Watch the Skies

I stumbled upon the 2022 Swedish sci-fi adventure movie "UFO Sweden" by random luck here in 2023. I hadn't heard about the movie, so I didn't know what I was getting myself into as I opted to sit down and watch it.

Writers Victor Danell and Jimmy Nivrén Olsson put together a fairly interesting script and storyline for the movie. It is a story where the audience are kept pretty much in the dark throughout the majority of the movie. And on that account, I guess it is either a love it or hate it situation for the audience, as I suppose some viewers would like to be filled in on what is actually going on. Personally, then I enjoyed the secrecy and being kept in the dark.

Given my limited exposure to Swedish cinema, then I was unfamiliar with all performers on the cast list. However, I will say that they had a good collection of talents to perform in the movie, bringing the quirky characters to life in good ways on the screen.

While "UFO Sweden" is a rather ambitious undertaking from director Victor Danell, the movie did fare rather well.

Visually then "UFO Sweden" was okay. It is not a movie that made excessive use of CGI and special effects. But whatever effects were in the movie were actually looking quite nice, and helped further the movie in a rewarding manner.

If you enjoy sci-fi movies then you should definitely give "UFO Sweden" a chance. I am not a major sci-fi buff myself, but I did find this movie to be entertaining enough.

My rating of "UFO Sweden" lands on a six out of ten stars.

The movie Interstellar comes to mind even if the quality and professionalism is far from it, but then again of course most movies are. They must have been inspired by it. It is a nice and even sweet and fascinating story of a young girl/woman trying to find out what happened to her father. It is a nice sci fi movie from our neighbor Sweden. The story and acting is adequate except from the scenes with the police. Then it becomes very implausible and amateurish. I still give the movie a 7/10 because for me a 6 is "No, this is not worth watching". The sound is good in 5.1 without the music being dominant.

Saw this at the Imagine film festival 2023 in Amsterdam. I assume this to be a movie for a much younger audience, letting viewers identify themselves with the lead actress Denise. Remember (in Dutch) the Bob Evers books, where young amateur detectives find the real truth where officials fail. Obviously, with my 75 years of age, I am way beyond the target group.

Lead protagonist Denise meets a collection of typical nerds in the form of UFO Sweden, a group so very anecdotical nerdy that it becomes too much to bear. Ditto with the 4-letter company owning a secret measurement station in the woods, not appearing on any maps. The company has an unwelcoming head office, seemingly very secure, but two of our nerds obtain access easily (too easy) via a backdoor. We meet their head of research a few times, The first time in the woods next to the officially non-existing station. She has all the appearances of a typical bureaucrat, very reluctant to cooperate. She did not admit that the station exists, even standing in front of it.

Very much later in the story, the same woman proves to be a true scientist under the skin. She changes heart once seeing the truth in the formulas shown to her, and happily works along with two intruders in a way that violates her job description on many counts.

I see little harm in the attempts made to simplify the laws of physics, calling names of famous scientists, mentioning well-known phenomena (relativity, wormholes etc), and using models for wormholes with sheets of paper.

I scored 3/5 for the audience award when leaving the venue. I must admit bias, knowing more about physics than an average viewer, and also not belonging to the target group of young people who are expected to identify themselves with lead-protagonist Denise.

PS: In the introductory address, one of the festival programmers said that the movie industry in Sweden succeeds for a fraction of the budget that Hollywood needs to still fail (said not exactly that; I paraphrase). This vintage movie feels genuine. It shows striking special effects, maybe made with better tools than exis-ted in the 80/90-ties it is situated in, but nevertheless looks neither over the top nor impossible for that era.

This charming, fun and thrilling movie takes you right back to the 90;s (and a bit of the 80;s as well). For a lover of vintage you will find a lot of nice details, and for a lover of old school sci fi you will get the feels from those old Spielberg movies such as "Close encounters of the third kind".

The special effects are stunning, yet true to movies 30 years ago, and there were some nailbiting scenes were we, me and my 13 year old daughter, were leaning far in our chairs at the cinema.

The roles are perfectly casted, and the characters are diverse. I especially enjoyed Isabelle Kyed as "Töna" and Niklas Kvarnbo Jönsson as "Karl-Tefat" but I only have great words to say about the rest of the cast aswell.

This movie succeds were others fail by being absolutely genuine and down to earth (pun not intended) and I am very impressed by the small production company Crazy Pictures that continues to build a name for themselves with productions like this.

For lovers of sci fi and action this is a must see, but it's also filmed with that humor and warmth that takes it to another level.

I had no idea what i expected from this movie beforehand. But my expectations were not too high.

I don't watch a lot of Swedish movies anymore. Mostly because of the fact that, they're usually not entertaining. But I've seen some of "Crazy Pictures" earlier work and always enjoyed their humor. Which is why I gave this one a shot.

You can say a lot about this movie, that it's unrealistic, not too much character development and predictable.

But with a good soundtrack, likable/quirky characters and impressive special effects, this movie will probably win you over. It's fast paced and with comedic elements, which will keep you watching.

Honestly a good watch and a step in the right direction for Swedish cinema.