Attack The Block

As someone said, all the stories worth telling have already been told. What’s left is how do you tell the same story again. That itself is an art. And this low-budget British monster-comedy-sci-fi-young adult actioner does it with aplomb.

It’s a classic alien monster vs human film, where you know human are going to win. But, by placing the tale in the fringes, a housing complex, a young black hero without a family and with the ambition to be a criminal, and his equally young friends learning to rob unsuspecting pedestrians in the night, the film adds novelty to the maudlin plot and makes it a thrill ride.

And the film finds it core in the young actor John Boyega as Moses, the leader of the wannabe hoodlums. He has an intensity that reminds you of Danzel Washington. Mind you, it’s a good thing. And, he single-handedly lifts the climax of the film and makes it believable.

Believable the monsters are not, and it does not matter. They are black, furry, and their teeth glows; apparently they are aliens and they are here because Moses killed one of them. Now, the pack chases the gang of younsters who must gather all their wits and courage to fight those abominable beasties.

Interesting.