Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on June 2012

The inner city goes up against outer space when aliens attack London unnoticed during a Guy Fawkes fireworks display, and it’s up to a gang of teenage street thugs and a nurse they happen to be mugging at the time to defend their low-rent housing estate from a bunch of nasty, fluorescent-toothed hairballs. This directorial debut by Brit comic actor Joe Cornish has plenty of rough edges, but offers character definition rarely seen in this kind of thing. And what it may lack in sophistication it more than makes up for in pure inventiveness, rowdy energy and a goofy social realism.