Call it Aliens vs. Predators, ghetto style

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This article was published 02/09/2011 (5472 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s not every day that aliens plunge out of the sky into the boroughs of Souf (er, South) London, but in Attack the Block, it might as well be a regular occurrence.

Joe Cornish’s film about a group of teenage hoodlums defending their high-rise apartment building from a mysterious alien invasion plays out effortlessly, capturing everything from the invincibility of youth to the race and class divisions of the U.K. projects.

But be warned: a lack of subtitles means you’re on your own when it comes to decoding the film’s British slang, which, like Attack‘s gorilla-like extraterrestrials, is something out of this world.

Based on the South London-born director’s own experience during a 2001 mugging by local teens, Attack the Block duplicates a similar incident in its opening, introducing us to a ragtag band of little-known actors that comprise the Block’s resident gang. That’s the thing about Cornish’s Block-busters: far removed from the valiant do-gooders you’d expect, they’re the anti-heroes terrorizing residents. But as Cornish reveals in time, there’s a lot more to these characters than the personas they assume on the street.

Among the boys, Moses is the clear leader. Played by John Boyega, he’s the film’s breakout star. He apparently fashioned his character after watching The Wire‘s fourth season, and the young stage actor has a searing presence on screen. Even when he mugs local nurse Sam (Jodie Whittaker) at knifepoint, you get the sense this is a boy who knows struggle a little too well.

When an intergalactic creature is catapulted into a car parked beside the scene of the mugging, though, the gang quickly shifts its attention from Sam to the alien, ultimately killing it and bringing it back to the Block’s “weed room” (another pastime among the fellas).

Although they may have defeated one of the creatures — intensely hairy, faceless black monsters with iridescent teeth — there’s a lot more on the way, and the moment they strike South London, they unfailingly gravitate toward the Block.

When it becomes clear the gang is being singled out by the aliens, the boys must join forces with Sam in order to save their home and lives.

For a summer alien flick, there’s an impressive amount of social commentary running throughout Attack the Block.

The priceless South London accents, pot jokes and gooey alien slaughters do well to diffuse the politics, but there’s a lot to be said about the fact that the gang is multi-ethnic: one member is white, and the setting of the film isn’t a quaint and cosy college town, but a cold, concrete low-income tenement.

“First they send dogs, then they send guns,” says Moses, speculating that the aliens could have been bred by the government to kill the inhabitants of the projects.

“We’re not killing each other fast enough.”

The boys’ parents are largely absent, and the police are portrayed as useless — all realities for many low-income community residents.

At first glance, we don’t have to think twice about the characters’ trajectories post-invasion — you know who the police are going to believe and who’s going to do the time.

Speaking about the race and class divisions of the film, Cornish has said that he attempted to humanize teens from these areas and U.K. hood culture in general, which is often demonized by the British media.

True to form, the director, who also penned the screenplay, expertly harnesses the stereotypes and uses them to his advantage, slowly revealing dimensions to his characters that make us reconsider the Block’s “thugs.”

It’s this social consciousness that propels Attack the Block from mere generic summer alien movie to the summer alien movie.

— Postmedia News

Other voices

Selected excerpts from reviews of Attack the Block.

Attack the Block attacks the alien-invasion genre with wit, energy and a cheeky insolence that makes it out of this world.

— Tom Long, Detroit News

Attack the Block demands to be seen simply because it is a thrill — a pulse-raiser whose perfect construction and pointed wit make it one of the year’s most exciting films.

— John DeFore, Washington Post

It’s exciting, and there is plenty of gore for fans of that sort of thing, but one wishes the mix of horror and comedy leaned a little more to the horror side of the equation.

— Randy Cordova, Arizona Republic

The movie’s amateurishly made. But the script is full of little surprises.

— Wesley Morris, Boston Globe

It’s a doozy, offering tight and imaginative camerawork, electric thrills and a sharp, twisty script that plays like a social satire.

— Brian Diones, New Yorker

The ‘hood, the Bad and the Ugly.

— James Verniere, Boston Herald

Points for thinking outside the slimy-gooey-monster box.

— Dave White, Movies.com

— Compiled by Shane Minkin

Movie review

Attack the Block

Starring Nick Frost, Jodie Whittaker and John Boyega

Globe

Globe

88 minutes

Three and a half stars out of five