Alien Siege (2005)

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Run for your lives, Earthlings! The Kulku are coming! Seriously. Due to a disease infecting their race, these aliens need human blood to survive. They may err in focusing their attention on the beautiful blonde daughter of stiffly heroic Brad Johnson (as Stephen Chase). She is one of those "selected" as a sacrificial donor, and the Kulkus' existence depends on the blood of pretty blonde Erin Ross (as Heather). Even strapped down on a table, Ms. Ross is very pretty. But, big problems occur because Mr. Johnson doesn't want his daughter to be sacrificed. Managing half-snarls, he goes after the blood-thirsty invaders...The Kulku aliens look just like Earth people, but with whitened eyebrows. They also have circular communications patches pasted on their faces...These aliens seem incredibly stupid in how they go about their mission, but the script does mention them needing a specific amount of blood in a timely manner; it really isn't logical, but they do try to construct an interesting sci-fi plot. Director Robert Stadd and his crew have one striking scene when alien Nathan Anderson (as Kor) dressed in white picks up a reddish ball, which causes a little girl to run away in fear. However, "Alien Siege" is almost completely unnecessary. There is no reason, either creatively or financially, to stop re-runs of "Dark Shadows", "Star Trek" and "The Outer Limits" for this kind of product.** Alien Siege (2/26/2005) Robert Stadd ~ Brad Johnson, Erin Ross, Lilas Lane, Nathan Anderson

This could have been a hidden gem under the withered hide of a really dead horse. It was neither jewel nor offal, but something in the middle of the made-for-TV SF oeuvre.With expectations that low, I was pleasantly surprised to find the ideas behind the script - the themes, as it were - a bit more intelligent than usual. And the effects were not spectacular, but not bad either.Sadly, the dialogue sucked. Fortunately, there wasn't much of it. A couple of seriously cheese-eating statements of patriotic duty would have any of the serving military I grew up with rolling in the aisles. Handsful of short, declarative sentences, some unbelievably clichéd, interrupt the fairly standard action sequences. No long-winded monologues from either the heroes or the villains; that's gotta count as a plus.The acting was about as bad as you'd expect, but erring on the side of less emoting rather than more; another minimalist plus.Overall, not as bad as many I've seen, and slightly better than I was led to expect by the wildly varied reviews prior to mine.

The sad thing is, the special effects are pretty good. For one-- I like especially like the beam weapons-- they make the air sizzle when they pass through-- which makes sense energetically speaking.And the Aliens being distinguished by White eyebrows. . . a nice low budget FX trick to make a distinction between US and THEM. I'll even forgive the aliens being stiffer than triple plywood.The Premise, though, isn't psychologically workable -- I mean, our gov'ts would willfully just collaborate to round up Hundred or thousands to MILLIONS of their own people to be drained of their blood and lives? Maybe this was an attempt on the writer's part to explore the whole Nazi-Collaboration angle, but it doesn't click.And last-- the putative hero here-- is absolutely NO hero. In fact, this man, in the face of the possible extinction of the Human race, has ONE mantra: Save my Daughter. Save my Daughter. I don't care how many other people die, but Save my Daughter. . .and while we're still at it Save my Daughter. . .And when we've Saved my Daughter, I'm outta here.Jeez, I mean, the viewer has to ask himself: "Um, why am I watching this, 'cause the hero is a selfish, self-centered douchebag." The Moral Message is clear: If this guy's daughter was not being culled, he wouldn't give a hoot. Usually, these monster/alien movies generally make Scientists out to be less than well-rounded-- but this guy would make Dr. Evil spit in disgust.So because of this totally cardboard, selfish, unlovable, and emotionally UNsympathetic nimrod is the FOCUS of this movie-- the viewer loses touch with the growing moral quandaries nagging the young alien overlord, or the sacrifices of the Resistance, or the unease of the Human Military being forced to collaborate in the mass culling of their own people.Wasted effort. Wasted Script. Wasted Carl Weathers. Wasted FX. Just wasted. . .aghhh! If you've nothing better to do before you turn in for the night, watch this-- and have your finger ready on the Fast Forward Button, especially when they start talking in one place.Trust me, you won't miss much.

I enjoyed watching this film from the Sci-Fi Channel. The action sequences were well done and the story had more to it than you would expect. This movie is well crafted in classic Sci-Fi fashion. It takes a modern philosophical question and examines it. It was sort of like Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" meeting Star Trek. The Kulku, a race of humanoids whom are scientifically far more advanced that humans, need to harvest people in order to ensure the survival of their race. The Kulku feel that they are a superior race and that the people of earth are beings of low intelligence. If you look a step deeper into the movie (understanding that the great apes share 99% of the genetic code as humans, yet experiments are constantly performed on them for our benefit), "Alien Siege" poses some interesting afterthoughts. Overall it is a fun movie and an interesting take on the theme. Definitely worth watching.