Starring
Irina Starshenbaum, Alexander Petrov, Rinal Mukhametov, Oleg
Menshikov, Nikita Kukushkin, Evgeniy Mikeev, Aleksey Maslodudov.
Directed by Fyodor Bondarchuk. (2017/133 min).
AVAILABLE
ON BLU-RAY
Review
by Stinky the Destroyerđž
What's
the attraction? For one thing, the film starts off with the mother of
all crash landings. A benevolent alien spceship, which sort-of resembles a
massive Pokeball, gets damaged during a meteor shower and enters
Earth's atmosphere. Honoring the time-honored sci-fi tradition of
shooting first and asking questions later, the Russian military
shoots it down. This results in a long, gloriously-destructive
sequence in which the ship plows through the heart of Moscow,
flattening buildings and killing hundreds.
This
is, by far, the best scene in the entire film. The remainder of
Russia's Attraction, while visually impressive, is a bit
anti-climactic, not-to-mention derivative of such American classics
as The Day the Earth Stood Still and Starman. A group
of teenagers, angered by the death of one of their classmates during
the crash, want revenge and are determined to take their neighborhood
back (no, seriously). Yulia (Irina
Starshenbaum) initially leads the revolt with the help of her hunky
boyfriend, Artyom (Alexander Petrov) and his buddies. However, after
an even hunkier alien, Hekon (Rinal Mukhametov), saves her life, she
decides to help him return to his ship, made more difficult by her
estranged father (Oleg Menshikov), who also happens to command of the
troops that shot it down in the first place.
"Do I really gotta catch 'em all?" |
Attraction
is fast moving and watchable enough, with decent performances, good action scenes,
impressive production design and spots of humor (both intentional and
unintentional). The familiar story, however, is hampered by some
terrible writing and needlessly stupid characters. Artyom, for
example, turns on-a-dime from helpful hunk to revenge-fueled
psychopath, instantly able to jump into bio-mechanical body armor to
wage war on the aliens, with the help of a few hundred angry
neighbors armed with clubs (Yep...that's how you get rid of beings
who've mastered interstellar travel). Speaking of aliens, of course
Hekon is young and handsome, complete with prerequisite five o'clock
shadow and douchebag hair. How else can Yulia fall hopelessly in love
with a guy from another world?
Though
the CG-heavy climax descends further into utter predictability than
we'd like - Attraction
is kind-of fun (even if some of that fun comes at its own expense).
We've seen it all before in better movies, but it's nice to see what
another country can do with a familiar concept. And if nothing else,
the Pokeball crash alone might be worth the price of admission.
EXTRA
KIBBLES
3 PROMOTIONAL FEATURETTES - "Young Actors"; "Superstars"; "Promo Reel"
SPECIAL
EFFECTS FEATURETTE
TRAILER
KITTY CONSENSUS:
NOT BAD. LIKE CAT CHOW.
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