This is quite a nice little movie. In fact, this is the finest modernized straight-to-video/DVD War of the Worlds clone. Period.
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| Rachelle Dimaria as Marissa |
From the credits, it’s
clear that this film is the brainchild and labor of love of Neil Johnson.
Nevertheless, in my view the real stars of this film are Steve Southern, the 3D
tripod designer and animator, and Final Light, the company mainly responsible
for the explosion and nuclear effects. Both of these aspects of the film are
marvelous and believable. The design of the war machines is at once different
and traditional; their movements are always first-rate in many and varied
scenes. The explosions are multitudinous and enthralling. My favorite shots are
several long effects shots across the war-zone of a city. They reminded me of
the practically perfect opening shots of Blade
Runner, which show huge gas flames in a future Los Angeles erupting into
the night sky, with the difference here that these shots include multiple wonderful
Martian tripods marching across the detailed terrain.
Aside from the special
effects, the hands-down highlight of the film for me is actress Rachelle
Dimaria as Marissa. She lights up any scene she’s in; indoors shots are more
problematic, since the indoor lighting is generally inconsistent. She is a
skilled actor; in fact, she’s far and away the best in the production, which
means in the final analysis that she convinced me time and again that her
experiences were real and not just scenes in a movie. Obviously somebody else
noticed this quality, as she has been featured in some 15 new film and TV projects
during these intervening years.
.
The model work, showing
refineries and domes are nice, and reminded me of similar shots in Hammer
Studio’s 1957 Enemy from Space (known
in England as Quatermass 2). By and
large, the production design and effects in this film are superior, especially
for a straight-to-video project.
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| Rachelle Dimaria |
.
The first frames are on
Mars, so we know we are dealing with Martian invaders. We meet eight young
people in different areas of a big metropolis after a full-scale invasion has
already begun; we are literally dropped into the middle of a horrific war zone.
We meet these young men and women in pairs and small groups, but eventually
they all stumble upon one another. Their personalities are different; some take
charge, others can barely keep it together, some die; their personalities
evolve through character arcs over ten days as they learn to work together.
True to Wells, there is no plot, just a bunch of survival episodes strung
together.
One reviewer noticed similarities to Cloverfield, the J.J. Abrams-produced kaiju-genre/found-film epic; and indeed there are. But this is a liability; the “found-film” moments don’t seem to serve any purpose; they are interspersed with stock news footage and both are randomly thrown into the film; at least they don’t seem to have any purpose until the last shot in the film. That Cloverfield was an inspiration I think may be shown by the fact that a character in the film is named Ashley Cloverfield. Another homage is that the sound of the disintegrating rays of the war machines is in fact repurposed sound effects of the equivalent rays in George Pal’s 1953 The War of the Worlds.
One reviewer noticed similarities to Cloverfield, the J.J. Abrams-produced kaiju-genre/found-film epic; and indeed there are. But this is a liability; the “found-film” moments don’t seem to serve any purpose; they are interspersed with stock news footage and both are randomly thrown into the film; at least they don’t seem to have any purpose until the last shot in the film. That Cloverfield was an inspiration I think may be shown by the fact that a character in the film is named Ashley Cloverfield. Another homage is that the sound of the disintegrating rays of the war machines is in fact repurposed sound effects of the equivalent rays in George Pal’s 1953 The War of the Worlds.
Of course Alien Dawn is not flawless, but its strengths far outweigh its problems. Some flaws are the awkward ubiquitous handheld camera, occasional poor editing, dismal close-ups of the Martian creature, poorly lit night shots and indoor shots that look amateurish, and the over-the-top bickering and interactions between the characters that are woefully drawn out and awfully written, and for that matter, a character or two who are portrayed as utter morons. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed this film through multiple viewings. It grew on me. The attacking Martian machines are vivid and convincing, as are the countless explosions, and any number of other special visual effects.
.
On the other hand…
Throughout my book and
this blog extension, I hope I’ve proven to most people’s satisfaction that, while
I’m not an expert, I do know a thing or two about special visual effects. I believe I’ve also shown
that I don’t suffer fools well when it comes to lazy and irresponsible movie critics. Because of the
straight-to-DVD nature of this film, no professional critic that I could find
deigned to acknowledge its existence. So, I depended on viewer reviews on Amazon.com, imdb.com, and YouTube.com. Though I haven’t spent any time or space heretofore on commenting
on common garden-variety viewer reviews, now is the time to point out that viewers can fall into
exactly the same trap of dismissing films out of hand, just like their fellow human "professional" reviewers, in other words, just like lemmings. (You'll see if you read my book and/or stick around for these blog posts that I talk a lot about lemmings! I have zero patience and tolerance for mean-spirited jerks [so-called professionals or not] who absolutely must, or perhaps even unthinkingly, put down, that is, unnecessarily criticize, good things because some other jerk did. Yet, from the countless examples I quote in my book and these posts about various movies, it seems these sorts of morally-destitute, idiotic non-thinkers are as common as houseflies in a dung-filled house with broken screens.) That said, I’m frankly bewildered by
so many viewer reviewers that say, regarding Alien Dawn, variations on:
“You can’t put into words
how terrible this film is.”
"A rehash of other movies but this one was really bad. No name actors who could not act. No plot and poor CGI."
"A rehash of other movies but this one was really bad. No name actors who could not act. No plot and poor CGI."
“The effects in the movie
were laughable and not pleasant on the eyes; explosions hilariously fake."
"Unwatchable, seriously!"
"Woo...what a stinker!"
"The magnitude of the awfulness of this film has to be addressed."
"Unwatchable, seriously!"
"Woo...what a stinker!"
"The magnitude of the awfulness of this film has to be addressed."
“The special effects are
incredibly ugly and artificially constructed.”
“The CGI effects were dubious and questionable.”
“There is nothing good
about the movie—nothing at all!”
“This movie is piece of shit
& HORSESHIT CRAP !!!!!!!!!”
Again, these quotes represent only the tiniest tip of the iceberg. There are countless more like this. It's as though these folks saw a different movie in a different universe than I did! I believe that these negative
quotes are mainly indicative of some sort of, as I say, lemming-like “get on the band wagon” phenomenon.
Nonetheless, I’m devastatingly saddened and dismayed by all the vitriol and “tar &
feathers.” There is no way on earth Alien
Dawn deserves such universal disrespect. As I said up above: it is quite a nice little movie!
The folks who made it had very little money, but for the most part they did a good job; I try to point out some of the film's special strengths in my comments above. Alien Dawn is not at all the spawn of the Devil as some of the viewer reviews would have you believe!
It is the finest modernized straight-to-video/DVD War of the Worlds clone. Period.
 |
| Steve Southern's tripod models and effects are phenomenal. Also see the trailer above. |
It is the finest modernized straight-to-video/DVD War of the Worlds clone. Period.
 |
| The film is full of absolutely convincing explosions by Final Light. |
 |
| Shots like these reminded me of
the wonderful opening shots of Blade Runner. |
USA. Phase 4 Films, Still
Night Monster Movies, Morphius Film, Empire Motion Pictures. C. 1.78:1. 85m.
CREW: Director Neil
Johnson. Script Neil Johnson. Producers Cynthia Martin, Neil Johnson. Executive
Producers Ray Haboush, Neil Johnson. Directors of Cinematography Kyle Wright,
Neil Johnson. Casting Cynthia Martin, Artists Unlimited Agency. 3D Tripod
Design and Animation Steve Southern. Explosion and Nuclear Effects Final Light.
CAST: Marissa Rachelle
Dimaria. Roger Kaczynski Michael Abruscato. Anders Kaczynski Alexander Bell.
Sera Michaels Tiffany C. Adams. Joni Mitchell Cynthia Martin.
Formal Notice: All images, quotations, and video/audio clips used in this blog and
in its
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