Alien Siege (2005)

As Good As It Gets

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

A silly little outing that tells of an alien attack on our planet. Sure, the story is epic in scope, but on a budget that allows for only a couple of shoot-outs in the woods, it doesn't really work.The moment I saw the aliens in white makeup with little radio receivers glued to their faces I knew I was in for a cheesy, sub-STAR TREK style outing. Execrable CGI effects, consisting of laser beams, UFOs and people disintegrating within 'blood bags', are not to be taken seriously.The cast, headed by the wooden Brad Johnson, fare no better. Indeed, one of the only reasons I tuned in was to see Carl Weathers; he's bagged a minor role playing a tough army general. Weathers kicks ass - the rest of this film does not.We're left with a concoction of silly effects, low-rent action scenes and lots of dull pondering over right and wrong while a dozen or so plot holes are generally glazed over. Not the Science Fiction channel's greatest hour, then...

Alien Siegestarts as the planet Earth is under threat, a race of humanoid aliens known as Kulkus have attacked & many lives have been lost, with their superior technology we didn't stand a chance. The Kulkus as a race are dying, a virus is killing their entire planet & the only known cure for the virus is human blood. The Kulkus need eight million people to sacrifice, they need that blood & each country on Earth has decided to donate a certain percentage of the Kulkus demand. America has agreed to donate eight hundred thousand people with volunteers making up a large portion, unfortunately the rest of those to be sacrificed are decided by a lottery & Heather Chase (Erin Ross) has been chosen. Heather's scientist father Stephen (Brad Johnson) is distraught & after Heather is taken away to be delivered to the Kulkus he teams up with a resistance in order to get her back & try to defeat the Kulkus once & for all before anymore innocent lives are lost...Directed by Robert Stadd this made for telly sci-fi film has lofty ambitions but not the budget or know how to see them through, in fact when all said & done Alien Siege is a rather sloppy sci-fi thriller with little to recommend it. The script has some race of aliens visit Earth in search of a cure to a virus that is wiping them out & in order to make the cure they human blood & lots of it, this had a decent amount of potential to be a good sci-fi alien invasion flick but the sloppy script & low budget ruin it. There are obvious problems from the word go, even though the Kulkus need human blood it's never made clear why they need to kill eight million people to get it rather than say have eighty million donors each donate a pint of blood each which wouldn't actually kill anyone or have any long lasting harmful effects, would it? I am sure the earth authorities would be prepared to do this & I am sure the hostility between the Kulkus & the human race wouldn't be there, also it's mentioned the worm hole in which the Kulkus travelled to Earth is only one way as far as living matter goes but surely blood is living matter? How did Heather's father find out about her being chosen in the lottery before she did herself? To me Alien Siege felt like a cross between the telly series V in which aliens visit Earth in huge spaceships from a dying planet to harvest humans & Independence Day (1996) with the Government scientist who uses the aliens own technology against them after he has studied for years after a Kulkus ship crashed, to be fair to it at least it moves along at a good pace & even though it's got some plot holes & dull character's it's eventful. The script tries to give the Kulkus aliens personality & a society of their own, the film has both the politics of humans & the Kulkus to try & balance both sides out with our humanity rubbing off one some of the Kulkus but it has little effect & by the end it's a typical humans versus nasty aliens sci-fi film.The CGI computer effects vary, some of the space scenes are quite nice as are one or two of the spaceship effects but there are some really bad CGI effects here too so be warned. The Kulkus look exactly like human beings (to save money, hey alien make-up effects cost money) except that they have this blue patch of something on their cheek which is never explained or even mentioned. There are a few shoot-outs & a few people are gorily shot to get it an 'R' rating but otherwise there's no graphic gore here. The whole film screams made for telly, it's bland & dull & while competent totally forgettable. There's one odd scene in which an alien Kulkus guard fires a laser at a car & it blows up yet in the very next shot he fires it at a lorry & yet there's not even so much as a scratch, why? OK a lorry is bigger than a car but not necessarily made from anything any stronger, is it?Although set in America & space Alien Siege was actually filmed in Bulgaria. The acting isn't great, one time Hollywood star Carl Weathers has a small role & is looking pretty old these days.Alien Siege is an ambitious sci-fi that has alien invasions, interplanetary politics & some huge plot holes that make no sense if you think about them that is watchable in an undemanding way but it simply has to many flaws to even approach anything near good.

Chinese water torture? The Iron Maiden? Thumbscrews? How about being forced to watch Alien Blood/Siege? Is there a difference between these?Yes- the first three are a walk in the park compared to this horrendous waste of money, film and (luckily) only 25 minutes of my life time.Not since Saving Private Ryan have I felt physically ill through the first 20 minutes of a movie.Im just annoyed it was a TV movie, at least if I had been at a cinema I could have demanded my money back.If you have any respect for yourself you will avoid this at all costs.

My wife and I started to watch this film the other night with the intention of just seeing 10 minutes or so before we went to bed, but ended up watching it all. My wife is definitely not a sci-fi fan (unlike me) but she still enjoyed this.Yes, the effects are awful (the original series of Star Trek had better) and I would agree with others on how bad some of the acting was (funnily enough you could tell who the evil guys were by how bad their acting was, although even the good guys weren't that much better). However, it was definitely watchable and dare I say it, even mildly enjoyable.In summary, the kind of film that is worth watching if it happens to be on air and nothing else worth watching is on, but not worth actively seeking out.