Alien Vs Ninja Review

If there's one thing I love, it's obscure films that sound like they'd be rubbish but actually surprise you. Alien Vs Ninja is one of these films. I'll be honest, I was drawn in right from the start by the title. It sounded so ridiculous it just had to be good. Written and directed by Japanese-born American Seiji Chiba, AvN tells the story of a small group of Iga ninja tasked with investigated a mysterious fireball that lands outside their village. However, they are attacked by a group of lightning-fast, hyper-deadly aliens that quickly slaughter all but a few of them. To be honest, there really isn't much of a story to be had here, as the title says, this is a movie about ninjas fighting aliens and little else. So ridiculous story aside, there's a lot of good to be found here. For one, the entire movie is filmed with an over-the-top anime sensibility and sense of humor, which, being a mad anime fan, really worked for me. This is the closest I've seen to a live action anime so far. So the "comedy" part of this movie is a definite plus. The other huge plus is the "action" part of the trifecta. The fight scenes are choreographed and filmed beautifully and skilfully, it's always easy to follow what's happening and Seiji expertly weaves the overthetop anime style and humour into some of the many fantastic action scenes. The only real let down is the aliens themselves. This is obviously a low budget film and it really shows in the creatures. They are all achieved by suits and the occasional CGI. The choice here is obvious, the suits allow better choreographed fight scenes, but the side effect is that the creatures don't look all that impressive or intimidating. It's also let down by cheap CGI and effects and bad use of lighting. But if you're like me and all you're looking for is a fun movie about ninjas fighting aliens, then this is definitely what you'll get. It's an A grade ninja movie wrapped up in a B grade monster flick, but that's ok with me. It's fun, gory, brutal, fast and funny, and it's ninjas fighting aliens. What else do you want, honestly?