Alien Planet

So what we have here is yet another solid entry from Alan Maxson, from the so bad it's good (or perhaps just plain bad) Christmas with Cookie series we moved to the incredibly impressive dark comedy Patina. Alan has managed to take the quality of Patina and put that in to a full length feature. The effects on display here are impressive, and gory! The pacing is great, the cast are great, the directing is great. Whilst the story isn't necessarily breaking new ground, it is solid enough. Some moments seem a bit under developed, whilst others exceed expectations. If you are a fan of indie movies and a fan of sci-fi you should check this out.

Few low budget films of this genre deliver as satisfyingly as Alien Planet, from the always enjoyable twisted imagination of veteran horror actor, writer, producer and director Alan Maxson! From the outset the cast were easily seen as being totally committed to this project and the special effects were maximized to optimum effectiveness. This will certainly be added to my list of SciFi film collection. As a longtime fan of Maxson's, it's easy to see his unmistakable mark on this gem, even from behind the camera. The Alan Maxson signature "gore" is delightfully all over this one. Well done to ALL involved!!!

Of course I had never even heard about this 2023 sci-fi movie titled "Alien Planet" prior to stumbling upon it by random chance. Normally, then sci-fi is not my go-to genre of movies, but I do sit down every now and then and watch something sci-fi. And thus, I opted to sit down and watch "Alien Planet".

I can't claim to be harboring much of any great expectations to writer and director Alan Maxson's 2023 movie "Alien Planet" given the fairly low-budget-looking cover/poster for the movie.

The movie actually was watchable. Not a great movie though, but it was adequately watchable, if you don't mind watching low budget sci-fi. The storyline in the movie, as written by Alan Maxson, was pretty straightforward. And the movie looked and felt like it was made with a lot of heart and spirit put into the project.

Needless to say that I was not familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie. But then again, the performers were so heavily disguised under prosthetics and make-up that they would be unrecognizable.

The special effects in the movie were fair enough. Some of the effects were good, such as the lasers and the make-up and prosthetics. However, the space-cat, Giree, looked horribly fake.

If you are a hardcore sci-fi fan, then you might get much more enjoyment out of "Alien Planet" than I did.

My rating of writer and director Alan Maxson's 2023 movie "Alien Planet" lands on a four out of ten stars.

Being overwhelmed by CGI in so many films (often not even great CGI) it was so fun to experience a film that returned to old school practical effects, and more importantly, did it in such a great way! They make up, effects, and designs were fantastic and truly made the film enjoyable to watch. It honors the way filmmaking used to be and frankly I think we could use some more of the classic style.

Also, the film included interesting commentary on environmental issues as well as socio-political conflicts and how often times not finding common ground or working together can be lead to the ultimate conflict for all.

I just saw this at the premiere and I was really impressed with how good this looked in spite of the budget. The movie was well shot, the make up is top tier and the effects are great for a film of this budget. Has an old school vibe like Star Trek TOS or Doctor WHO. A real passion project and it shows. The blood and gore were all wonderfully over the top, like a Kung Fu film or old Sam Raimi. At the Q and A after the movie the director revealed they went through 11 gallons of blood! The pacing slows down for a bit in the beginning but once it picked back up this really took off. A perfect Saturday Afternoon flick. 7/10.