★ 6 / 10
I think I should mention, before get this
jesse o
I think I should mention, before get this review out of the way, that I am a fan of Nacho Vigalondo's work. What a fucking great name, for starters. Secondly…
I think I should mention, before get this review out of the way, that I am a fan of Nacho Vigalondo's work. What a fucking great name, for starters. Secondly, I think he has a very unique and clever style, he's always trying to think of things outside the box and, of course, I'm someone who always champions that. His first movie, that I saw, Cronocrimenes (or Timecrimes for my gringo friends) is an incredibly underrated sci-fi gem. His short in VHS: Viral (a largely terrible anthology movie and, easily, the worst of that series) is great. Open Windows, however, honestly, is not a very good movie and I do not know what went wrong with that movie, but I just know that it was kind of not a very good movie. Apparently he also did a short in the original ABCs of Death, which I do not remember. I also have not seen Colossal, despite very much wanting to. Yet there was always this movie, that I knew was part of his filmography and it was one that I found it very difficult to find anywhere. That is, of course, until yesterday. I have Starz On Demand on Prime and, finding it difficult to come across anything that I really wanted to watch, I kept scrolling down and scrolling down until I finally came across this movie. So this is what I watched. With that said, I know the title of this movie is Extraterrestrial and that's gonna bring to mind a certain image about actual aliens. Well, I'm sorry to disappoint, but there are no aliens in this movie. Yes, there are UFOs that are hovering all around Spain, like 30 or so saucers, but no aliens ever beam down, they never attack earth, they're just hovering above Spain for no well explained reason. I feel like the title of the movie works more as a metaphor as opposed to anything that's actually literal. The reason I bring this up is the reason that, when push comes to shove, sometimes people act like someone else entirely. Someone that you don't know, someone that's alien to you. And that's what this movie explores. So, yes, the UFOs themselves serve as nothing more than a plot device to explore the romance between Julio and Julia, especially when Julia is in a relationship with Carlos, who seems to be a good man until, well, you'll see if you watch the movie. On top of that, you have to deal with Angel, Julia and Carlos' nosy and incredibly intrusive neighbor. The military, shortly after the arrival of the UFOs, evacuated the entire town, leaving only a few people behind. I think it's an interesting narrative, because Julio and Julia, instead of telling Carlos the truth about the fact that they may have fucked, they make up this story about the fact that the aliens have infiltrated us, ala Body Snatchers, and that Angel might be one of the aliens in disguise. This really sets off what the narrative ends up becoming because, once again, to keep Carlos from finding out the truth, they let him believe that aliens are now passing themselves off as human. And the tragically funny thing is that Carlos actually believes them. The thing is, however, how far Carlos actually takes things. He becomes something of anti-alien vigilante, going around blowing up buildings (with no people in them) and exposing 'infiltrated' aliens on live TV. And it might sound silly in theory, they definitely do use it for comedy, but I do think they manage to make it work within the context of the movie. The reason I buy it is because Julia and Julio's relationship feels natural. You can sense how Julia would find herself attracted to Julio, particularly after going through a rough patch with Carlos, and vice versa. The romance isn't forced or contrived and their ways of getting around the truth are definitely comical, but one that could have had far worse repercussions than they did. Carlos, once again, took Julia and Julio at their words completely. He never questioned Julia, who's the person he admires the most. So, really, I like the way they develop the characters and tell a really quite unconventional love triangle. That's why I feel comfortable enough calling this a good movie. I don't think it's anything more than that, given that, as much as I did enjoy it, it doesn't feel as weird as Vigalondo's other films and that is what he excels at. I think the relatively negative audience score on RottenTomatoes, 39% of people did give it a score of 3.5 stars or above (which isn't bad), has a lot to do with the title not really literally delivering on aliens. Which, again, I could maybe understand, but metaphorically, the title makes perfect sense. I don't know, like I said, I definitely would say I enjoyed the movie. The script was good, the characters were well-written and the actors were all very good, but I think the limited scope ended up detracting a bit from what could have been a really strange and out there movie. I'm not saying that the movie had to show us any aliens, because I was never bothered by that n the slightest, but I don't know. Would have been interesting to see the concept turned up to 11. I suppose that's neither here nor there, of course. The film is definitely funny, but it's not hilarious. There's this TV crew that delivers the news and the 'newscaster' himself is so willfully unprepared and every time someone interrupts him, while they're actually live, a big argument breaks out where he ends up threatening a person behind the camera to not tell him to read from the paper that's in front of him. It's a funny running gag. In short, I don't really know what else to say about this movie. I suppose one could make the argument that this, without the backdrop of the UFOs, might have been a bland love triangle and there might be something to that if it was anybody else than Vigalondo. He interjects these characters with enough personality, there's enough comedy and strong character development that, even without the UFOs as the backdrop, this still would have been a good movie. And, realistically speaking, the way the movie was executed precisely showcases my point. The UFOs and/or aliens, as far as physical beings that you see, are a non-factor. The aliens are used in the narrative as a way to keep Julio and Julia's affair under wraps, but that's about it. With that said, I liked this movie. Wouldn't exactly recommend it to just anybody though, I think this is more of an acquired taste and better enjoyed if you're familiar with Vigalondo's work. If you want a full-on alien invasion movie, then this is simply not for you.
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The 720p version does not download, is there any way to request seeds?