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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
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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!
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