Thanks to the invention of the internet not only are information easier to grasp at but it’s also easier people to push their opinions on me through the blogosphere and social media. So the buzz is amplified to the level that’s almost ear ringing at times. This is one of those movies. It’s a film that if you’re like me, or like yourself if you’re reading this blog, and you enjoy reading film blogs or following fellow film geeks on twitter then you would’ve heard about this one over and over again being called the next best genre comedy film of the year. However, the thing about movies like this is that it’s always best when you discover them with no pretext. When I first saw Shaun of the Dead I had absolutely no clue what I was getting into and I fell in love. If I had walked in with 90% of the movie geek/critic world telling me it’s the best zombie comedy to ever be released then I’m not sure how I’d have felt about it the first time I saw it.

While I do believe that claiming high expectations is a shoddy excuse of a pseudo-critic, like myself, I do have some really good points to say about this movie.

This movie is one of those comedies, which rather than ridiculous one liners, which there’s a few good ones which are given to you in the trailers, it works in the ridiculousness of the scenario. You’re thrust into this world along with your unbelievable protagonists. The film opens up with a scene of our group of miscreants robbing a woman who eventually becomes their associate during this evening while they find out that she’s actually from their block. This unredeemable fact is the first of many that we just have to live with as we watch Moses and the rest of the crew try to survive the night of alien invasion.

We’re supposed to be laughing and enjoying the fact that this gang of teenagers are what stands between the Block in South London and a massive slew of aliens. However, I didn’t find myself laughing as much as I was bewildered. Am I supposed be cheering on the teens or the aliens, I don’t know who’s being the good guy and who’s the bad. Now I’m not saying that life is made of clearly defined roles, but when I don’t know who I want to cheer for because I can’t see any level of good or evil that exceeds from side A to side B then I’m left just there as a spectator to the carnage, which is okay for a film like Trick R’ Treat where the whole point is to enjoy the violence, but for this kind of a movie it’s sorely missed.

I’m just going to chalk up most of this movie to “I didn’t get it” and hope that by the end of the year when I’ve revisited it with my expectations tempered that I’ll be able to look at it again with kinder eyes and enjoy the ride a lot more, because besides the general idea, the great monster design and a few really well placed one liners “I can’t explain all this madness in one text” the film didn’t do it for me.

Rating: 5.5/10