Two distinct narratives of alien encounters emerge from the cinematic landscape as dominant. First, the fish out of water hapless interloper and traveller lost. And second the colonizing brutality of those who don’t come in peace. Paul eschews these traditional narratives by creating an alien who’s not alien at all. Indeed, the eponymous protagonist is more down to earth than those around him who, ironically, assume the roles of the hapless travellers and the brutal colonizers.

With this in mind then let’s backtrack. Graeme (Pegg) and Clive (Frost) play tag team British geeks with even geekier haircuts making it big, nerd style, at Comic-Con. Afterwards, high on conspiracy juice, they embark upon a whistle-stop tour of suspect UFO sites on which the duo stumble upon something they never expected but always hoped for.

Paul’s not either your average naïve or nasty alien. He’s cool, he’s funny, he’s down, way down and he’s been on Earth influencing government decisions, medical research and Spielberg plot lines for decades. Indeed in a clever reversal Paul is the most stereotypical extra terrestrial you might ever (not) see due to the fact we’ve been drip fed his image on lunch boxes, milk cartons and tv-movies since his arrival.

Paul’s acclimatisation is this feature’s jewel and it works to a point. Initial joyous novelty, however, fades to a repetitive focus on his everyday normality that feels as if its lazy boy protagonist bred its own lazy conceptual over reliance. Fortunately this fresh take and its resulting comedy is kept just about alive by the characters naturalness in their interaction which resuscitates an otherwise lacklustre, and plain copycat, plot-line.

There’s some interesting subtext, with the confrontation of creationist ideals, and the notion that it literally takes something not of this world to disprove something not of this world. As well the buddy – road – farcical elements do crescendo in some surprisingly meaningful moments; most notably between Ruth (Wiig) and Paul in a benevolent act that rids her of her Cyclops-esque affliction.

But in many ways they feel forced and this is indicative of a broader trend in the movie. There’s a disjointed feel and a haphazard directorial stamp that jars and doesn’t flow as naturally as its central protagonists gel. Moreover a crude and plain grown worthy reliance on cuss words, especially from Ruth, who’s new found liberty likely will make audience members want to throw the Bible back at her, feels horrible and overshadows other better elements of the production.

With its constant meta references, which serve to provoke a wish to watch something better rather than giving this similar canonical status, and its overlong, formless nature Paul crash lands before it manages to reach the dizzying heights of the greatest encounter movies. However its protagonist’s novelty brings a pleasing freshness, and the touching and comedic dynamic between the central road trippers (minus the swearing) make Paul worth a watch.

DVD Extras:

• Extended feature
• Theatrical Feature Commentary with Director Greg Mottola
• Producer Nira Park and Actors Nick Frost and Simon Pegg
• BTS Featurette (8 Featurettes)
• Between The Lightning Strikes: The Making Of Paul
• The Evolution of Paul, Bloopers
• Who the hell is Adam Shadowchild?
• Simon Silly Faces
• Galleries

3/5

Paul is released today on DVD and Blu-ray!