I am a real person, who really saw this movie, and has nothing at all to gain from leaving a positive and or negative review. Read below for my criteria on how I rate these movies. Some people seem to be complaining about the positive review ratio, not sure if those are valid concerns or not. I am not friends with the actors or distribution manager or anything like that, I chose to see this movie on a suggestion.
Alienated is one of those movies that reminds anyone that has been in a a deteriorating long term relationship exactly how petty, small, and jaded we can become.
First, for all the talk of aliens in this movie, you can replace the aliens with just about any "fantastic" object and or situation and the movie still plays. The "aliens" are just the beginning of a conversation. This is not an Alien movie in my opinion, it is a movie about relationships. If you are going in expecting a sci-fi flick you'll be surprised to find out it isn't.
The movie opens with Nate, played by George Katt, witnessing a strange event/phenomenon. As he walks back into his house, the first thing you notice is he doesn't run in and tell his wife Paige, played by Jen Burry, what he just saw. They begin typical couple chit-chat as they prep for a party, but they have a subtle, yet noticeable little nag back and forth.
As thing progress, you begin to note that not all is well in this household. There are petty jealousies and simply inane and pointless bickering. The movie is uncomfortable at some points because we all either know a couple in this situation or have been there ourselves.
Enter, Griffin, played by the immortal Taylor Negron. Griffin is the next-door neighbor that offers Nate some insights into his life. Negron does not play a big part, but as a veteran actor he does a great job with his part. Would have liked to see more of him in this movie.
I won't spoil it too much, but I look at this movie differently than most of the other reviewers. I see Griffin as a Jiminy Cricket character. In my opinion, he is just the subconscious thoughts of Nate and doesn't actually "exist".
The end of the movie (which I won't spoil) isn't really what it appears to be. It is an illustration of exactly how when we are caught in these bad situations and relationships the entire world outside out little "Situation" just evaporates. There can be an alien invasion, a nuclear blast, or whatever, but we are just focused on the small things and missing the big picture, like maybe actually caring or no longer caring for the other person.
I liked the movie. I was pleasantly surprised and it was worth my time.
**** My rating system ****
I have rated well over 700 movies on IMDb, and written reviews for quite a few. I try to take a scientific approach and as a result, my ratings fit a bell-curve pattern as would be expected over a large sample set. I am slightly skewed on the tail (Hey, when I hate a movie I hate it) and slightly under represented on the head (Hard to find a perfect 10 IMHO).
I rate Independent flicks against independent flicks, and I rate big Hollywood against big Hollywood. It is not fair to take a movie that cost tens of thousands of dollars or less and compare it to a movie that costs 7 or 8 figures (Maybe 9!) With unlimited retakes, huge production crews, massive marketing budgets, teams of professional writers/re-writers etc I expect more out of big Hollywood movie. I try to rate equally on story.
I like to take the time to write reviews about smaller independent movies rather than movies that 1000s of reviews as I hope some one takes what I write seriously rather than getting lost in a cacophony of similar voices.
