Alien Rising (2013) (aka: Gemini Rising) starring Lance Henriksen, Amy Hathaway, John Savage, Brian Krause directed by Dana Schroeder Movie Review

Alien Rising (2013)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Amy Hathaway in Alien Rising (2013) (aka: Gemini Rising)

Alien Falling & Failing

Having once been a DEA agent, Lisa Morgan (Amy Hathaway) retired to teach ballet to young children after her mentor was reported killed in action. But Lisa gets a visit from agent Plummer (Brian Krause) who persuades her to head to a secure establishment on a remote island where under the guidance of Colonel Stephen Cencula (Lance Henriksen) experiments are being carried out on two aliens that were discovered 13 years earlier on a spacecraft orbiting Neptune. Seeming to have twin like telepathic abilities the Colonel wants Lisa to use her now twin psychic abilities to unlock their secrets. But always suspicious, Lisa suspects that her part in these experiments maybe more to harness the aliens power as some sort of weapon for the Colonel who appears mentally unbalanced.

Forced narration which attempts to sound like it has come out of an old Sam Spade movie is one of the many things which don't work in "Alien Rising". Another thing which doesn't work is a hysterically bad action scene where Lisa supposedly kicks several men's butts as some piece of ballet movie plays. It is poorly edited, doesn't flow and simply makes you groan rather than impresses. I could go on because for 93 minutes you are never far away from a groan whilst watching "Alien Rising".

Lance Henriksen in Alien Rising (2013) (aka: Gemini Rising)

The trouble is that even when I look past all the issues from the scenes which make you groan to the unnatural look of a movie which uses CGI to create backdrops the storyline of "Alien Rising" with the corrupt Colonel and the alien power struggles to draw you in. Maybe turned in to a 3 hour mini series this story would work but in the confines of 90 minutes it jumps from one bit to a next, forcing you to fill in the gaps as to what is going on and why.

About the only thing which "Alien Rising" has going on is the familiarity of the cast with the likes of Brian Krause and Lance Henriksen in various roles. The thing is that this movie is so poorly written that the only thing you remember any of the performances for are the bad bits such as when Amy Hathaway appears in that badly edited kick butt to ballet music scene.

What this all boils down to is that "Alien Rising" is weak and whilst maybe it will work for a young audience who are happy to watch the forced action it is painful for someone who has spent a life time watching movies.


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