There are times when a concept that sounds good on paper fails to live up to expectations once it appears on the big screen. Aliens in the Attic is just such one of those concepts. Looked cute on the trailer but as a film… Here is the full review.

Film

Aliens in the Attic looked like a good idea for a film when I first saw the trailer. However, I found it to be really disappointing once I had the chance to see the full film. It is very formulaic and utterly predictable.

The film is filled with just about every character stereotype one could imaging in a teen based film. Of course, all the adults in the film are dopes with the kids the only one with brains. Looking for the dumb teenage male love interest. Check. The oversexed attractive older sister? Check. The crazy granny. Check. Yes they are all there, all woven into a film that I can best describe as being boring.

The plot is really simple. The family travels out into the countryside for an extended fishing vacation, that none of the kids are interested in. While there, the Earth is attacked by an advanced team of 4 aliens, one of which has a soft spot for humans. They crash land into the attic at the vacation house where they are discovered by the kids on the trip, who battle the aliens to prevent them from taking over the Earth, all the while trying to hide the existence of the aliens from their parents. The only really humorous part of the film involves the mind control device the aliens have where they are able to take control of the bodies of an adult human using what looks like a video game controller. The device is used to control the older boyfriend as well as Granny (Doris Roberts) with some slow motion battle sequences right out of the Matrix.

Other than these rather brief scenes, the rest of the film is a real borefest. I am sure that kids under 12 will love this film but that is about it. If you must, check out Aliens in the Attic but do so on the basis of a rental only.

Video

At first glance, I was initially impressed with the video quality on this release. However, as the film progressed, I became less and less impressed. The film features a well saturated color palette that is a bit skewed to the color brown. This is most noticeable with the skin tones of the various actors which all have a brownish tint to them, unnaturally so. I would have preferred a much more natural color palette without all the post production color timing changes. However, I am not the director so what I think really doesn’t matter.

Blacks are deep and inky and shadow detail is quite good. However, overall detail is not at the level of the very best looking films I have seen on Blu-ray, the with the film having a bit of a softness to it that resulted in me having to knock down the overall score a bit. The degree of softness that I have described is rather subtle on closeups but is more noticeable on more distant shots. While I really would have liked to give the film a higher overall score based upon my initial impressions ( namely a 4.5), upon further inspection and a closer examination of the film, I feel that a score of 4.0 is more appropriate, given the softness and lack of overall clarity that became more and more obvious the longer I viewed the film.

Audio

I was just as disappointed with the audio as I was with the video. My main complaint with the audio involves the overall dynamics. Simply put, the audio on Aliens in the Attic sounds timid, subdued, lame, soft and weak. If you are looking for loud bangs during the film, all you will find are whimpers. The lack of overall dynamics was rather surprising for such a new film. The overall sound is OK, sounding fine with a smooth and open sound without any evidence of harshness.

The dialogue track is well recorded and well placed in the mix. The rest of the mix just didn’t grab me. The bass was weak and just didn’t rattle the room where it should have. The surrounds were not used as aggressively as I would have preferred either, with a much more front heavy mix than I had anticipated and without the level of total immersion that I felt would have been appropriate given the subject matter of the film. All in all, the audio on Aliens in the Attic was a big disappointment.

Special Features

While the Blu-ray release of the film is packed with extras, I can’t really say that I found any of them to be the least bit interesting. Aliens in the Attic on Blu-ray is a two disc set, with disc 1 containing the film and extras and disc 2 a digital copy of the film compatible with Macs and PCs. The extras include a very brief introduction to the film by Ashley Tinsdale. Also included is a not quite finished alternate ending to the film that was best left on the cutting room floor.

We also get three deleted scenes and a gag reel that I really didn’t find to be all that amusing. Also included is a animated short Behind the Zirkonians which takes you to their planet as well as an interactive featurette Meet the Zirkonians, where you are able to access facts and details about each of the four aliens featured in the film. Also included are two behind the scenes feaurettes Lights, Camera, Aliens and The Ashley Encounters which is better described as a featurette on how marvelous Ashley Tinsdale is.

Lastly there is a Kung Fu Grandma featurette which is a mock up of a fictitious commercial for a video game based on the film, a Brian Anthony Electricity music video and a Fox Movie Channel Life After Film School interview with producer Barry Josephson. As you can see, while there are plenty of extras included with the release, I wouldn’t describe any as being must sees.

Final Thoughts

While Aliens in the Attic may have sounded appealing on paper, I found the film to be a bit of a disappointment and the audio and video on this release a disappointment as well. Recommended as a rental only.