Alien Rising
Gemini Rising

USA/Germany 2013
produced by
John Rogers for Pathfinder Productions
directed by Dana Schroeder
starring Lance Henriksen, Amy Hathaway, John Savage, Brian Krause, Dave Vescio, Art Evans, Anthony Vitale, James McPherson, Andy Gates, Tamzin Brown, Cortney Palm, Michael Teh, Nicolas Porcelli, James Binaski, Tara Cardinal, Michael Doherty, Walter L. Whitfield, Nunzio Fazio, Shaun Fletcher, Jim Ford, David Hutchison, Ray La Rochelle, Tavarus Weems, John Rogers, Scott Schaffer, Ryan Stockstad, Phillip Marshall Tyler, Daniel Van Thomas, Antonio Badrani, Steve Goldenberg, Mike Lischke, Niclas Reed Middleton, Nimi, Daniel Pfander
written by Michael Todd, Kenny Yakkel, music by Andrew Morgan Smith, creature designed by Michael Broom, special effects and pyrotechnics by Jeff Scott, visual effects by Nathaniel Nose, Mark Butler

review by
Mike Haberfelner

In 2002, an extraterrestrial spaceship was captured and brought to earth in a top secret operation. Since then, military-led experiments were performed on its two passengers, one a monster the other a weakling having telepathic control over the monster, to learn the secrets of telepathy and make use of it in military operations. The experiments' success is limited though as of yet.

Enter Lisa (Amy Hathaway), a former homeland security who has turned her back on gouvernment work ... but she's tough as can be, and she's an identical twin whose sister has worked for above project until her death. And since twins are said to have a telepathic bond and Lisa is tough as nails she seems to be the perfect test subject. Lisa however is less than willing to "help her country" in a cause she isn't convinced of, and she doesn't trust her superior, Colonel Cencula (Lance Henriksen), one bit either. But the fact that her former partner she believed dead, Manning (John Savage), works on the project gets her on board anyhow, and she also falls in love with one of the agents, Plummer (Brian Krause), whose responsibility she is. So the experimenjts are leaping forward at a steady pace ...

Happy ending for everybody?

Of course not, since Colonel Cencula has found out that pure patriotism doesn't pay a percent as much as selling his revolutionary invention to the highest bidder (North Korea). There's one problem though: Lisa finds out, and while she might not be a picture book patriot, she knows offering supreme weapons technology to North Korea is always a bad idea. And as highly trained and tough as nails as she is, she has her ways fleeing the army's top secret lab on the even more top secret island. Colonel Cencula consequently has the great idea of setting the alien monster, controled by his personnel, loose on Lisa, and set a timer for the destruciton of the island as such ... but is that solving one problem or just creating a few others?

Now how "scientifically plausible" Alien Rising is might ge at anybody's guess - but that said, the "science" goint into this movie builds a great basis for a well-structured monster movie with loads of action, cool monsters and monster scenes, and quite some plot twists you wouldn't expect from a movie just as this one. Add to this ome really good performances, nice dialogue, and an approach to the material that doesn't take itself too seriously, and you quite simply have yourself some very nice genre entertainment that's totally worth your while!

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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