Marval Movie

A girl talks with her mother while walking home and five boys wearing masks mug her, surely her night can't get any worse.

Attack the Block is a new fresh take on the alien invasion genre as well as a satirical look at teenagers of modern day society. The movie is clever, self-aware and has style from its writer-director Joe Cornish (Hot Fuzz).

The basic plot of Attack the Block is simple but lends itself well enough so that a talented enough writer can make something good out of it. Aliens invade, we've seen this before, aliens invade a lower London Block, that we haven't seen. There is a gang of misfit teenagers that come across the first of the Aliens and they beat it to death and spare no time in boasting about it.

We see the aliens more clearly than I predicted. I would explain what they look like but the characters already cover every form description of them, "some kind of rabid dog, bear, wolf thing" etc.

The real strength of the movie comes in its characters and how even though they have just encountered another form of life and could be facing the end of humanity they just think about playing Fifa.

The leader is a boy named Moses (John Boyega) he is dark, mysterious as well as having nice screen presence. The other characters also have great comedic and dramatic talent, they all capture the feeling of quirkiness without losing their believability.

There are a lot of alien invasion movies that rely on cliches and effects and while the effects here are more impressive than I was expecting its the characters that really engross you.

Rating: 3 stars out of 4