It was a rainy day when I felt compelled to watch The Fourth Kind. Since these kinds of films often make me nervous, I decided to enjoy it mid-afternoon, before the sky got too dark. Even still, it terrified me in a way that I simply couldn't divert my eyes.
The film lets you know from the beginning that it's a dramatization of "˜actual' events. That way it can pull you in deeper by showing us the actor, while also incorporating "real footage" from perceived archives of Dr. Tyler. The choice to display both sets of footage side-by-side really made me feel like the residents of Nome were doomed. The reenactments were spotless as the scripts matched up perfectly making a strong case for the authenticity of the film's entire plotline. It's rare for a movie to alter my perception that much, but this one definitely did.
The Fourth Kind is like most other alien abduction stories, complete with tense music that ends right before something jumps. But it took this style of storytelling to a new and better extreme. The audience can't just be told something; we'd believe it was just as crazy as the characters that think they saw aliens. Better that we are shown something, that which would be hard to deny, making us side with Dr. Tyler when no one else does. In this, The Fourth Kind moved beyond the average sci-fi film.
Milla Jovovich acted her part well, and humbled herself to become a representation of Abbey Tyler. By doing so, I watched her transform into someone I feared for and sympathized with, even though she tells the audience at the beginning that she's an actress and not the real Doctor.
The Fourth Kind isn't what I expected in a lot of great ways. But that's exactly what the director meant to create. Like Milla Jovovich says to the audience, "In the end, what you believe is yours to decide."
