AREA 51

Area 51 Movie Review

Three friends decide to raid Area 51 after one experiences a strange happening at a party. They meet up with a woman whose father had maps of the underground tunnels at the mysterious desert location. This movie, which was completed in 2009 but not released until 2015, is brought to us by writer and director Oren Peli--if this name is familiar to you, it's likely because he is the same guy who brought us Paranormal Activity, an extremely low budget film that made an absolute fortune and, more importantly, was an original, creative, and scary movie--Area 51 is far less inspired. Most of this movie is the three guys making their way to Area 51 and talking about their plans--for as dull as those conversations are, when they are talking about anything not related to Area 51, it's even worse. The movie is presented as a found footage film, as the guys record everything on their phones and small cameras, resulting in shots that look like...

this...

this...

and this.

We get some brief shots of Las Vegas, which is nice, as that's one of my favorite cities. The shots of the desert are also nice, and honestly, it is these settings that helped get me through this movie. Once the friends and the woman make it into Area 51, things pick up a bit, but we really get the case of taking the good with the bad once there. Some of the ideas about what could be inside Area 51 and the technology used is really interesting, and plays out well. Unfortunately, much of what happens there is in the dark--this, coupled with the constantly shaking camera, makes it nearly impossible to see anything happening for much of the time. We get just a brief look at the aliens, which is fine, as this approach works quite well here. The ending is a bit lazy, but certainly could have been worse. Should you decide to watch this film, be warned--everything that happens leading up to the characters actually being inside Area 51 is a LOT to get through, but what you see once there almost makes you feel like it was worth the wait. 

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 6

Area 51 Movie Trailer