Prityazhenie (2017) Reviews

• Promising at the start but disappointing in the end

  vvp_142017-02-15

  From director Fyodor Bondarchuk comes another ambitious sci-fi project. But just like with his previous sci-fi double feature "Dark Planet"/"Dark Planet: Rebellion" the idea behind the film is excellent and does pose certain questions about humanity and its future and about paranoid military controlling such events. But when it comes to the storytelling and directing things aren't so pretty. The filmmakers do an excellent job in the special effects department, but the same cannot be said about either plot, dialogues or jerky editing. The main problem I had, though, was how unbelievable the story was. I just couldn't help thinking that the screenwriters, having a brilliant idea for the film, had to fill the two-hour screen time with some nonsense just to get from point A to point B. Most of it didn't make any sense. The Russian title of the film has a double meaning and can be translated as both "Attraction" (the aliens being attracted to the controversial human race or the attraction between the girl and the alien) and "Gravity" (their ship experiencing a breakdown and is pulled by Earth gravity into the atmosphere). So it starts off with some excellent CGI in the first few minutes with an alien ship flying through the air chased and being shot at by fighter jets and crashing down in the middle of Moscow's highly populated residential high-rise apartment blocks area. There is a heavy military involvement right from the start, with emergency military headquarters put in place and a secure perimeter around the crash site set up. Well, a promising, ambitious and therefore demanding start for a story of the first alien contact in human history. From this point on things go from bad to worse. The movie does feel like a cross-breed between Independence Day, K-PAX and District 9, but precisely because these are very different movies (an action packed epic, a philosophical drama and a reality show set up in dirty slums with street violence and abuse of the helpless aliens), one could not cross-breed them. Well, this flick tries to be everything of the above: a philosophical action-packed alien- contact filled-with-CGI-and-military-hardware gangster street fighting school-girl love story. And precisely because of that it fails in each of these departments. * WARNING - SPOILERS * After a few minutes this alien contact "epic" turns into a teenage school-gang movie. The closer it gets to the end the smaller and sillier the action becomes. It might as well have been naughty adventures of a school girl who falls out with her military colonel father several times a day (who's running the operation), has a couple of boyfriends one of whom just happens to be an alien and the other - a brokenhearted violent thug from a gang trying to kill the poor alien. There are lots of things in the story that don't make any sense. For example: kids being able to go in and out and walk around unnoticed in the supposedly tightest security area around the ship and even carrying a huge alien bio-suit out of the area; the school girl driving into the area in a Range Rover and carrying out a wounded alien, then taking him to a hospital room unchecked and performing blood transfusion herself using sophisticated equipment; the alien looking just like a bloke from around the corner, speaking Russian, getting arrested by the police and the girl walking into the police building and just getting him out of there. It just goes on and on. I don't mind some oddities in a film but as long as they are explained or made look logical, it's fine. Not in this film. It just feels the creators don't have much respect for the audience. * END OF SPOILERS * Right at the end, though, the creators do manage to hit the right buttons and rap up the story with a rather nice and even emotional ending, saving it from a complete disaster with some more excellent CGI from inside the alien ship and finally some words that make sense but it hardly turns the movie into a piece of art. Points for the idea and special effects. The rest ranges from average to disappointing. Worth taking a look, though, if you are a sci-fi fan. There is a link to a trailer with English subs on this page under External sites.

• I don't understand the low rating

  arendmaatkamp2017-04-24

  I absolutely love the design and CGI. It was well worth my time. The story ain't that bad either, good acting.. as far as I can tell but I don't speak any Russian so.. who knows.. For me this one ranks right next to films like: Edge of tomorrow, Oblivion, Elysium, District 9 & Pacific Rim. I might be biased towards SciFi flicks tho.. haha.. and it's nice to see aliens come down somewhere else then Los Angeles :-P So.. If you love SciFi.. Give it a try..

• Better than expected and current rating

  jjohn-922672017-04-23

  Since this is a first Russian SiFi movie I watched in this genre, I must say that I am impressed. For the Hollywood SiFi movie lovers, this may not be the perfect match, although visual effects are close in quality. They don't keep you tense for a long duration, there are "hidden" messages and human touch in the movie. Its not a John Wayne western type of the movie, like most Hollywood ScFi movies, where you have to kill, die or win on the end for the movie to have some closure. On the bad side of the movie, there are no huge up and down moments in the movie either and "gang" (or social) type of violence is on a bit high end for my taste. Some may not like ending itself (Hollywood fans would expect different ending), but from my standpoint it was a very decent ending and still very human.

• Some brilliant special effects but hampered with a leaden central story-line

  Red-Barracuda2017-07-01

  An alien spacecraft crash lands in Moscow after the Russian military try to shoot it down. A humanoid alien eventually emerges and interacts with a girl, who falls in love with him but her jealous ex-boyfriend tries to intervene violently. It's not every day you get the chance to see a big budget Russian sci-fi effects extravaganza. For this reason alone, Attraction makes for interesting viewing. Its Russian setting and flavour give it a different feel which makes it more distinctive. It does have to be said though that the romantic story-line wasn't really all that good, with the alien contact part of the story not done in a very interesting way. The alien himself is a little bit dull in all honesty, I was also a bit disappointed that he was basically completely human looking – I thought they could have come up with a being at least a little different from a regular looking guy from 2017. On the other hand, the special effects work was very good. The crash landing sequence was a blistering spectacle that was exceptionally well delivered to the screen in an exciting and highly visceral way. Unlike the dull alien, the spacecraft and his exoskeleton suit were great bits of design work. So, the overall feeling about this alien contact movie is a bit mixed. On the negative side, it had an uninteresting central love story and alien, yet it gained plus points for its Russian flavour and brilliant special effects and design work. Overall, it's definitely one worth seeing if you are a sci-fi buff, it's just a movie that could have been a lot better with a few tweaks.

• Far better than I expected

  abisio2017-04-23

  There are several common points between this movie and The Arrival; but while the later takes a most philosophical and in my opinion unsatisfying resolution; GRAVIY (or Attraction) took a somewhat romantic road but end up being about our communications problems as humans and obviously with an alien race. During a meteor show in Moscow; and alien vessel gets hits and descend to Earth. Russian air forces immediately shoot the descending falling down in the middle of the city and causing great havoc and hundreds of deaths. In an attempt to communicate; one alien inform the military commanding officer that nobody could get near the vessel and they will repair it and leave; but need some time. Military surrounds the area creating an state of siege with curfews and the obvious confrontations between armed forced and civilians when the communication is restricted and on a need to know basis. The alien presence creates a discomfort on many people under the impression of being invaded. After a somewhat slow paced start; and very serious events; the young protagonist lady gets in contact with one alien; that without his menacing suit or armor looks handsome; and she try to help him. The movie shifts from serious science fiction to light comedy and then to romantic comedy. Things keep moving in a darker direction after a while; getting to violent last act that somewhat justifies everything that happened before. I cannot tell that I was fully satisfied with the overall story but compared to The Arrival; this is more enjoyable and far less forced. The conclusion are sadly very similar; and not particularly optimistic. In terms of production values and digital FX; this movie is quite impressive. Acting is really quite good too; specially Alexander Petrov as the deceived boyfriend and violent teenager. Irina Starshenbaum performs very well too; as the rebellious military daughter who gets involved with the extraterrestrial. She sweet and sympathetic enough to be believed. In brief; it is two hours plus movie taking from The Arrival (2016), STARMAN (1984) and E.T. (1982); it is not outstanding but is worth your time.