Alien Origin [DVD]

special ops team in belise find an alien who then spends the next hour of the film trying to kill them in a jungle setting.mainly filmed with hand held camcorders yes this is cloverfield meets predator.total rubbish.no new ideas.a film to totally stay clear of.

From the cover you might expect some major Alien style movie, if so you will be greatly disappointed.
What we have here is another "found footage" or mockumentary or whatever the current name is for this genre.
There are a few slight differences, this is set in Belize and involves a female reporter and her crew who tag along with some Belize Government troops who are on a mission to plant a series of cameras near the Guatemalan border.
They find an abandoned boat 150 miles inland along with a camera with some footage of an attack of some sort whilst at sea. They press on and find an abandoned archaeological camp with more strange footage on the computer screen.
From here in it speeds up a little and when they hear one of the archaeologists has been found they head out to investigate. The title is a dead give away as to what they find and blagging a couple of tricks from Predator for sound and vision saves them spending a lot on time and, probably non-existent, budget on any actual alien effects.
The latter part of the movie is largely the expected mass of disjointed running scenes you expect from these hand held camera films and some ludicrous firefights.
The ending is pretty disappointing and they missed a trick as more should have been made of the Mayan connection, other than the ruins that we occasionally see at the start of the movie, especially with 21 December 2012 looming large.
Only buy this if you enjoy watching very amateur low budget movies, if not you will may end up kicking yourself.

If you're wondering who actually watches and enjoys all of these "found footage" films - well, that would be me. I freaking love "found footage" movies, even the bad ones - especially the bad ones from The Asylum. With so much to make fun of, how can you not enjoy yourself? Alien Origin is an especially bad treat. Almost nothing actually happens, and when something does happen, you aren't permitted to actually see any of it. Don't expect to see any aliens here, as the camera conveniently messes up whenever a possible alien pops up. As an added bonus, though, the filmmakers throw in some found footage inside the found footage that is the movie. I'm talking found footage squared here, people. In all honesty, I can understand why some people are actually calling this the worst film from The Asylum in years. Of course, as far as I'm concerned, that is exactly what makes Alien Origin such a hoot to watch.

The footage making up this film comes from a squad of Belize special forces sent out into the jungle to perform the dangerous job of nailing some cameras up along some river that has possibly been the site of some activity (probably drugs, but who knows?). Along for the thrilling ride (or should I say hike) are "adventure journalist" Julia Evans (Chelsea Vincent) and her film crew. You have to love these Belize special forces. They go into these jungles with fingers on the triggers, constantly sweeping the area like they're expecting Predator to jump out on them at any minute. And those hand motions. These guys throw out more signs than a gang member on crack. Having no military background, I don't know if any of the hand motions they use are actually legitimate, but I strongly suspect that they're just making them up as they go along. Moving forward, the mission gets changed to a search mission for two archaeologists who have gone missing from a dig site. That's when the fun really begins, because these missing scientists have found something that was better left unfound. What is it? Only the movie description will tell you.

The vast majority of this film consists of these guys making their way through the jungle. Eventually, they encounter something dangerous (probably an alien) that growls and flings bottle rockets at them, and they try to escape back through the same jungle. By and large, that's pretty much the whole movie. Obviously, this is only going to appeal to bad movie junkies like myself - and quite frankly, I had a pretty good time watching this. Where else are you going to see an archaeologist make the discovery of a lifetime and simply pick it up and throw it in a canvas bag? Who else is going to make a movie about aliens and then refuse to show you any aliens? Where else are you going to hear a native of Belize refer to someone as a "wanker?" Where else could you find a seasoned special forces soldier jerk and fall down dead from the effects of a bottle rocket that didn't land anywhere near him? And what other film company is going to have a character continually call out the name of someone who isn't even in the film - and never explain or apparently even notice the mistake? This is why I love The Asylum - they've taken the art of bad movie making to a level never before imagined. Don't misinterpret my rating - clearly, this is a one-star movie for the vast majority of the population, but for us wackos who can't get enough of the worst films ever made, Alien Origin is heaps of fun.