Attack the Block

When man first gazed upon the stars, was his first thought about aliens invading us? According to Hollywood, yes. Don't get me wrong, I like an alien invasion movie every now and then. Though nowadays, alien invasion movies are a dime a dozen and most of them have the same plot. Brave hero defeats aliens and saves the day. Attack the Block however, is a bit different. An unlikely hero defeats the aliens and saves the day. (Block?) 

The Plot:
A group of teenage street thugs encounter an alien after mugging a woman. Moses (John Boyega), the leader, kills it and takes it back to a friend's home for safekeeping.  After getting high with his friends (I never said this guy was a stand-up citizen) they discover more and more aliens keep crashing into the neighborhood. They arm up and go out to kill the aliens, but find themselves outnumbered and scared. The aliens only seem to be interested in Moses and his friends, ignoring anything else unless attacked. Moses and his friends head back to the block they live in and try to escape, but they're pursued and picked off one by one until Moses has had enough and decides to end it once and for all.

The Good:
For a low budget movie, it's actually pretty good. The dialogue is amusing, I found myself laughing at certain parts of the film. The actors do a good job too. The kids are likable at most, even though at the beginning, you find yourself hard to root for Moses. The kids grow more and more throughout the movie and you feel sad when one of them dies. The monsters are pretty wicked looking. Pitch black fur with glowing teeth is pretty terrifying and it's nice to see that it's an original look.

The Bad:
I honestly can't think of one thing that was too terrible. A minor thing though, is a gang leader is attempting to kill Moses and has the worst aim ever. I mean, Stormtroopers have better aim than this guy. For such a baddie, he's not very threatening.

Overall:
Attack the Block is a fresh breath of air into alien invasion movies. It has a character that you have to earn trust from, instead of Mr. Action Hero. The effects are pretty decent and it doesn't focus too much on the aliens, but rather the people involved.

Rating:
4 glowing alien teeth out of 5.