Attraction

Language : Russian

 

Year of release : 2017

 

Run time : 2h12min

 

Genre : Sci-Fi / Action

 

Cast : Aleksandr Petrov

 

 

The movie is directed by Russian actor and director Fyodor Bondarchuk.

The movie opens with Yulia and her best friend in class, while their teacher is telling them about a meteor shower which was going to happen that very night.

Yulia, her boyfriend (that her father does not approve of), and her bestie go watch the meteor shower. Yulia and her boyfriend go to her bestie's place for some alone time, while the bestie is watching the meteor shower.

The Russian forces discover an alien space ship hoovering earth and start fire. The alien ship falls on earth destroying the top of the building Yulia and her boyfriend are in,damaging the apartment they are in (almost k1lling them), k1lling her bestie who was on the rooftop, crashing and destroying more buildings in its fall.

Her boyfriend, Artyom, takes her to the hospital, and stays there until she comes out (because she's not released).

The military go to the crash site to welcome the aliens, and the member of the parliament who was sent to greet them has a heart attack, as his pacemaker malfunctions.

Still, the problem is solved without incident, as they allow the aliens to fix their ship so they'll leave.

Yulia wakes up in the hospital, and wants vengeance on the aliens as they k1lled her bestie.

Her teacher is an alien enthusiast (an annoying one), who annoys her class too, with his antics.

Yulia takes her father's gun, goes to see her boyfriend, and convinces him and his friends to go after the aliens (she doesn't have to do much convincing work).

They all go to the area which is off limits to the public, and Yulia shoots the alien when it approaches her, as she was looking through her friend's place (which is weird, because that's not where the space ship landed!). He still saves her, as she was about to fall. Artyom is hitting it,thinking it wants to hurt her, causing it to fall from the top of the building.

Downstairs they find the alien's suit which they take to their garage.

Yulia sees a man hidden close to the suit, and goes back,rescuing him.Her friend,nicknamed Google, who wants to be a doctor, tells her the alien needs a blood transfusion. So they take him to the hospital, Yulia using her father's name to get in.

Google uses the internet to know what to do, and finds out the alien is type A, and what a coincidence, Yulia's blood type is A too! Small world!

After, Yulia takes him to her family's garage. Taking a shower, she discovers the bracelet the alien placed on her wrist while helping him attracts water.

After she helps him she throws him out, then feels bad about it, and goes looking for him, as the police find him and take him to jail for no reason.

The military find out the alien ship attracts water like a magnet, using it to fix it.

Russians are on lockdown for over a week, and they start rioting.

The more time Yulia spends with the alien, the less she cares about her boyfriend.

What I liked - the special effects (which apparently took a year and a half to create!), the acting seemed good (as I watched a dubbed version, and it sounded like the voice actors were on the news ),especially coming from Aleksandr Petrov (who became one of my favorites after seeing him in this movie) and the actor who played the alien,he was funny.

The soundtrack was beautiful, and some of the songs chosen for the movie.

The movie was as good as the Hollywood movies in that regard.

What I didn’t like - the fact that they took the girl out of a love story and put her in another. The boy loved her (he said it to his friends and to her), called her his girlfriend, she loved him too,but she left him for no reason,and started dating the alien?!

The alien looked twice her age,which I found gross. But hey,he is immortal,so I guess they thought this equals Twilight - I hated that one too,for the same reason,and many others.

 

I hated the fact they turned the ex boyfriend into a villain, there was no other villain so he filled that spot (by the way, the way he reacted towards the alien who stole his girl was probably the same reaction anyone would have had in his place,at his age, and coming from the background he came from). I noticed they keep on doing this in Russian movies,the ex or the guy who liked the girl but didn't get her, automatically becomes the villain,because the story needs one.

For an hour and a half of the movie nothing the ex boyfriend did, made him a villain : he saved her from falling off the building,when their flat was destroyed by the alien ship shot down by the Russian forces (the alien saves her from falling too,and she falls in love with him because he saved her! What?!So did her boyfriend! Make it make sense,movie!),and takes her to the hospital (we don't know how they managed to escape that building,that was something I would have loved to see!),when people riot,he tries to break them apart when fighting,and saves a police officer,and for that,he is beaten by the police and taken to jail!No good deed goes unpunished,I guess!

Something common in Russian alien movies is the rioting against the police and the aliens,which I don't get! Speaking of something common in Russian movies ,is water having healing powers,which I actually like.

 

I didn't like the female leading character,as she seemed full of herself and selfish. I didn't like the way she treated people (like, Google, for example, who was doing her a favor, and she was always snapping at him. And her boyfriend, who she just ignores once she starts spending time with the alien). She hated her father for not spending time with her,but we didn't see her wanting to spend time with him either. She just seemed a spoiled brat.

 

Also,they were on lockdown, they had a curfew (nobody goes out after 9PM),due to the alien so called invasion,but they went to concerts?! WTF?!

 

I didn't like the dubbing,because the actors sounded more like news anchors trying to act.

The movie received mixed reviews from Western critics, but it's the highest grossing Russian Sci Fi movie, grossing more than 1 Billion Rubles! In Western terms, the movie grossed 19.4 million Dollars against a budget of 6.3 million!

Just like the movie / series Blackout / Avanpost, the movie has the participation of the military with their latest technology!

 

Rating : Worth a watch !