Julien Neaves, Sci Fi Head Writer
Plot: Three friends working at a mining company decided to pull off a heist at their job, but their plan is thwarted by a group of vicious aliens.
Review: When I saw the trailer for Netflix 2022 South African Sci Fi Comedy Office Invasion I thought it looked like a good time. After watching it, I can tell you that it felt like a bad work day—overly long, kinda tedious and ultimately unproductive. The highlight of the Gareth Crocker and Fred Wolmarans’ film is the comedic aspects. The raunchy, irreverent take on the absurdity of every day office life reminded me somewhat of British sitcom The IT Crowd, though not as sophisticated and punchy. But I did laugh more than a few times, and that is not something I can say of your average comedy film whether from Hollywood or elsewhere. And there are a handful of quirky side characters that do liven up proceedings, including a hilarious Jamaican security chief. Sadly, that is about all I can positive about this film.
This is more a Comedy-Sci Fi than a Sci Fi-Comedy as the science fiction aspects feel almost like an afterthought. Things start off interesting enough with a security guard being killed by an unseen alien in gloriously gory fashion, but then the rest of the first half of the film drops the Sci Fi aspects and just revels in its own absurdist humour. We only get back to the science fiction coming down to that end, and at that point it is over way too quickly, with generic alien designs that would not seem out of place in the CW superhero series, and uninspired, anticlimactic action. If they had seeded and foreshadowed it more throughout and then went wild with the gore and alien action in the third act then it could have worked. This was just poorly paced. And it’s not like they didn’t have the time, as the film clocks in at almost two hours. TWO HOURS! There is no reason for this film with its paper thin plot to be as long as it is. One could argue that they were taking time to build up the three main character but the writing for them is so shallow that I did not give two hoots whether any of them lived or died. And they had the gall to sequel-bait at the end. I barely cared about this movie, much less a touted follow-up.
So if you want a few raunchy laughs, you may find some enjoyment with Office Invasion. But if you want a great Sci Fi comedy that does a strong job in both the science fiction and comedic aspects, then might I suggest you direct your application elsewhere.
Score: 4 out of 10
Julien “Editor Jules” Neaves is a TARDIS-flying, Force-using Trekkie whose bedroom stories were by Freddy Krueger, learned to be a superhero from Marvel, but dreams of being Batman. I love promoting Caribbean film (Cariwood), creating board games and I am an aspiring author. I say things like “12 flavours of awesome sauce”. Read more.
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