Not that bad.

Rating: 6/10 (10 September 2009)

First off, note that this film mostly consists of standard ingredients we've encountered in so many books and films over time. There's the ghetto situation, inhabited this time by stranded aliens but which you could as well replace with an Indian reservation or a slum of undefined location, the unholy mingling of corporate interests with politics, where the former apparently dominates all, and finally the classic anti hero, a thorough opportunist who, unwillingly, is forced to finally take a stance one way or the other. Then, to provide for the action as well as a personalized look on it, two basically independent events - the forced relocation of the ghetto and the attempt of a chief alien to repair a hidden drop ship and maybe escape earth for good - are thrown together to take us through enough melee to keep our senses busy. That's really the whole story already.
Add to that this being shot in a pseudo documentary style, with the obligatory, constantly swaying and sickening camera, hectic cuts also to pseudo news coverage, pseudo surveillance camera footage, pseudo whatever, and you'd agree that the whole piece hardly deserved mentioning safe maybe some notable special effects. But provided one can stand some heavy handed swear fests and blood splatter, I still think this film offers some nice twists which maybe don't make it a great one but still fairly likable.
One of them is that the lead act is basically an unknown actor but still does really, really well. Don't know about you guys, but I'm so thoroughly tired of big shot Hollywood names of the Christian Bale and Russel Crow kind and their polished but unaffectionate performances that I'm deeply grateful for each fresh face that comes up and does well. This is especially noteworthy because a large part of his job here actually is vocal work. And not some accent he had to master and would go brag about later on talk shows how difficult that was, no rather all the moaning and grunting which make up a large part of the latter half of the film and give credibility to his suffering and turning into the stripped down, reduced human being and creature he finally becomes. And that's no joke. It's his, I'd say totally convincing, inarticulate vocal expressions which give this film some credibility, on the emotional side.
Then, the other nice twist is of course not the suppressed actually being the "better people", which is a common theme as well after all. It's also not the opportunistic coward becoming a full human being by being forced into their point of view, as he's abandoned and potentially exploited by his own people and really taken care of only by the supposedly violent underdogs. No, what I'm referring to is that fairy tale theme, where the prince, by a curse, is turned into a frog and will turn back again only after some condition is met which deeply relates to humanity. This is what basically happens here, the (anti) hero being turned into a creature and forced to stay that way for a prolonged period of time, thus being forced to face himself as he really is until "the curse" is lifted. This really connects nicely to those age old fairy tales one might remember from childhood and provides for a, well, sweet touch.
So altogether, though really not original in many aspects, I'd still recommend this film as providing some good entertainment albeit severely lacking on the cinematographic side, which seems to be a lost art these days. And as said, at least the lead act saves the show for me. An impressive debut of his, if it was one.