Outpost Earth (2019) Survival Lesson

Survival Lesson: Booze is valuable - For barter, dulling pain, cleaning wounds, and perhaps even interfacing with alien tech so you can fly their spaceships.

Synopsis: Aliens wipe out the world and a small band of humans try to survive and find a way to fight back.

Rating: 6.5/10. This movie uses old school techniques for the aliens and spaceships: stop-motion, models hanging from strings, guys in suits, etc. and for some, these are going to look ridiculous, but there is a huge difference between inexpensive effects and bad effects. These effects are actually very creative and well-crafted and they are used well to tell the story. For me they are a million times better than much more expensive, poorly done CGI effects that really serve no purpose other than filling time that you see in so many movies.

Overall this is a classic story, told well, with effective acting (some much better than others), great locations, and solid writing. It is not polished by any standard, certainly not by modern standards, and for me there was one main problematic plot element, but overall, a good effort that I enjoyed.