The Phoenix Incident (2015) Reviews

• It had been a while since I watched a good FF movie

  helloimyourmind132015-10-11

  I'll begin by saying that I love found footage movies, although most of them are quite disappointing at some point. However, there's fairly good examples of this genre, such as The Phoenix Incident. As the title denotes, this film is based on the Phoenix Lights, the biggest UFO sighting in the USA that took place in 1997. I am a fan of the sighting myself, so when I learned what this movie was about I just had to watch it. It was a pleasant surprise! I love how they mixed the real story, with real footage and real news coverage with the fictional story, which is about the disappearance of four men the exact same night the Phoenix Lights took place. The faux documentary (mockumentary) stile really suits this movie because it kind of makes it feel like it actually happened and we are watching real footage of an alien encounter. Towards the end of the film everything gets a little too repetitive, and for someone who has already seen plenty of found footage movies, this one offers nothing new to the genre. That's why I give it a 6 out of 10. The acting is good though, the special effects are really well worked and the music helps the atmosphere! I don't know, I really liked this movie and I totally recommend it to anyone who's interested either in UFO related stuff or found footage films!

• another found footage movie

  lunchoutk2015-10-17

  well, found footage movies are usually cheap and nasty affairs and the shaky camera is used to cover bad directing. This one is different, the characters are believable, the effects are good and the directing is smooth and enjoyable. and here comes the BUT the go pro style footage is far too shaky and swinging, certain segments of the movie are completely unwatchable due to this and mildly nausea inducing. The characters have lucid moments and are friendly and believable but start screaming and shouting in a manner that is unbelievable and ruins any form connection you have with them. Nothing new and needs refining

• Annoying

  jacques-europe2015-10-26

  I have seen many found footage movies and some of them are quite good, as they 1. allow the viewer to get an idea of the whole scenery and 2. as they give your eyes some calm moments. The viewer needs time to understand what's actually going on! This movies doesn't do anything of that. It's really hard work to watch the found footage scenes, so shaky, the image even switches off completely for many times, the cam crashes against walls and the ground with wild movements, a tour de force for your eyes, so much that it gets really annoying. I wanted to shout out loud: stop finally moving! While the story could have been very exciting (the basic idea is not bad), the 4 main characters sometimes behave like crazy. Just imagine someone dangerous follows you in the dark. And your first reaction is: shout as loud as possible, speak loudly, use your torch to show everyone within the next 2 miles where you are, and that ALL the time.That's what these 4 guys do. So empathy has no chance to grow for them. After a while of watching I thought: just stop filming guys and get caught finally. The pseudo-documentary style of the movie is OK, if you like that kind of movie. To me it's a little bit too much of history channel's "the secret alien files" kind of stuff: the camera, the editing, the light of the interview scenes - just the way those scenes are made I have seen before too many times on TV. The director clearly needs to find a way to make his individual kind of movie. Now it's just a collection of copied elements. Truly better than "sharknado", but not much better than every pseudo-documentary on TV.

• This was a good one.

  LiamBlackburn2015-09-08

  This was a good one. Haven't seen a good UFO movie in a while. I like the way they mingled the real story with the movie story line. The acting was good. The aliens were'nt that interesting, but they weren't silly or anything. The alien ships were really good, and the scenes with the fighter jets flying over the desert and helicopters were really good. This movie could easily fly under the radar. The execution of the complex scenes was done really well. People need to respect this movie. It wasn't a full-fledge FF but it still worked the way they made it. They also included actual footage which was cool. 8/10 on a FF horror movie rating.

• The Phoenix Incident Could have been good, But failed

  warrenf_peace2016-07-18

  The film started out well, and built suspense fairly decently. The integration of actual footage was really well done. When the air battle began, I thought it looked pretty good. And the crash was very cool. Alas, the protagonist quartet of unlikable twenty- and thirty-something 'adolescents' were so two-dimensional (as was the suicidal hermit Gayson), I felt like "are these the only archetypes we can come up with? They are always such douchebags!" And as soon as the jar head Marine (the MOST unlikable of the bunch) takes off to 'rescue the downed pilot' (perhaps?), the descent into bad horror film ripoffs began, and I was looking forward for the jarhead to be anally probed (if ONLY the aliens would have done that sort of thing...). And please, ET's that walk on 4 legs (and who pilot sophisticated anti-gravity machines in the nude) are NEVER going to be believable!!! Next, STOP IT with the monster aliens - they are more ridiculous than frightening - PLUS, the ending was less than satisfying, which is why I scored it less than 50%, The film had potential, and from the IMDb reviews, I thought, "Heck, it's only $4 on Amazon, so I'll give it a chance (Amazon rated it 3 of 5 stars, IMDb Said 5.6 (of ten). From now on, if a film has this score, I Am gonna KICK myself.