Attack the Block (2011) – 3/5

No need to attack the ones who made this film, but no need to really praise them either

„Attack the Block“ is a British English-language film from 2011, so this one is also already comfortably over a decade old, probably more once you get to read this review of mine and this film is mostly known today for being the breakthrough film for John Boyega you could say. I am not sure his performance was as great as awards bodies want you to thin it was, but he was at least at the center of the tale pretty much from beginning to end. His character’s name being Moses was almost too much. Anyway, since then Boyega went on to play the lead in the new Star Wars movies, won really big on almost every small screen awards show for his turn in „Small Axe“ and should have a bright future ahead. I cannot say I am too familiar with most other actors for this film. I guess the inclusion of Jodie Whittaker makes this also a more British film now than it was back then as Whittaker has played Doctor Who in recent years and this film we have here is certainly also among her most known. She looks good here. I may have come across Luke Treadaway in other projects and Jumayn Hunter too perhaps at least once, but I do not remember exactly. I thought he could be a real-life musician too, but does not look this way. As for all the other (Black) kids in this movie here, I must say I did not remember who they were and their performances were also not that huge to be honest, but it is okay. I am still curious if some of them can maybe have successful careers as grown-ups. Time will tell if the next big star is born. I mean if we look at who just won the Oscar in the male supporting category, it can be said that anything is possible. Maggie McCarthy is not Melissa McCarthy, but I liked her turn here too. I wonder if it is a coincidence that her character kinda carried the same name almost as she does in real life. Oh yeah, Nick Frost, Simon Pegg’s regular collaborator, is also on board here playing a character that is mostly in it for the laughs.

On a more general note, this is not a long film at all and I think it was a good choice. Had they stretched it any further, then perhaps it would have dragged too much for my liking. The writer and director is Joe Cornish and he managed to score a BAFTA nomination in the debut category for his work here. He has been in the industry since the late 1990s, but took him a while to have a really big breakthrough. But now that he has written screenplays for a Spielberg movie and a Marvel movie, you can for sure say that he has arrived. If you take a look at his new television series, you see that once again he stays with films that have children at the center of the story. Not a bad thing by any means. Also quite nice to see him return to the small screen as this shows how great the quality there really is. The only thing kinda missing for him is maybe a real blockbuster or awards sweeper inn the directing position. Admittedly this one here was not too shabby at all with approximately 20 wins and 40 nominations according to imdb. Now, let’s look a bit into the story. The film’s title is maybe a bit on the confusing side as this could very well be a sports film about American Football or so from the way it is titled. But „block“ in this case refers to an area of Britain and also there are several gang references here. We have a group of children being out there on the streets. I think they are not homeless, but still maybe have parents that are not exactly the most suitable for the job and probably have their own problems. It was still a bit on the funny side how one of the kids is called by his mother and responds that he will be home in time when she says he has to be home. All this happened after some rather tense action that was the exact opposite of obedient children. He could be in some trouble if she knew what he was doing out there with the others. Namely robbing people.

Still, these kids turn into the good guys as the film goes one and even join forces when an alien invasion happens. That’s right. This is really the center of the city and I liked almost all about this inclusion. The explanation behind the invasion was nicely thought through in the sense that they were not there to take revenge after the group of boys killed their child or so, but it was all about procreation and the dead alien was a female and not a young one and the protagonist had the female’s pheromones all over his jacket and himself because of what he did and also because of carrying the female. For the feel-good parts, we have for example the grown-up there who drags the kids into crime sort-of being killed by all these aliens on one occasion. He deserves it would be the general assumption. Oh well. I also liked the idea that these aliens only randomly came to Earth because it was in their way sort-of and it was not a planned attack or anything. More of a collision through coincidence. However, there were also some parts that did not do too much for me. Like the solution in the end when the boy just blows them all up was a bit meh to be honest, especially as he really walks out unharmed there. The idea of the girl gang being all wise and caring was also not the greatest inclusion. I guess this went in hand with Hollywood’s take on females over the least years and how they were sometimes depicted better than they actually are in order to avoid discrimination accusations that happen oh so fast these days with all the white knights around, not only in front of computer screens, but also everywhere in the entertainment industry. Of course, these girls had nothing really to do with the monsters.

I cannot really come up with any in-depth criticisms of the creatures there. It was all good. I liked the way they were depicted for sure. Could not have been much better. Seemed scary and never ridiculous or embarrassing. Just what it should be like. However, an indirect criticism I have is really how they had to bring racism into this movie. Or alleged racism. Ask yourself the question: If your city was the location of an alien attack, then is it likely that they arrest kids out of nowhere for massacring police officers? The implication of this was already bizarre enough early on, but when they depicted this towards the end even it became utterly embarrassing. I mean I understand the kids were around when these two cops were killed, the ones that were the first actual victims, but still this is just ridiculous and a desperate shot from Cornish to please the mainstream zeitgeist agenda. But oh well, it cannot be all good here and as you see from my rating, I would only say this was a decent film, but not a great movie. It was also a bit strange when two other boys fled from the police it was I think to hide in a garbage. This was utterly ridiculous and not in a good way. As if they would never find them there. But then again, the police here are really not depicted as the smartest fellas, probably also to show and make sure that the „heroes“ from this film deserve their positive reputation in the end then. But yeah, on a grand scale it is just so unrealistic to take care of the aliens on your own instead of letting the cops do their job (because instead they would arrest the Black kids and everything? Please) and of course, they would send the army in a scenario like this. No discussion. At the end, you could also say that Boyega’s character was depicted in a too heroic fashion, but oh well. Here and there, they really handled the realism challenge in a film with aliens as nicely as they could have, but sometimes it also went wrong. And don’t even get me started on somebody saying that they government brought the aliens there. What was it? First knives, then drugs and then aliens? But at least he got it right that Black kids kill each other way too often and not just kids actually, even if this is a much bigger problem in America than in Britain.

Nonetheless, despite all these criticisms, this was a fairly watchable film and I was surprised that we were only around ten people in the theater there. I have seen several more unsung films with crowds of 30 or 40. But yeah, as you see the sci-fi action began here for Boyega and it turned into something really big within the same genre eventually. It is for the comedic inclusions here too that I give the film a thumbs-up, even if there were some quotes that were just not funny at all and you cannot blame the child actors there because the lines were not remotely good enough, but there were also lines and inclusions that worked well. I liked the kid hitting on Whittaker’s character. He was sneaky and had good line delivery. Also a very true statement that there is some irony to helps going to Africa etc. While their own home needs help as well in certain areas. This reminds me of the situation how my country literally pours billions into other countries and continents and God knows if this money really reaches those who need it and also pours the same amounts into weapons and tanks, but that is another story. Here in my country/city the homeless could really need help and no clue why nobody in the government really financially supports them, but I am drifting a bit away now from this film. So yeah, the film is also critical about society, housing conditions etc. Finally, to end the review let me include the maybe funniest line from this film. For me it was when one child character sees the corpse of one of the aliens and is impressed by how black the creature is and makes a reference that it is blacker than his cousin. I forgot the name. But I loved this. It was obviously not even meant as a joke by the kid, but surely meant as a joke by the screenwriter. This is the kind of absence of political correctness we need to find common ground again and not call everything racist the first time we get a chance to. Only this way, we can reach actual tolerance in the long run. I give „Attack the Block“ a thumbs-up. It’s a film worth seeing, but once at your home is enough really.