Monday, November 23, 2009

THE FOURTH KIND


This is my first review so cut me a little slack, lol.



In one of the last scenes of "The Fourth Kind", we see Dr. Abagail Tyler spilling her guts in front of the camera about how aliens have ruined her life. Sound ridiculous? In lots of other movies it probably would, but if fits seamlessly in this taught, intense, creepy thriller from second-time director Olatunde Osunsanmi.

There are actually two movies in "The Fourth Kind", one of them is a reenactment starring Milla Jovovich as Dr. Tyler and the other features "original" footage of the alien encounters portrayed in the film (whose authenticity can be debated). Osunsanmi's starategy works brilliantly in the first half of the film.

The screen is actually split in two, one side with the film and the other with the "real" footage. Having this footage brings an extra creepiness to the events in the film, even though it might not be real. Unbelievable things happen in both versions and it adds a scary amount to realism to what could have been another cliche alien-abduction film.

The movie seems to falter toward the second-half though. Every single time something scary happens, the "real" footage goes to static or snow, so we are only left with the reenactment to see, which makes the movie lose lots of gravity in the situations. The most important scene of the film, the last time the aliens come to Tyler's house, is covered in snow with only the audio playing. Instead of being creeped out with a Hitchcock less-is-more feeling, there is just a feeling of being cheated. There is about two minutes of people screaming and nothing is shown.

The editing is to be commended here. "The Fourth Kind" has some of the cleverest editing done in a sci-fi film (the split-screen being extremley effective). Although the film is about 5-10 minutes too long, the editing really makes up for it, because every time the "real" audio or video comes up, an alarm goes off in the audience's head that something bad is about to happen.

Also, Jovovich gives an extremley real and effective performance. Elias Koteas, as Jovovich's friend/doctor Albert Campos, is as good as ever and is still one of the most underrated actors in the U.S. Writer/Director Osunsanmi should be congragulated for pulling the wool over the audiences eyes with the "real" footage (it's just to good to be true!), and his vision of even having the "real" audio and video in the first place should be congragulated as well.

"The Fourth Kind" does not have one spot of humor in it, which makes it hard to sit through. There is also no real closure at the end. I like think-for-yourself endings ("The Fountain" and "The Blair Witch Project" are two), but in this film there is just too much left to speculation. There are too many loose ends that are never tied up, and the ending message of the movie is less than hopeful (to put it lightly). Only Tyler is likeable by the end of the film, but at the same time it's debatable if Tyler is even telling the truth.There are plenty of topics to think about after though...

Verdict: WAIT FOR VIDEO

***/***** (3/5 stars)

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