9.5/10 No Mans's Land
No Man's Land is absolutely brilliant film with a great story line, outstanding acting and a real treat for fans of the alien movie franchise.
The Story
It's hard to believe that one person, Christan Kennedy was able to write, produce, edit and shoot this fantastic yarn. It fits so neatly into the franchise cannon and really holds its own conceptually.
It was a brilliant idea to place this story is the chaos of WW1 and I'm sure that there are some Hollywood writers slapping their foreheads in frustration because they didn't come up with this idea.
Cinematography
The cinematography and lighting are perfectly done with great saturation and color palettes. The lighting was exceptional and painted the scenes with incredible nuisances.
The close-up work is gorgeous and really pulls you into the characters and the tight living conditions of trench warfare. The weapons were also accurate for the time period and the addition of the BAR was a nice touch. Traci Rose's costuming is bang on and credibly reflects the time period of the story.
Actors
The actors really look the part. The makeup was top notch and Jo Franklin and crew deserve full kudos for their work. The lead actor, with his craggy face and humongous beard, reminded me of Jorma Tommila from the movie Sisu.
Easter Eggs
The homages and Easter eggs that were brilliantly incorporated. The Weyland canned food was a nice touch. The scene with the shotgun shoved down the aliens' throat and the resulting acid blood spray from the blast, reminded me of the scene in the APC doorway with Hicks in Aliens.
When they set up the machine guns at the tunnel, I was hoping to see a scene similar to the ALIENS movie when they lifted the ceiling panels and saw the swarm of Aliens headed towards them. It would have been very cool to see them pouring out of the tunnel into a hail of machine gun fire. A la the smart guns that were set up in the tunnels on LV427.
I especially loved the "Bad Robot" ending. I didn't see it coming and I wonder if a shot of a face hugger skin, lying on the ground somewhere in the tunnels when the soldiers were exploring, would have set it up better.
Nitpicking
When you set the bar so high in your film the parts that don't work well unfortunately stand out more than they would in a lesser crafted endeavor. The thick dialects and no subtitles made it difficult to understand what the actors were saying.
The costumes seemed a bit too clean at times and didn't have that lived in look. Living in trenches for weeks at a time would cause a great deal of wear and tear to clothing and equipment and unfortunately the costuming didn't match the makeup.
The choppy CGI at the beginning and did not forebode great production values for the film. However, this was soon made up for with action scenes where we got to see the Aliens in action.
The ship interior was a total misfire, it simply looked like the basement of a building with a lot of pipes in it. The square architecture did not match the round shapes of the ship we saw at the start of the film. And the height of the ceilings did not match the scale of the ship's occupants.
The "alien autopsy" corpse lying on the ships floor was a disappointment. I get that Kennedy was maybe trying to tie the classic "Little Green Men" to the Alien Franchise, but it seemed odd and out of scale.
I've seen a lot of sci-fi movies in my time. I saw ALIEN in the theaters when it first came out. I am a huge fan of the franchise and I've seen a lot of fan made films pertaining to this genre. To refer to Christan Kennedy's work of art as a "fan film" does not do it justice. It is truly one of the best non studio films made. I would have gladly paid money to see this in a theater.
