Attack the Block discussion, importance of character

I couldn't find a thread already and this isn't a review. The flicks getting a lot of buzz state side it seems and all fairly positive, I saw this a while ago and also got DVD of it to watch again so did enjoy it. However, the one thing that stopped it being truly great was the fact the opening scenes introduce the characters as being thoroughly unlikeable via committing a mugging. It might be a cultural thing where it immediately identifies the characters as a particular member of society and instant expectations but it's unjustified. It sends waves throughout the film and gives completely zero empathy for the characters, which in turn completely takes you out of the film. I've never really noticed this before in anything, how making unlikeable characters can stop you engaging with the film. And this wasn't done in an ironic way, at least on my reading, there's no emphasis with the monsters in a 'they're going to get theirs' comeuppance approach. They are just dicks, there doesn't seem to be any moral or any reproach to their initial acts or karma. Yes, it gives some dynamic between the gang and the female but that could be done just based on her stereotyped assumptions.

Basically, if you read all that rant, is this just me or felt like that? The film should have be amazing, great concept, delivery, script etc but that one introductory scene tainted the experience.

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I recently watched the movie and really liked it, I thought the reason they had the characters being so unlikable in the beginning and through most of the movie was so that you would see a change in them by the end of the film by helping the girl and making sacrifices that helped her out.

But again as I mentioned in my review of it, I couldn't understand hardly anything they say, I don't understand what gangster types in America say, so that just made it harder to try and figure out what the meaning was behind a lot of what was said in the movie.

This video helps out a lot.

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I liked how ghetto their british slang was.

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"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews

But when they're introduced as completely unlikeable, I didn't care enough about them to be bothered whether they'd changed by the end.