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Alien Vs Ninja (DVD)
Year: 2010
Rating: MA
Director: Seiji Chiba
Cast: Mika Hijii, Ben Hiura, Shûji Kashiwabara
Release Date: March 02, 2011
Distributor: Eastern Eye
The Film: 3.5
FILMINK rates DVDs and Blu-rays out of 5“...a B grade sci-fi and ninja monster movie...”
Borrowing the idea of the Alien/Predator franchise, director Seiji Chiba (writer of the cult hit Death Trance) plays it for laughs in Alien Vs Ninja. When you have no script, no budget and no real actors of note, then what can you do? The answer is to go for guts and giggles and here we get plenty of both.
A mysterious meteor crashes into earth and a team of far too good looking ninjas go to investigate. What transpires is a B grade sci-fi and ninja monster movie with an ‘only in Japan' feel about it. The alien here is more reminiscent of a 1970s Godzilla than Ridley Scott's original terrifying terrestrial. Early Godzilla special effects creators called it Sūtsumēshon or ‘suitmation', ie. guy in a rubber Godzilla suit, and Chiba has enough of a sense of humour to note that the hopelessly fake monster and the film itself, are not to be taken seriously.
To the credit of Yuji Shimomura (Shinobi, Verses) the action choreography is excellent and if you like decapitations, buckets of fake blood and exploding villains then Alien Vs Ninja will not disappoint.
