The Fourth Kind: Movie Review

Life is full of natural wonders. Like a campfire sunrise after a night in wilderness or large roving flocks of birds, somethings just beg you to sit down and enjoy the moment. For reasons I cannot fathom, watching Milla Jovovich (Resident Evil, Fifth Element) act is a similar experience for me. While her movies never end in radical introspection that make me reevaluate the meaning of life, I can't help but enjoy myself. Maybe its because she's a stunning beauty with above average acting and a low set, sensuous voice (it's like sex with chocolate pudding) and maybe its because the movies she does do are fast paced and fun, but I can't help but love any movie she stars in. When I saw trailers for her new movie, an alien abduction thriller, I was shaking with excitment. Enough of my woman crush though, how was the movie?

We'll get there, first I want to say that one thing you have to understand is how hard alien abduction movies are to make. Abductions are complete misunderstandings or hoaxes at worst and infrequent enigmas at best, not much is really compiled. Even details of 'sightings' aren't congruent with each other. The Fourth Kind takes a bold stance, juxtaposing 'dramatizations' with 'archived footage' from a Blair Witch series of audio and video recordings taken from the researcher who is the focal point of the movie.

The Fourth Kind tries to be completely factual, something that not possible for vampire or other equally fantastical movies. That's a pretty difficult job, but it pretty much delivers! Now you can go to this movie and take it apart; it's a freaking alien movie that tries to use archive footage for crying out loud! It's like someone built a house of cards where you're pretty sure one of them is imaginary. But it starts with a bang and does an excellent job of keeping tension. This is a movie that is fast paced and at the same time keeps itself from spinning excessively out of perspective. The camera work, lighting, sound, and direction are tight; it's a classic case of what it takes to make people stay engaged, the very definition of a thriller. It has some components that seem overdone or cheesy, but then it blankets them over with the irrationality and mystery that usually accompanies a god complex; it more or less covers its bases. I have only one small minute criticism for this movie: the exact detail (of the dramatization) of the ending, going off of the archived footage, could have been made more ambiguous.

This movie is a good suspense ride, appropriately punctuated with action and clearly manged with tight direction. The few parts that I thought were overdone while watching the movie were actually the ones that stuck with me when I went home later that night. Don't watch this as a movie trying to convince you of research. Suspend your common sense a little and pretend you're watching Life Time documentary and this will be a fun movie that is the very definition of a thriller! I rate this movie 3.5 out of 5 late night bedroom encounters.