“Extraterrestrial”
(original title “Extraterrestre”), 2011
By Mychael Foster
This dramady masked by a “Sci-Fi
Alien Invasion”, begins when a young man Julio (Julian Villagran) wakes up
without any knowledge of where he is or how he got there. Lying in bed, he
begins to look around his surroundings obviously not recognizing anything. He
hears strange noises from the other room, decides to get up and investigate,
and finds a surprised beautiful young woman in an oversized t-shirt standing in
the kitchen with a look of awkward shame. Who is this woman? After a few funny
exchanges we find her name to be Julia (Michelle Jenner).
The two had a one-night stand, or
at least they think they did, the night before and as Julio seems to be
comfortable, Julia is doing everything she can to get him out of her apartment
as quickly as possible, without being rude about the whole thing. When Julio finally gets the hint to leave
that’s when the two start noticing all the unusual things going on, starting
with the phones not working and then noticing the clocks have stopped. They rush to the balcony and are
shocked to find a gigantic spacecraft hovering over the city.
They also come to find out, thanks
to Julia’s obsessed stalker neighbor Angel (Carlos Areces), that they slept
through a citywide evacuation. Suddenly a knock at the door signals Julia to
quickly hide Julio in her bathroom telling him to quickly wash up. We soon find out that Julia’s boyfriend
Carlos (Raul Cimas) has shown up to find her, Julio and Julia have to make up a
story for Julio’s presence in her apartment. They make up a story of how she
found him blacked out on the street and decided to bring him inside to save his
life.
After the 3 barricade the door,
they begin to form relationships with one another, Carlos starts to befriend
Julio, meanwhile Julio and Julia are increasingly falling for each other, but
they must be very careful considering the situation and the ever watchful
neighbor Angel.
Then at dinner they get to talking
about how the aliens could be snatching people and looking like people
themselves, this starts the suspicion game beginning with Angel. Julio
convinces Julia to help him convince Carlos that Angel is an Alien because
Angel has threatened to “out” them to Carlos. In fear of what Carlos might do
to them if he found out, Julia agrees and soon Julio is helping Carlos get rid
of Angel. In an effort to drop him off in the middle of nowhere and kill him,
they end up letting him go.
The next day Julio and Julia wake
up to find a Carlos-less apartment, they soon find out that he went outside to
get food. They use this as an opportunity to get rid of Carlos, telling him he
can’t come back inside because how are they to know if its really him. Carlos
more than understands and says his goodbyes.
Finally Julio feels like everything
is perfect, but he finds out soon that Julia really misses and loves Carlos.
Coming to the realization that it takes a real man to realize he is not wanted
and walk away, Julio steals a car and finds Carlos to reunite the two lovers.
Overall, this movie was
entertaining but nothing too special. This was Nacho Vigalondo’s second film, Timecrimes being his
first and more popular film. The fun blend of drama, comedy, love, mystery, and
sci-fi kept me interested but I think I need more lens flare in my sci-fi.
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