Alien Outpost is the Restrepo of fake documentaries. The film chronicles daily life at a Middle Eastern outpost after a global alien invasion. Even though the invaders, called Heavies, retreated, some stragglers were left behind or are they the point of the spear of another invasion? What the film lacks in character development, it makes up for in special effects during firefights.
Alien Outpost heavily uses our occupation of Afghanistan as inspiration for the setting of the film and uses the memories/news footage of the alien invasion as the film’s 9/11. I did not find the parallels distasteful, but the point of sci-fi is to tease out the complexity and nuance of our world by throwing a viewer off balance by changing the setting slightly, which this film does not accomplish. Instead the gritty real life inspiration grounds the logistics of an alien invasion in reality, which provides its own pleasure, but the movie does not enlighten.
I suspect that Alien Outpost benefits from repeat viewings because by the time that you realize a character is important, it is too late. For example, the PNC soldiers enter with a lot of swagger, but I thought that they went off screen to conduct an investigation, not that they disappeared. Whoops!
In comparison to Restrepo, this fake documentary’s narrative structure is clearer, the stakes are higher, and there is enough framing of onscreen events to feel like a cohesive story. Real life conflicts provide no such satisfaction. Alien Outpost does replicate the odd, implicit bias laced ribbing that felt implied in Restrepo. Unlike Restrepo, one of the soldiers may have been introduced for comedic relief of the Hans and Franz variety. The filmmakers deserve a slight side eye for making one of the documentary crew members crucial to the denouement.
While I enjoyed Alien Outpost because of my weakness for the found footage genre and fake documentaries, and the film clearly is begging for a sequel, it is no Starship Troopers. If you want to see some realistic, but fake battle footage, check it out.