Synopsis: All Gary wants is to make awesome home movies with his best buds. All his older sister Samantha wants is to hang with the cool kids. When their parents head out of town one Halloween weekend, an all-time rager of a teen house party turns to terror when aliens attack, forcing the siblings to band together to survive the night.
What We Thought:
Part of me wants to hype Kids vs. Aliens because I love seeing movies about kids starring kids like the ones I grew up on. I grew up on The Goonies and The Monster Squad where it was simply about kids being kids, riding bikes, acting like kids and going on adventures. Part of me also thinks the movie could have been a lot better with better acting and characters.
The biggest issue with the film are the characters. All are one dimensional, stereotypical characters. The good looking older boy thinks the younger kids are losers and uses the sister character to throw the party. His crew are typical drinking, smoking wannabe tough kids. The sister character immediately has a crush on the good looking boy and falls for his charm. The main core of kids want to make movies and are nerdy losers. None of them feel all that fleshed out. You want to root for the kids in the movie to survive the aliens, but the older kids you immediately want killed by the aliens because there is nothing to them. You didn’t need that older vs. younger kid dynamic at all. It should have simply been kids vs. aliens like its title.
And all of them swear. There are a ton of f-bombs in the movie. I’m not a prude and kids do swear, but it’s excessive. Kids swearing hasn’t been edgy in 40 years. A nicely placed f-bomb will always be great and powerful. Excessive, over used swearing hasn’t been cool in a long time.
I will say I did love the effects in the film. There is blood and some good action. The alien creatures look like throwback aliens from the 1940s and 50s. I like that. Because they are kids, they use whatever they can as weapons including their props from the movie within the movie. The sister character wears shoulder pads with spikes. There are wrestling moves and a cool sword. All that is the best part of the movie. That and you might be surprised at some deaths!
Kids vs. Aliens spends too much time on the kids vs. kids part. It takes forever for the aliens to actually interact with the main cast. Most of the movie is about the younger kids wanting to make their movie, the sister wanting to be part of the cool kids group and throwing the house party while her brother feels slighted. There’s too much build up in the first act that the third act feels rushed and there’s barely a second act. I like the concept, but the resulting movie is a bit disappointing.
The Nerds Templar 