I Watch Films: Attack The Block

 

Attack The Block

In South London trainee nurse Samantha Adams (Jodie Whittaker) is mugged by a gang of teenagers led by Moses (John Boyega); a meteorite strikes a nearby car and she escapes. It’s Guy Fawkes night so no one notices. A strange alien appears; the gang chase and kill it. They intend to sell it to get fame or money, but when they try to store it in the weed flat at the top of the tower block, they’re recruited by a local drug dealer.

More aliens appear; so do the police after Samantha reports them. Moses is arrested but then escapes when an alien attacks them. Strangely the aliens seem to follow them back to the estate they come from, the eponymous block. Realising that Samantha lives in the block they apologise; they and other block inhabitants have to band together as aliens, criminals, police and more cause them trouble.

The film is lightly about teenagers and criminals and how you’re ignored until you cause trouble or are useful to someone. And lightly about how despite everything there’s community in an estate like this. Mostly though it’s about a bunch of kids and a few adults confronting alien attack. There’s a few good jokes, the design of the monsters pretty good, the whole figuring out how they work and what they want is much as these kinds of films go.

Watch This: Smart, fast moving alien attack film
Don’t Watch This: Just a bunch of thugs