ALIEN SIEGE
(2004)
Alien Siege (2004)
Actors: Carl Weathers, Brad Johnson, Nathan Anderson, Lilas Lane,
Erin Ross
Director: Robert Stadd
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Enhanced, Widescreen, NTSC
Language: English
Region: Unknown
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Number of discs: 1
Run Time: 89 minutes
Movie:   
Disc:
 This
made-for-the-Sci-Fi Channel movie now released on DVD has a little neat
B-movie concept behind it.
An advanced alien race needs the blood of about eight million human beings
to save their own dying planet. Unfortunately we're not talking the biggest
blood drive of all times here as the process employed by the aliens reduces
the human subject to a solid blob of blood globules, killing him or her
instantly in the process.
Of course Earth doesn't take kindly to this sort
of thing and resists, but is blasted into submission by the aliens' superior
technology. Several countries, including
the United States, then
implement the one lottery you would not want to win, a bit like being
drafted back in the 'Sixties. If you win, you lose and become one of the
unlucky eight million humans to be used by the aliens.
Alien Siege however
does little with this concept and degenerates into an idiotic action flick.
A father's only daughter is selected and he tries to save her, enlisting the
help of the so-called "Resistance" in the process. (Funny how there always
is one in sci-fi movies nowadays, a tradition no doubt begun by the Rebels in
Star Wars.)
With a more creative
screenplay, Alien Siege could have been much more interesting than it
is though. One plot synopsis on Amazon.com mentions a doomsday device over
the North Pole which the aliens say they'll activate to destroy the planet
if the Earth doesn't supply enough victims.
However, if the Earth does
comply, the device will become a power supply capable of meeting all of its
needs for the next 300 years. I must have dozed off at this part of the
movie because I missed this particular plot detail, but throughout Alien
Siege I wondered how much better Alien Siege could have been if it had a
more creative screenplay.
What
if there was no doomsday device? What if the Earth simply gave up the eight
million in exchange for alien technology? I'm sure that right now there are
several dozens of countries that wouldn't mind handing over pesky
dissidents, ethnic minority groups, the poor or criminal classes in exchange
for a perpetual power supply for the next three centuries. Am I pessimistic
about human nature when we say this? I don't think so . . .
What if the aliens were
genuinely nice guys being forced into a horrendous situation? Would you
sacrifice completely strangers to save your own friends and family? In
Alien Siege there is some hints at this "what would you Earthlings have
done any differently?" theme, but is never developed. Instead the aliens are
mostly just stock bad guys, proto-Nazis.
Thus we get the usual
humans fighting an alien race that seems curiously stupid for ones with
technology advanced enough to travel several billions of light years to get
to the Earth storyline. Plus like all alien invaders they are really lousy
shots and in this particular case look entirely human except they have white
eye brows (no, really).
OK, fair enough. Alien
Siege suffers from a low budget so probably couldn't afford decent alien
makeup designs, but even the most underpaid hack can deliver a better
screenplay than this piece of prime idiocy.
A pity, since we kinda
liked the original concept . . .
|
