crescendo on the soundtrack. It is all very clichéd. I was not expecting anything that would change the genre, but ATB is a one trick pony in this department.
The film does dwindle later on, getting bogged down in social and political ideas. There are several nods towards police brutality, racial discrimination and street psychology. Unfortunately these feel underdeveloped and create a halfway house between comedy and drama at times. John Boyega (Moses) displays a sense of abandonment and guilt throughout the film that ties in brilliantly with his character. It just feels like more screen time was needed to develop these characters and issues if we are meant to take them seriously.
Where films like Anuvahood were made for an English audience, this clearly was not. The dialogue and area is correct, with South London slang right from the start, but sometimes it seems forced. Characters Ron (Nick Frost) and Sam (Jodie Whittaker) feel like they have been added to the cast to create a universally appealing film and do not fit in with the film and cast. The film just does not feel British and was like an imitation at times.
ATB is not a bad film; it is pretty funny, I was just expecting a whole lot more. Instead of sticking to a simple idea of alien invasion on an estate it lets itself get bogged down in several underdeveloped ideas. These feel tacked on and unfortunately they disrupt the flow of an otherwise entertaining film. ATB was good, but it could have been so much better.
Rating: 7/10
