Attraction

Attraction, Fyodor Bondarchuk’s big budget Hollywood style sci-fi epic, attempts to answer the question of what would happen post first contact. After a huge alien craft crash lands in downtown Moscow, the government orders Martial Law as they attempt to negotiate with the large robotic-like creatures. The widespread damage has created water shortages and a lack of food and shelter for the local population. The city subsequently becomes a powder keg waiting for a fuse. By itself, this story is a fascinating exploration of human nature when confronted with the unknown. Yet this is not the focus of the film.

The problems with Attraction’s narrative crystalise once we learn the true nature of the strange visitors from another planet. Without going into spoilers, it is a reveal that feels disappointingly familiar and a bit boring as the film becomes an uninspired, and rushed, love story. In an attempt to emulate classic Hollywood blockbusters in the vein of Independence Day or Armageddon, Bondarchuk seemingly learns all the wrong lessons. He focuses on a disappointing familiar teenage love story that shifts the film from an intelligent sci-fi concept to something more like a Young Adult novel.

However, it is in the sequences where Attraction goes big that Bondarchuk shines, deftly balancing perspectives from the ground and the sky. The spacecraft careening through the air towards the city is a spectacular sequence with impressive special effects. Those on the ground run for cover in chaotic stampedes and those trapped in buildings hit by the craft can do nothing but hang on for dear life. Rubble rains down from collapsing buildings as the streets become lost in a haze of smoke and dust. These scenes have a frenetic energy to them, capturing a sense of panic and utter confusion. This type of big-scale sequence doesn’t appear again until the final third of the film, well and truly after the problems with the story come to life. Despite the bravura of that later sequence, it is too little too late.

For a rare Russian blockbuster, Attraction is disappointing because so much of it we have seen before. There is a concept and story there that could make for great science-fiction instead Bondarchuk aims for the lowest common denominator. A particular shame as Bondarchuk crafts bombastic action sequences with aplomb, melding practical and computer generated effects seamlessly in a way that would give Hollywood a run for their money.

Attraction 
Russian Resurrection Film Festival 2017
Till Sunday, 19 November 2017
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