Kids vs. Aliens review.
Born out of a V/H/S/2 segment, Kids vs. Aliens drops the found footage aesthetic and blows its story up to accommodate a feature length film. There’s some fun to be had with it…but not as much as you’d hope.
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Kids vs. Aliens
Directed by Jason Eisener
Written by John Davies and Jason Eisener
Starring Josh Goldbloom, Brad Miska, Jason Levangie, Marc Tetreault and Rob Cotterill
Kids vs. Aliens Review
In 2013 V/H/S/2 featured a found footage segment called Slumber Party Alien Abduction. We didn’t rank it very high among the series.
From our original review:
Outside of a clever idea (the camera is attached to a dog), the final short in V/H/S/2 is a bit of a misfire. There’s some decent imagery and effective moments…and the concept is more interesting than Phase I. The problem is really the first half of the story. Annoying characters acting like douchebags are back. Once the invasion begins there is some fun to be had here. The ending, however, feels unnecessary and leaves us feeling down rather than thrilled.
Flash forward almost a decade and the creative team is back to take another crack at the aliens invade a kid’s party story: Kids vs. Aliens. They’ve dropped the found footage motif for a traditional movie aesthetic and fixed a couple of the major issues with the original short.
The plot of Kids vs. Aliens is essentially the same. A group of youths are hanging out without adult supervision when aliens invade their party. The kids must fight off the aliens and attempt to survive the night.
The most obvious difference between Kids vs. Aliens and Slumber Party Alien Abduction is that it is no longer found footage. While the V/H/S series is a collection of found footage shorts…the feature length film frees Kids vs. Aliens from the conceit. This is an almost universally positive change. It is funny, however, that the cleverest aspect of the original short was the way they incorporated the motif. The camera was attached to a dog that ran through the events of the night. Kids vs. Aliens gets rid of the dog altogether. Given the ending of the short…this is another very positive change.
The other big problem with Slumber Party Alien Abduction was how annoying all the characters were. Kids vs. Aliens is a mixed bag as far as improving upon that aspect is concerned. The douche quotient is (mostly) saved for the characters we aren’t supposed to like. Some unlikable moments still slip through with our heroes…but the movie puts more care into the characters this go around.
At this point you may be asking yourself if all we are going to talk about is how Kids vs. Aliens compares to its predecessor. Well…there’s a good reason that topic dominates this review. The truth is the movie doesn’t add all that much to what already existed. It does things differently. It does things longer. But it mostly plays by the same book. A lot of Kids vs. Aliens feels like a missed opportunity to innovate on the basic story.
We get more character development, and the alien abductions go to a further place than the original allowed…but it feels strange that there isn’t more to this in feature form. Now…this review comes from a place that has seen V/H/S/2 and can’t help but draw comparisons. The obvious question is what will Kids vs. Aliens look like to people who haven’t seen the original short.
The truth is…Kids vs. Aliens is likely to still feel lacking in enough areas on its own merits for the new viewing audience. We get some fun face melting alien action and a basic character arc for pretty much one character…and not a whole lot else.
That’s not to say that Kids vs. Aliens doesn’t provide some entertainment. On top of the improvements already discussed, there is an enjoyable tone to the movie. More likable leads pitted against obnoxious foes…pitted against murderous aliens…makes for a fun dynamic. There are some good, slimy effects at play here too, even if the regular aliens themselves look just as silly as in the original. There are some chuckles to be had as well.
It’s hard to look at Kids vs. Aliens without feeling like it’s a decent first draft that could have used some polish. Which makes the fact that it’s the second take on the material even stranger. Still, there’s something to be said for this obvious labor of love in the sci-fi horror realm. It’s fast-paced and doesn’t overstay its welcome. It may leave you wanting more…but you’re unlikely to regret watching what it does.
Scare Value
The good news is that Kids vs. Aliens is an improvement over the found footage short it is descended from. That bad news is that it’s not really that much better. It doesn’t make a strong case to justify making a bigger version of the story. Watchable and not without some fun…but empty calorie. At least they got rid of the dog killing from the original.
2.5/5
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