‘Blasted’ (2022) is a Norwegian comedy sci-fi film wherein a bachelor party escalates into a fight against aliens. It is currently streaming on Netflix.
Story
Blasted revolves around a bachelor party which escalates into discovering an alien invasion in Hessdalen. With the protagonist Sebastian, his childhood friend Mikkel and his colleagues decide to play a game.
The aliens are encountered when everyone goes against Audun’s plans to play board games and want to play paintball instead. They end up in the observatory where things get heated up as they come across corpses.
Since Sebastian and Mikkel were laser tag experts at a young age, they take it in their hands to rid the world of the aliens.
The blubber-looking aliens take over humans pretty easily and turn them into zombie-like creatures with glowing green eyes. They somehow gain the capability to communicate with other aliens via the lights, i.e. the signal inside them.
What was supposed to be a simple bachelor party among five people — Sebastian, Mikkel, Audun, Pelle and Kasper — turns out to be a mission to save the world.
A nearby bored and pregnant sheriff, Hjørdis, gets involved in the turmoil. Her officers get possessed by the aliens too and she is left to fend for herself at some point.
Performances
Alex Bøyum depicts the role of a pompous stressed out corporate worker with his perfectly confused facial expressions. His role of Sebastian brings out the curiosity in the viewers as his flaw is to overwork himself.
Fredrik Skogsrud plays the role of Mikkel and brings all his childishness and makes the viewers believe how much Mikkel is convinced that he can still be a child, playing a perfect contradiction to everything Sebastian stands for.
Mathias Luppichini is the funniest member of the cast, playing the dweeb Audun among many doofuses who’s a wisp of a character but enjoys a few medium-effective smirk-inducing moments.
André Sørum’s imperious attitude sums up his character Kasper’s whole nature as he constantly thinks he is better than everyone there.
Eirik Hallert brings out Pelle’s naïveté throughout the film as he struggles to fit in but somehow survives the alien invasion.
Though the famous Ingrid Bolsø Berdal is close to unrecognisable in the film, she plays a vital role of the badass sheriff of the valley with all her physique and wins the action scenes.
For the issues that ‘Blasted’ does suffer, the casting is not one of them as the performances are impressive and fit well with the plot, not failing to amuse the viewers.
Positives
At best, ‘Blasted’ is mildly amusing with all the goofy characters and decent CGI.
The film can be enjoyed as a family with children of any age present as it is entertaining without any unpalatable or complex plot.
Negatives
Providing little to no distinctive plot, ‘Blasted’ leaves a whole lot of predictability for the viewers.
The film takes a slow pace owing to its extreme predictability and lack of twists. It becomes wearisome to sit through it.
It tries to make up for the lack of depth via the emotional buddy-bonding which ends up looking half-hearted and forced.
Verdict
‘Blasted’ lacks a distinctive voice and in a thriving science fiction era thereby struggles to bring its sci-fi, comedy and action fully to life. Additionally, it is too long and could easily have been tighter in telling the rather simple story. The performances, however, slightly save the stretched out film and make it worth a watch.
Rating: 2.5/5
Also Read: Blasted (2022) summary and ending explained