Rating: 4/5
Hooptober 2.0 | 27/31 | Monster 2/5
It’s a starry night over London. As one star falls, several fireworks hit the sky. It’s Guy Fawkes Night. Samantha’s nursing shift ends, and she walks home. She walks into an alley and passes a congregation of graffiti on the wall: Pest, Dennis, Jerome, Biggz, and Moses. Out of the alleyway and down the walk are five teens in heavy coats, all wearing face coverings. They circle her and mug her at knifepoint. As Moses pushes her down, something massive falls from the sky and trashes a nearby car. A firework? A bomb? Samantha escapes while they’re distracted.
Moses surveys the inside for any goods worth stealing. He climbs inside and encounters a white, furry creature. It slashes his face, so he stabs it. The creature runs away, but Moses won’t let it live. The gang chases it down and kills it. One thinks it’s an orangutan. Another suggests an alien.
While they celebrate, several more meteors descend from the sky. The gang parades their kill around the block before taking it to a local gang leader named Hi-Hatz to see what sort of money they can make off it. But Hi-Hatz isn’t interested in the alien. Instead, he gives Moses some coke to deal if he wants to make money. The meteors hit the surface, and the gang takes them on.
But these creatures aren’t like the ones they killed. They’re huge and far more violent. Will the gang fight or flee? Can they stop the aliens from taking over their block?
While this is going on, Samantha has called the police. Though they take ages to get to her and take her statement, they’re keen to tackle some black teens in the streets. The police can’t imagine the threat they are facing isn’t the gang.
The creature effects are practical with CGI embellishments, such as fur that doesn’t reflect light and bioluminescent teeth. The result is a novel approach to aliens that makes them feel incomprehensible without being uncanny.
The movie isn’t super gory. It has a couple of shockingly gross moments. I don’t know if they work for the movie’s tone.
John Boyega as Moses kills it. He has wordless moments that convey more humanity and depth of emotion than anything he got to do in the Star Wars movies. The rest of the kids are great, too — as the masks come off, the personalities emerge, and the story grows more character-driven.
Jodie Whittaker is stellar as well. Her role evolves throughout the movie, from a victim unwittingly consigned to joining her attackers as they all become victims of something bigger.
At some points, the film feels like it touches on gentrification and the system that turns kids into drug dealers in the first place. But it never sets up anything firm enough for it to be a developed theme.
It takes until the final five minutes for it all to come together. This movie is outstanding and entertaining. It’s worth watching, even if you’re not a genre fan.