Area 51 (2015) Reviews

• Area 51

  Argemaluco2015-06-22

  In 1994, the first thing I did when I finally had access to the Internet was searching sites about UFOs and governmental conspiracies, and one of my favorite ones was the bulletin "Desert Rat", published by a guy named Glenn Campbell (don't mix him up with the country singer), who dedicated his life to the study of Area 51... or at least as much as a civilian could study it without getting into legal trouble. I even sent him five dollars as a contribution to have access to the delayed editions of the bulletin. That's when my obsession for these topics started, even though it eventually cooled down due to the multiple contradictory versions of the "true events", the impossibility to confirm any of them and, specially, the big quantity of charlatans and opportunists who cloud any semblance of objectivity seeking fame or easy money (or maybe, they are "disinformants" hired by the CIA with that specific purpose) (and, by the way, I keep thinking that Campbell is one of the few sober and credible investigators on that topic, specially because he never exploited the supposed extraterrestrial "connections" of Area 51... it's simply a secret military base; any other affirmation is fantasy or mere speculation). The film Area 51 distillates those decades of rumors and mysteries in 90 minutes of... nothing. Area 51 is an atrocious movie which employs the tiring pseudo- documentary clichés which seemed innovative various years ago, but which have been employed so much and so badly that they don't make any impact anymore, unless they are well handled... something which didn't happen in Area 51 (to be fair, this film was shelved for 6 years, so maybe, it should be evaluated in the context of the year 2009). The "realism" of this movie is limited to the mention of many elements existing in the mythology of that military base: the "Janet" airplanes, the "cammo dudes" who patrol around the base, and even a visit to the restaurant Little A'Le'Inn, in Rachel, Nevada, the closest town to Area 51. For the rest, we have the typical "found footage" structure: half an hour of foolishness to meet the characters a bit (who the buffoon is, who the hero is, who the skeptical one is, etc.); another half an hour of uninteresting "preparation" to elevate the (inexistent) suspense; and half an hour of "shaky cam" through the desert and the generic corridors of the base, following a group of uni-dimensional and irritating characters, until reaching an ending which is so vague and abrupt that it provokes frustration instead of horror. It is said that "less is more", but Area 51 takes that to the extreme of "nothing is something", only to discover (90 minutes later) that "nothing" keeps being "nothing", despite how much the characters run and scream. In conclusion, I hated Area 51, and I felt it like a genuine waste of time.

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• waste of an hour and a half of film

  boadicea-186242015-05-19

  Okay so first off let me just say that I created this IMDb account after watching this movie, just to review it!. My friends and I have been waiting for this movie to come out for a while after first seeing the trailer for it on Facebook, which mind you, was probably scarier than this entire movie. I am a huge fan of alien movies like dark skies, alien abduction etc, and if you share the same interest then I suggest you only watch this movie if you have absolutely nothing else to watch but if you can avoid it, do it. It had some semi scary scenes, maybe a whole 5 minutes of the movie was actually exciting but other than that it was a bunch of 20 something year old, who seemed to know way too much on how to break into various locations on government technology, running around with video cameras. A lot of the story wasn't explained properly, it left me feeling confused and unfulfilled.

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• Extremely Disappointing from the Start

  phaylen2015-05-15

  I definitely had higher expectations for Area 51, especially given that Oren Peli had written and directed and reinvigorated the "found footage" genre with Paranormal Activity. I'm a fan of the genre, a fan of the Peli, but this was absolutely abysmal from the very start. The concept could have been extremely engaging and given a unique twist, but it performs and plays out as expected- completely typical and utterly predictable, very poorly acted and nonsensical most of the time. I would have been disappointed even if it were a Direct to DVD or On Demand release. I guess the merits of this film like wholly on "From the writer and director of Paranormal Activity!" However, don't expect the competency which the latter film was delivered. There is very little entertainment value, lines are cut off mid-sentence, and somehow, despite being allegedly filmed with one camera, it switches angles regularly without disrupting other dialog. It places it's weight on technical talk, the late night AM radio conspiracy chatter, but does nothing to actually give the viewer anything to grab on to and immerse themselves in the adventure of these three hormonal boys. If you'd like to reduce your IQ level or waste your time while sick and just need to say you've seen it, you're better served by searching online for conspiracy videos, which provide far more interesting concepts and, despite being rather extraordinary, manage to entertain, which Area 51 fail to do.

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• The era of the camcorder movie just keeps going on and on.

  closerlookfilms2015-05-16

  The first question needs to be, are we not getting tired of these camcorder lost footage movies? Ever since the overrated "Blair Witch Project," we have been deluged with similar-themed films; most of which fall way, way short of being anything but tiresome. So enter Oren Peli with his own take on the concept, but in his favor we have the mysterious and always-intriguing Area 51 as the backdrop. That fact alone is precisely why I decided to give this film a look. At first it appeared that Peli might have done it right. Blending actors and sets with real people and locations associated with Area 51, the set-up is intriguing. Even the process in which these filmmakers attempt to foil some of the high-tech base security systems, seems plausible. So far so good. But it is when the title characters break into the house of an Area 51 / S4 worker and steal his 'card', eventually actually getting inside the top-secret facility, that the movie becomes completely unbelievable and downright ridiculous. Everything that follows is what we have come to know, and depending on how you feel about these shaky-cam movies, love or hate about the concept. It's not that "Area 51" is a bad movie: the performances and design is actually of high-caliber, but given the exciting story set-up, Peli really should have given us a whole lot more than just another camcorder film. In fairness, I think some people will enjoy this. I did not.

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• The government should deny this films existence.....

  FlashCallahan2015-06-06

  Reid has always been obsessed with UFOs. While on a weekend trip to Vegas, he convinces two friends to join him on a mission to break into Area 51, where they find terrifying proof of alien presence...... Found footage films, you either love them, or hate the socks off them. Unfortunately, every once in a while there is a really good movie released in this genre. Willow Creek, Exists, The Borderlands, and the V/H/S series are fine examples of how a found footage movie can work..........but there is a slew of rubbish that you have to trudge through to get to the impressive ones. This falls far into the latter category. So we have the usual gang of teens that we get in these films, one is always obsessed with the subject matter, and the others, dubious as they are, always go along for the ride, because it's a road trip isn't it? So we get the usual footage of people driving to desolate areas, where they are confronted by suspicious looking people, they talk to other people with whom are also obsessed with the subject matter, and this happens for the majority of the film, and the first two acts just drag and drag until we finally reach the titular place. By this time, you couldn't care less with what they discover, and even though the last ten minutes are impressive, both visually and atmospheric, it's too little too late, for the rest of the film is just so boring you lose any interest for the characters, and their quest. Copies are destined to be buried in the Nevada desert next to E.T.

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