Storage 24 is a film that just kind of exists. I seriously doubt it's going to end up being someones favourite film, because it's just so bland. Which is a shame really, because when I saw the trailer, I really thought that this could be the new British Alien, but set in a storage warehouse...
The film follows Charlie (Noel Clarke), who we find out has recently split up from his girlfriend Shelley (Antonia Campbell-Hughes). Charlie is taking his friend Mark (Colin O'Donoghue) to the storage centre to help him clear out his belongings from their shared storage. Unfortunately, Shelley is already there with her friends Nikki (Laura Haddock) and Chris (Jamie Thomas King) to clear her own stuff out, but a recent air crash means that the power trips out and they are all trapped inside the storage centre together. However, they are not alone as something is creeping around and is terrorising them. Slowly but surely, they must band together if they are to survive the night.
The film starts of promising enough as the action begins straight away. In the opening scene, we see... or rather, we hear the crash that kickstarts the alien invasion. We are then treated to a fairly tense scene where a woman walking her dog decides to 'investigate' a part of the crash site, but the tension just kind of fizzles out and nothing happens. However, after the crash happens, the film drags in introducing the bunch of characters that we should really care about. We learn that Charlie is a whining idiot who won't give up on the fact that he and Shelley are no longer an item. We find out that there is tension between Charlie and Chris, because, well... they just don't like each other. We don't really know why.
While all this character driven stuff is going on, there really is very little alien action. It's just too slow. There is a little bit of alien stalking, but the direction by Johannes Roberts (F, Roadkill) means that there is very little build up to the reveal of the alien. We just kind of see it and that's that. Despite the mishandling of the alien creature, Roberts doesn't do too badly with the rest of the film, but the style is just quite generic (repetitive tracking shots of empty corridors, stylish depth of field and focus...)
Some might not say this is a bad thing, however as the alien design is probably the best part of the film. The money used on the creature and special effects design was some of the best spent money on this film. Basically, when the alien is on-screen, it is some of the best moments that the film has to offer.
Unfortunately, there just aren't enough of these moments in the film. The alien just wasn't made out to be threatening enough. Basically, I didn't really feel like the characters were in danger for most of the film. In fact, I forgot that the alien was there most of the time.
There are some twists along the way, mainly involving the characters themselves and their relationships and backgrounds. Overall though, the film writing is quite lazy. I've never really watched a British film before that has so much American influence. I got a serious Skyline and Alien vibe from this film (although, some might say that Alien is British too...) There was long tracking shots of the empty storage corridors, there is the crazy character who seems to know too much about the aliens (even though it has only been attacking them for about an hour or two) and there are lots of seriously stupid character decisions (like running off alone or going to investigate a dark room.)
For the casting of the film, the actors did the best job with what they were given. Despite being a whining idiot, Noel Clarke still managed to pull the character Charlie off without becoming too annoying. Laura Haddock does a good job of being the pretty blonde one and actually outshines Antonia Campbell-Hughes in most of their scenes together. It almost felt like Haddock should have been the female lead instead, because her character is more proactive, interesting and (without giving anything away) doesn't do anything stupid to make the audience dislike her, unlike how Campbell-Hughes' character does.
So, while the film isn't brilliant by any stretch of the imagination, it was great to see a British Sci-Fi film in cinemas and feel like I was supporting British films! It's just a shame that the film is so unremarkable and does more so in copying the style of American Sci-Fi films, rather than trying it's own style or plot.
** / *****
No comments:
Post a Comment