R.W.R.

Released in 2009 The Fourth Kind, directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi and starring Milla Jovovich, is the tale of psychiatrist Dr Abigail Tyler and her encounter with alien life, or lack there of, in the Alaskan town of Nome.  Unfortunately for this film, incoherent plot elements, poor acting and a general feel of dissatisfaction leave this movie below average.

The film starts with a disclaimer from Milla Jovovich in an attempt to give the impression that the events the film is based on are real.  This initial scene leaves a bad taste in your mouth as Jovovich's poor acting makes you feel as though you're about to watch Ultra Violet 2 or Resident Evil 9.  Regardless, the film does do a fairly decent job at keeping the audience in a suspension of disbelief with the use of "archive footage".  I would like to officially state however that The Fourth Kind, Dr Abigail Tyler and all the events in the film are fictitious.  I cannot stress this enough, Dr Abigail Tyler was played by Milla Jovovich during the recreations and Charlotte Milchard during the "archive footage" she is NOT REAL.

After our disclaimer, we learn that Dr Tyler has decided to take on her husband's research after he was murdered in their home some time ago.  After several sessions with her husband's patients in Nome, we learn very quickly that there is more to this little town than meets the eye.  All the patients have been seeing a white owl outside their window, its doesn't take long to find out its not an owl at all.

The problem with this film is that it promises so much yet comes to the dinner party empty handed.  This movie does little to keep our interest when events reach their peak, cameras distort during archive footage and patients refuse to give any answers after reliving the events via hypnosis.  This quickly lead me to have a great deal of frustration with the film, as it was only an attempt to prolong the movie and my suffering.  After the film is over the audience is left with no answers to the films questions in any form. 

The child in me wanted to actually see some aliens but alas we don't get to see anything even resembling ET or Mac.  There was a twist at the end of the film, which was pointless and adding nothing to film except very late character development.  The acting was sub-par with the exception of Charlotte Milchard during her archived interviews.  I am not a fan of Milla Jovovich as her career has been tainted in my mind through terrible "invincible woman" films and her husband Paul Anderson.  Jovovich's acting led me to wonder why they needed to recreate these scenes at all.  They play the archive footage side by side the recreations, yet when anything even remotely interesting happens, you see nothing on either side, so what exactly was the point?  I honestly don't know, the film would have been better off with a simple documentary approach without Milla Jovovich.  This would have put the archive footage to better use and made things more interesting for the audience as they use their imagination to figure things out.  Instead of recreating events that ultimately show even less and only leave you with the feeling that you wasted your time.

Do yourself a favor and skip this film unless you're a masochist.  It will only leave you with a sense of frustration and after you find out none of it was real, pisses you off even more.

2/5