Aliens invade Earth to prevent a couple from trying to get back together again and stop the endless inane conversations about the pros and cons of getting married. Well, maybe not exactly. After Melissa (Annie Ngosi Ilonzeh) and her bridesmaids go on a girls’ trip soon after she leaves her fiancé, Andre (Marques Houston, who also cowrite), at the altar, aliens land in the backyard of their cabin in the woods and are fortunate enough to constantly bump into Americans not eternally strapped and ready to beat someone’s ass. Will you care what happens in “Run” (2025)? Nope.
As a fan of alien invasions and predominantly Black casts, I had high hopes for “Run.” Imagine “The Blackening” (2022) except during an alien invasion and comedy optional. Houston and cowriter and director Chris Stokes seem to be aiming for one of those proselytizing films except instead of preaching the gospel, though there is a Jesus reference, and I would have preferred that (because then there could be a Nephilim subplot), the filmmakers are touting the joys of marriage though they unintentionally and inadvertently made a great argument in the opposite direction.
Jenny (Claudia Jordan) is male centered and determined to get the two alleged lovebirds back together. Instead of staying home, she is that person who you can’t invite anywhere without her boyfriend tagging along. True to type, Jenny invites guys over without checking with anyone else, especially the bride to see if she is ok with it. See how the writers treat her and her boyfriend, Avery (Jensen Atwood). It feels like a cautionary tale. To be fair, Stokes and Houston send mixed messages, and the characters are thin at best giving the attractive actors little to work with though they are enthusiastic, nevertheless. Because she got a proposal and a ring, thus the chosen one, Melissa is the queen bee without the meanness. Seven people stop everything in their lives just to revolve around her. Donnie (Erica Mena) is single, brash and unexpectedly effective as the only person who fights the aliens with her hands and wits in a realistic way while freaking out, but Stokes did not even show what happened to her. If it was out of respect, it just felt sloppy. Britney (Drew Sidora) brought the gun. Brandy (Erica Pinkett) is broke and panics under pressure.
When not focusing on the girls getting their drink on, “Run” switches to the guys debriefing in a couple of restaurants. There are not enough depictions of male friendship based in substantial life talk as opposed to sports or goofing around, but these conversations are superficial. Regardless of gender, neither group describes what made this relationship special, and the writers do not show how these people are individuals. Andre’s qualities are that he does not cheat; he has a “great job” (no specifics) and proposed, which the ladies describe as a fairy tale. Has the meaning of fairy tale changed? Andre gets more detail than most characters get, but the bar is in hell. To be clear, everyone is generally genial and has no glaring flaws at first glance, but people are more than their careers or the bad things they do not do. What makes Andre or any character into a unique person that cannot be confused with anyone else? Your guess is as good as mine. It is not until the three men arrive at the house that Andre’s buddy, Ronald (Ken Lawson) gets a backstory and a boast which clashes with his demeanor when asked to do what most of the women already did or are about to do to defend the house and each other. The writers did Ron dirty. It would have been funny if Lawson was not one of the most endearing characters for having common sense.
For a movie with a title based on a three-letter instruction, more specific details should have been added. Andre and Melissa should not be running towards each other, but in the opposite direction of each other. There is surprisingly little running, and a lot of talking, but “Run” is no “Signs” (2002) do not mistake it for the promise of a slow burn. When they get together, the chemistry is meh, but if you argue all the time, maybe move on. When the action finally kicks off, it is tepid at best. Despite a well-timed reference to “Independence Day” (1996), the technology is disappointing. The aliens are treated more like slashers or monsters than intelligent life with an agenda. The alien effects and their ships are decent considering it is an indie. The space craft design has some fresh points with balls orbiting beneath the traditional sphere. When they land, there is no discernible technology on them. They do not even figure out windows until the denouement. They share some qualities with the aliens from “A Quiet Place” franchise. CGI birds were weird. For aviary fans, are those the kinds of birds that pick over bodies?
A countdown is introduced when the President (Obba Babatundé) announces that the world decided to bomb major cities, including, not joking, California, the whole state, to beat back the aliens. This strategy makes no sense. Is this Sparta? If everywhere gets bombed, sure the aliens do not win, but there is nothing left. If you manage to get through the movie, stay until the lights come up to see how well that worked out. It is not like these aliens are undefeatable. The tools to defeat them are accessible. In real life, do people not carry chargers with them wherever they go? This plot point was crucial, and one of two huge challenges that they had to overcome.
“Run” also had weird lighting. Without knowing a lot about the mechanics of filmmaking, it is possible that some scenes were overexposed so to correct for it, even though it appears sunny out, some of the exterior scenes look as if someone put a gray filter to avoid reshooting. There is a scene where Melissa is eating ice cream with a wooden spoon instead of a regular one. Poor Ilonzeh was fighting for her life with that prop and getting ice cream in her hair and all over her face. She did not suddenly start making cookie and wanted to lick the batter. Give that woman a smaller spoon. It often felt as if Stokes and Houston walked through a room where the women in their lives were watching a television series then the pair decided to write “Run” gleaned from their observations.
Stokes and Houston were aiming for “Girls Trip” (2017) meets “Independence Day,” but the results are disappointing. If the lesson is to always be with the people that you love because you never know when your time is up, then the additional lesson should be to be a better person and pick better people. The dialogue subconsciously betrayed the movie’s flaws with lines like “getting real repetitive,” and “I don’t know who I am.” Take them at their word and run away from this movie.
