Blasted film review: Norwegian sci-fi comedy lacks originality and imagination to click as an absurdist adventure

Language: Norwegian Blasted is a piece of absurdist sci-fi action drama coming from Norway, served with a twist of humour. The film tries telling the story of an alien attack during a bachelor party with psychedelic irreverence, an idea that is glibly sold through the poster punchline: Bros Before UFOs. Conceptually, a mix of buddy bonding slapstick and alien attack suspense would sound familiar but for the real-life phenomenon from which the film draws its story. The fictional plot is inspired by the Hessdalen lights, the unidentified multi-hued streaks visible over the Norway’s Hessdalen valley. It is an occurrence yet to be explained and has often been highlighted by unconfirmed accounts of UFO sightings. Blasted uses the alien myths associated with the lights to set up its narrative. Foreign origin films, which bank on aesthetics and commercial logic beyond what is normally peddled by Hollywood, need a distinct relish to be enjoyed, and mainstream Scandinavian entertainers are often no different from that norm. You get down to watching the film keeping that in mind. Writer Emanuel Nordrum and director Martin Sofiedal have tried to create a narrative that caters to the broader, worldwide OTT audience. The film, touted as the first Norwegian fantasy comedy based on a sci-fi theme, mixes mild violence and passable horror elements with sporadic comedy to set up a basic script that caters to the age group of 16 and above. Despite drawing from an unusual concept as the Hessdalen lights , Nordrum’s script banks more on situational thrills than trying to create something new. The narrative tries setting up a larger than life backdrop around two mismatched protagonists — childhood friends who have ended up quite differently in life. These are Sebastian and Mikkel, played by Axel Boyum and Fredrik Skogsrud. When Mikkel gatecrashes into a bachelor party that Sebastian throws at Hessdalen, there is a chance reunion of the friends. As teenagers, the duo comprised a team of laser tag champions, but while Sebastian has changed into a career-obsessed professional over the years, Mikkel never quite grew up to maturity. It is a reason Sebastian is initially miffed seeing Mikkel at his party because his objective is really to bait a loaded investor for a project.

The film introduces its element of the bizarre early and on a predictable note. The party begins, and things are okay for a while till they face a sudden alien attack. For a generation brought up on superhero diet, and especially if you are still exulting over the cracking opener sequence of the latest _Doctor Strange_ blockbuster, that sort of an outlandish plot kickstarter doesn’t exactly stump you anymore. But then, Mikkel and Sebastian are no superheroes. Mikkel is soon convinced his and Sebastian’s one-time prowess as a laser tag team is the only way out if they must stave off the alien attack. This is the sort of mainstream product you get if you cross _The Hangover_ with Aliens In The Attic and Lazer Team. That may not be the best advertisement for the film, though, if you were looking for the funny slapstick quotient of The Hangover or the geeky action fare of Lazer Team. The problem lies in writing as well as directorial execution. There is not a single memorable scene worth carrying home, as the film falls back on cliches in a bid to mix bachelor party ballyhoo with sci-fi violence. Neither of the two elements are served with conviction. The alien entities in the film operate as body snatchers, reducing the human preys into zombie-like creatures that emit green light from their eyes. If the ‘villains’ seem like stereotypes done to death, the climax action sequence where Mikkel, Sebastian and their friends fight to save the planet plays out like a dull video game.

When weird science blends with action and/or irreverent humour in a screenplay, it creates a film that acquires a timeless appeal — think _Back To The Future_ or Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure , or even _Honey, I Shrunk The Kids_ . Blasted looks far from achieving that sort of a high simply because generically the film isn’t doing anything that wasn’t already done at least two decades ago. Nordrum’s writing tries setting up a fastpaced screenplay, but the plot hardly goes anywhere. The film is too assembly-line as an overall package. Generically, this isn’t the sort of film that leaves scope for memorable characters or performances. A lot of the antics that the cast has to play out is deliberately stupid, in sync with the mood of the storytelling process. Axel Boyum and Fredrik Skogsrud as Sebastian and Mikkel play out the essential buddy cliches and overall the cast performances are overshadowed by the CGI-mounted action excesses. This is a film that goes all out to establish its idiom of the nonsensical, and the roles lack enough context to extract worthwhile performances from the actors. Blasted tries to be a madcap adventure but misses the essential wonky imagination. Being deliberately daft demands risk-taking when it comes to execution of the story. This is a cinematic axiom writer Nordrum and director Sofiedal seem to have glossed over. You could check out the film if you’re game for willing suspension of disbelief — and of expectations plus grey cells, too. Rating: 2 (out of 5 stars)  Blasted is streaming on Netflix.

Vinayak Chakravorty is a critic, columnist, and film journalist based in Delhi-NCR. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram