User reviews

In a top-secret military facility, a team of scientists under the command of Dr. Woodman (John Savage) are developing a "super soldier" blending several DNAs including alien DNA. When the experiment goes wrong, a group of elite soldiers are assigned by the military Anslow (Martin Kove) to exterminate the lethal creatures created by Dr. Woodman.

"Alien Lockdown" is another poor production of the Sci-Fi Channel. The screenplay is a mess, there is no character development, the cinematography is awful and the CGI of the predator-like creature follows the usual standard of this channel. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Criatura" ("Creature")

When I sat down to watch "Alien Lockdown" (aka "Creature"), I hadn't even heard about the movie, nor did I even know who starred in it. I will say that when I saw John Savage's name on the screen, I felt that there was potential for the movie being adequate.

It should be said that "Alien Lockdown" is a low budget movie. And while that is being said, I will also have to say that I have seen far worse low budget sci-fi horror movies than this one.

The movie is about some alien creature going on a rampage in an isolated facility, and a group of highly trained soldiers are sent in to take care of the situation. However, they come to learn some dark truths and find that all are not playing on the same team.

The creature or alien in the movie was a strange hybrid of three already famous movie monsters; the xenomorph (from the "Alien" franchise), the Yautja (the predator creature from the "Predator" franchise) and the Brundlefly (from "The Fly"). And truth be told, then it actually worked out well enough, despite it not really being all that menacing or having quite enough time on the screen.

As for the acting in the movie, well people were doing good jobs with their given roles, and it was indeed John Savage (playing Dr. Woodman) and Michelle Goh (playing Talon) whom stood out as the most memorable performances in the movie.

There is a good amount of action throughout the movie, but it just doesn't make up for the low budget feel to the movie.

All in all, a less than average sci-fi horror movie, but it is worth watching a single time if you have nothing else at hand.

I've seen worse. Which is not exactly a compliment for this movie considering some of the utter garbage I have encountered in the last few months on the Sci Fi Channel and elsewhere. Nonetheless, while this movie was bad, it falls more under the rubric of the traditional bad Grade B movie which just rips off its entire plot, creature, setting and everything else from superior movies, but still manages to be mildly entertaining. Indeed if this movie had been the first of its kind, there would even have been a few laudable things to comment on -- the unrelentingly dark and creepy remote laboratory, a suitably vicious creature which kills in gory fashion (and looks like they spent a little money creating) etc. But as it is, its just one cliché after another. Its been done better many times before. But then again, its been done worse. If you want to see how bad a movie with "Alien" in its title can be, check out something called "Alien 51". Comparatively this is a work of art, and while I am glad I did not rent it, I am not entirely upset at having turned on the TV to catch it. For fans of the genre, not good, but not pluck your eyes out terrible either.

Rented this one last night after having only seen the cover of the DVD. I thought, what the hell, might even like it. First off, the lead has some sort of Lucy Liu meets Ellen Ripley vibe going on...weird! And the supporting cast, well lets say they've got as much talent as an extra on a bad Star Trek episode (the one who gets killed right away). Except for John Savage and James Marschall,who have obviously have sunk to an all time low. But hey, what about the effects? Things look like a TV show so don't expect anything flashy. If they show this movie on late night TV, I might even consider it as above average. And that's because of the atmosphere which is actually pretty good, but turn off the sounds because the music just made me wanna kill myself...Note to soundguy: A sci-fi movie is not a Simpsons episode! So if your a sci-fi/light horror fan and you want to see something totally unoriginal, check this one out! I've rented it together with Starship Troopers 2...hope that it's better than this one, or maybe I should stop renting crap...hmmmm?

It became very apparent in this film that the government does control this facet of our media. I didn't quite see it at first, but as the film progressed I could see the embarrassing tactics of the government trying to be implanted onto the minds of our youth and sci-fi aficionados. I walked away from Alien Lockdown (possibly should have been running) with a stronger knowledge of how I should be a soldier. Here are the rules (from watching this film): 1) Never question why you are going into a darkened complex that has dead bodies that do not look like bullet wounds killed them. You know that it is not going to be an alien. 2) if someone says that you are not going to fight an alien on this trip … 9 times out of 10 you will be fighting an alien 3) shoot, then ask questions later 4) the prime objective is to kill, not question and finally 5) when all else fails, nuke 'em. Yep, following those simple five steps I could easily be a soldier too, but sadly I am not. I just thought we rushed too deeply into this battle. The creature probably was having some mothering issues with the doctor and hastily took it out on the overly aggressive soldiers. I ended this film feeling more sympathetic towards this creature than I did our own nation … is that bad?

Outside of the mindless soldiers who somehow followed every order without question and chose to never give us their names or emotional back-stories, this film was horrendous. There was some budget on this cinematic disaster that I was not expecting when I first placed it in my DVD player. I will be honest, I was taken aback when I first saw the budget. Riding low from the lack of budget in Alien 51, I thought this would follow the same fair. I was wrong. There was someone in this feature that knew how to use a computer, and while it may have been a Commodore 64, it was still appreciating to see. Sadly, that grew weak once we entered the locked complex. From not caring about any of the characters to jumping between moments of interest and filler, Alien Lockdown fizzled shortly after it took off. It started with an interesting premise that I thought they were going to expand upon, but that would have been wishful thinking. I think claustrophobia settled in during this film because I just couldn't get excited about anything that director Tim Cox presented to me.

The creature was definitely recycled from the film Alien vs. Predator and the characters just didn't go outside of their safety boxes. I knew nothing, nor did I care, about the creature killing the soldiers, because half the time I didn't even know their name. They were expendable to the director when they should have been bigger elements that would have led to a stronger story. Speaking of the story, there wasn't even one there. I am currently reading Make Your Own Damn Movie! by Lloyd Kaufman and in it he talks about not having a completed script while making your film because it allows you to put more into it later while making any adjustments. I do believe that director Tim Cox has read this book as well. Sadly, this was not a Troma production (which may have done a bit better), but instead a serious picture that had me shuttering throughout the night. With not having a completed script, I felt as if scenes randomly ended and left nothing up for further discussion. This only allowed the creature to continue to eat humans like they were going out of style. Again, I think what Tim Cox missed with this film was that he placed too much emphasis on the creature, and not enough on the human element surrounding the creature. I think if he would have taken a bit more time for the emotional element, he could have had a stronger story, better characters, and a more gripping picture. He did not, and thus Alien Lockdown just goes nowhere fast leaving us with a burning sensation in our eyes.

Overall, this film was a mess. The lack of story, characters, and development hurt more than it helped. This left plenty of time for director Tim Cox to spend on the creature, which it showed. While the creature was plagiarized from the Alien and Predator films, by the time that you get into this film you just don't care enough to argue. Mostly, what disappointed me about this film was the apparent disrespect to nature that Tim Cox showed. Not only with his decision to have the soldiers shoot the creature instead of question it first, but also with his ending that hurt more than just the creature, but all of humanity as well. This was a very pro-war, anti-question film that will subliminally hurt us in the long run. Films like these should be banned from our cinematic existence in hopes of creating stronger films that explore the depths of our minds. I do not suggest this film unless you are looking to remedy the pain of a root canal … then Alien Lockdown may be your relaxant.

Grade: * out of *****

One of the crappiest movies I have seen recently, Jesus.

Creature aka Alien Lockdown.

Well don't say I didn't warn you when one day encounter this movie and decide you gonna rent, buy and see it!!! Just do yourself a favour and don't do it. The movie is utterly boring has a total lack on originality and suffers a poor storyline bad acting, and utterly uninteresting sceneries. They even put a Lucy Liu kinda woman in this movie, and she is trying to be like her so much that the more she tries the more she fails. The monster is a crossing between Alien and predator. Totally lack on everything in this movie. Nothing I did enjoy and just started to hit the skip forward button to save myself on the last 30 min of watching this piece of garbage that turns seeing movies like this into torture. Avoid like the plague. A big 0 outa 10 for me !!!

This gets my vote as the worst story, worst production and worst acting that I've seen since Plan Nine From Outer Space (1959) from Ed Wood.

No – it's an insult to Ed that I even compare this ludicrous turkey with any of his movies.

What possessed the producers to put up the money to create this laughing stock? One can only speculate about the motives and intelligence of those with money who wanted to bankroll a story that has a hit squad sent in to The Ultimate Secure Facility to eliminate everybody, including an Invincible Monster manufactured by a demented scientist, Dr. Woodman (John Savage)? John Savage once appeared in good, if not great, movies. What a come-down... Hey, this film gives every action-horror flick a bad name -- and my only regret is that the monster didn't kill all of them.

Most of the film has the squad running around from level 1 through to level 52, trying to find the Monster while also trying to make sure that it doesn't eat them up. I suppose, however, that for the producer and director, action was the watch-word. Give the fans(?) enough and they won't notice the lousy script, acting, effects, and a monster that looks like a joke.

See this movie at your peril. It's so bad, you might die laughing...

This was an unintentional viewing. What started out as channel surfing, ended up costing me two hours. Let me start by saying that the story sucked, big time. Alien/Predator ripoff, nothing much I can do about that. But the directing was solid, creative, and certainly made much more of this movie than the story deserved. The writer better be praying to the director 5 times a day -- hopefully Sci-Fi will use the director again. I haven't seen his other stuff, but if they give him a better story next time, I'll certainly make the effort. The acting was also just as capable (the mad scientist got on my nerves, but the army group was again much better than the story deserved.) The death scene of the bald army guy (Kearns?) ROCKED! Kudos to director Cox and actor Kallaway for pulling off what was certainly the most memorable death scene in a long, long time (and the best scene of the movie). Somebody saw this movie that will be a future bigtime director and I guarantee you they'll rip that death scene off in their big budget hollywood version 10 years from now (YOU HEARD IT HEAR FIRST!) I didn't mean to like this movie, it just happened...

The film begins with narration telling us about a meteor that crashed on Earth thousands of years ago. People in the area found a large emerald-like gem that turned out to have "special powers". Of course it changed hands over the years and yadda yadda yadda, finally ending up buried and only rumored to exist in legend. We cut to the present, and a team of archaeologists unearth a fabled crate/trunk/arc that turns out to contain the gem. Then, quicker than we can wink, we've changed plots and we're in a secret government mountain lair where scientists are working on a "super-soldier" that is a genetic manipulation of 100 different species, incorporating the traits of each that are most appropriate to killing things and surviving while being attacked. Of course, this beastie gets loose, and the bulk of Alien Lockdown concerns a Special Forces military group that infiltrates the secret government facility and attempts to take care of business. Eventually the plots are tied together more firmly, but it takes awhile.

Alien Lockdown is wildly uneven. Some aspects are excellent and other aspects are pretty miserable. At times it becomes unintentionally funny. But overall, this is an enjoyable little low-budget sci-fi/horror/action flick, primarily recommended for hardcore fans of that genre combination who try to see everything made.

For me, the most consistently positive aspect of the film was the lighting and cinematography. Through a combination of unusual lighting and film processing schemes, director Tim Cox achieves a very refreshing and aesthetically pleasing variety of colors and textures. Cox, by the way, was also responsible for another Sci-Fi Channel film that I enjoyed even more, Larva (2005), which also had interesting lighting and cinematography. Some scenes in Alien Lockdown have a golden yellow/brown/orange glow. Others emphasize different colors. Many lean towards monochromaticism. By the end of the climax, Cox has cinematographer John S. Bartley almost shooting in black & white, with just a slight tint. Colors are very important to the film--there is some important dialogue at one point about red and green. A more studied look at the film from a color symbolism perspective might prove revealing.

The cinematography is good for other reasons, too. For example, there is some very interesting hand-held work that is effectively employed to amp up the tension of a scene where two characters are trapped in a cage. And there are some unusual subtle touches, such as a pinpoint of light from a laser scope that stays on a character during a closely framed talking heads dialogue scene.

At the beginning of the film, I thought I was in for quite a treat. The film starts with a beautiful orange sky as we pan over dark mountains. Even though we next hear some slightly convoluted dialogue, which is usually a bad sign, the visuals remain attractive enough to override any mounting disappointment. The next scene is a very unique sequence of "warring Romans" silhouetted against a red background, then we move to the present (well, or questionably the future, due to later clues) and an Indiana Jones-ish adventure flavor. I was completely in the palm of Tim Cox' hand at this point; I was fully geared up for a relatively obscure 10 out of 10.

Unfortunately, things take a turn south not long afterward as we encounter what turns out to be the core of the plot--the super-soldier government stuff I mentioned above. Actually, this section isn't too bad until the Special Forces "commandos" arrive on the scene. There are a couple problems with this middle section of the film, the main one being that Cox and his army of writers do not let us get to know the characters except for the extremely attractive leader, Talon (Michelle Goh).

With such a collection of writers, you'd think there would be more of a plot to the middle of the film. But instead, we're treated to a series of random Aliens (1986)/Starship Troopers 2 (2004)-like scenes. There is a lot of searching through similar-looking corridors and rooms. There are a lot of weapons and "macho code talk". It had all the excitement of 30 minutes of padding.

To make this section slightly worse, the dialogue is riddled with clichés and ridiculous non-sequiturs. Take for example this "intellectual" exchange between Talon and token "evil genius" Dr. Woodman (John Savage, looking an awful lot like Brad Dourif to me):

Woodman: "This is a morality tale involving all of humanity. And you will be living out the first chapter."

Talon: "You better start making sense real fast. Stop with all this philosophical b.s."

Woodman: "After you've studied your humanities, and history, and mathematics at he levels I have, there is no other explanation. This is light against darkness, right against wrong, good against evil, only now, we are not dictating the rules!"

But things improve quite a bit again by the time we get to the climax, even though the monster is a not-very-veiled amalgamation of Alien and Predator--we even get a moment out of Alien 3 (1992) with a "near kiss" between the beastie and our heroine. There is good gore throughout the film, if you're into that, and the plot gets better as we learn of a couple double crosses that make the rest of the film more interesting in retrospect.

Many years ago there was a contributer to this website called Tim Cox who wrote countless reviews which never seem to be composed of much more than three lines . I noticed the director of ALIEN LOCKDOWN is also called Tim Cox and I wonder if they're both the one and the same since one's respective reviews are as threadbare as this movie

The title tells you everything you need to know about the plot . Scientists messing around with nature and it's up to a bunch of macho US marines to try and save the day , most of whom get eaten by the eponymous monster . I guess Mr Cox deserves some credit since it's obvious he doesn't have a Cameron style budget to play with . Maybe that's why he seems to have overused a green filter on the camera in order to disguise the poor production values ?

Okay, admittedly I wasn't paying too much attention and there probably is a perfectly logical explanation, but there's something about "Alien Lockdown" that I absolutely don't understand. During the opening sequences there's a dull narration about a meteor crashing on earth millions of years ago and bringing forward an emerald-type of talisman that makes whoever owns it invincible… or something. Then, all of a sudden, we're back in present time (or even in the future?) and the story revolves on mad scientist building the ultimate soldier in a secret laboratory in the Rocky Mountains. What's the connection with the ancient emerald? Where does the alien tissue come from? Most important question of all: who the hell cares? Naturally, the project goes wrong and a military expedition is sent in to exterminate the monster. Yawn! "Alien Lockdown" is a frustratingly terrible type of horror/Sci-Fi movie. You honestly wonder why they continue to produce movies like this, as the formula has nothing interesting or original to offer anymore. It's just the umpteenth uninspired and dreadful clone of "Alien" and there's really nothing positive to write about. The characters are walking, talking stereotypes, the scenery and locations look second-hand and the atmosphere is non-existent. And the action sequences, well … You know what they are like: soldiers endlessly wandering around dark corridors with flashlights, then suddenly there's the flashing image of a hideous monster and the next moment the flashlight lies abandoned on the floor. John Savage terribly overacts as the mad scientist, as if he's protesting against all the worthless crap he's starring in lately. Your glorious days of "The Deer Hunter" and "The Onion Field" are long gone, John… Michelle Goh acts pretentious and wannabe tough, like she's the first female action heroine ever. She probably doesn't realize they only chose her because Lucy Liu is too expensive. Bah, enough time and words wasted on this dud of a film. Just stay away from it!

Divertingly artificial textbook stuff (as it takes form and repeats what has happened in such films like; 'Aliens (1986)' and 'Resident Evil (2002)') and it doesn't try to be anything else than what it lays out. I have a soft spot for these type of lousy knock-offs, however I'm quite surprised about the hate this straight-to-TV presentation seems to cop. I won't deny that it doesn't feel shallow, but it demonstrates enough to be passable and it makes the grade as perfectly lazy b-entertainment. Its budget restraints noticeably shows up with it restricted and phony looking sets, as a lot of the time involves the soldiers moving about through corridors and rooms waiting for their encounter with the unstoppable extra-terrestrial. The alien itself is a bit a CGI mixture of Alien, Predator and maybe something from 'Starship Troopers'. The very kinetic effects aren't that bad for such a minimal production. TV director Alex Cox's (Larva '05' and Mammoth '06') up-tempo filming style is slick and shiny. He can stage some well presented, nice and bloody and alert action sequences, but in the end they feel more like a copy and paste job. Atmospheric lighting and rapid camera shots are aplenty. John Savage gives a dazed and bemused performance, while James Marshall is there to obviously to ignite some sparks. Michelle Goh goes in all tough, but with a silently lethal and icy air to her part. The rest of the cast are bait… that's fine by me. The story might be slight (with a vapid script) on originality and substance (despite its scientific babbling), but it does offer up an honest twist or two.

I will say that I was expecting little from Alien Lockdown(or PredatorMan), but I was expecting something watchable with perhaps a guilty pleasure vibe. Instead I got a film that wasn't just worse than I anticipated but also a terrible movie. Is it the worst movie I've seen? No. But it is one of the worst movies I've seen in recent memory. Alien Lockdown is a badly made movie with editing so rapid that it makes some scenes close to incomprehensible, uninteresting scenery and artificial-looking effects. The script is ridiculous in a laughable sense, the "this is a morality tale" conversation between Talon and Woodman is especially true of this. The music is poor, overbearing and with a sluggish, harsh quality to it, while the story revolving around a concept that has been done to death is dull and predictable with only the atmospheric(in comparison) climax) livening things up. The characters are badly written clichés, just how many times do we need the mad scientist type of character. The acting fares little better, James Marshall and John Savage deserve much better than they had, Savage is not too bad actually but he is riddled with some of the film's worst dialogue, while Michelle Goh is completely unbelievable as the Lucy Liu/Ellen Ripley-esquire heroine. Overall, a groan-inducingly-terrible film. 1/10 Bethany Cox

This movie was good overall with outstanding performances from the cast plus it was unusual to see an Asian actress in an lead role in movie like this. The cinematography was superb and the special effects were well done but I wish they could have come up with an original idea for the creature as it looked like it was recycled from another movie. The script was well written and they didn't use much profanity which was nice to see.

As a veteran viewer of all Nu Image B movie crapola this was a very entertaining movie. The story is not that special, everyone that was renting flicks in the 80's and early 90's can dream a plot about an underground facility , a monster and a crack team of soldiers. However for B movie and certainly NU IMAGE standards the production values are high (sets, fx) and the cast is rather good. Especially the female lead that is convincing. Of course one could wonder what a James Marshall or John Savage do in these kind of movies. Monster is a ripoff of predator but the twist later on in the film with the beastie is rather nice. It is worth a rent and a view, you can do a lot worse with the infamous one word titles from nu image ( it is called Creature in the Netherlands) that seem to specialize nowadays in big ass creatures and is actually competing with UFO films in the race to be the king of the B movies.