arper is an alien who's been surveying Earth for the past six months, using a battery-powered human body to blend in with the natives. Harper's race wants to take over the planet, and normally they'd make humans their slaves in the process, but their usual mind control tactics work on only about 10 percent of the population. Harper's job is to figure out why, but before she can find answers, her task is interrupted by the police and she's forced to flee Earth.
With the alien invasion fleet only three days away, Harper's people decide to have another try at solving the mystery, but this time they send reinforcements. Harper is joined by Alpha, a command male who's more irritated at being taken away from the fleet than he is interested in fulfilling the mission; Bravo, a thug of a male who has no regard for human life; and Charley, a female out on her first mission who's only looking to earn a decent bonus. This somewhat bumbling foursome captures four humans--one who can be mind-controlled and three who can't--and takes them back to their scout ship in order to experiment on them.
Harper advocates non-invasive "reaction testing," putting the humans under a variety of stressful situations to see if that reduces their mental blocks. But the other three aliens are a bit more bloodthirsty, interested primarily in dissecting the captives, preferably in the most painful manner possible. It soon becomes evident that Harper has gone native and would rather keep the humans alive than find their weakness (one human in particular, in fact). But time is running out, and Alpha, Bravo and Charley would just as soon abandon the experiment, kill the captives and explain to the fleet that the rest of the population has to be exterminated as well.
"We need slaves, not a committee."
The Advanced Guard is a low-budget film filled with cheap sets, bad acting and an uninspired story. That's the bad news. The good news is that it's fun to watch nevertheless. Sure, the alien costumes are nothing more than bubble packing and rubber gloves, but they're presented with such aplomb that it's easy for viewers to overlook what they're made of and instead see what they're supposed to be. And, yes, the aliens do use a number of English colloquialisms in their everyday speech, but it never seems egregious and often ends up being rather funny.
In fact, the dialogue even manages a few inspired moments by mocking traditional "sci-fi" movies outright. One of the best of these lines comes when the humans hatch a plan to escape from their cell on the scout ship. "That's not going to work...it's a television trick," complains born-victim Laura. "I don't think they get television," replies the chivalrous Kevin. The script writer earns points not only for being amusing but for pulling off the cliché without making viewers groan (although they may chuckle).
That earlier comment about the bad acting may have been a bit harsh, too. Sure, the acting is bad in a lot of places, but it's rarely so bad that it's painful, and the casting director made some good choices: the wooden actor plays the wooden alien, the big dorky actor plays the big dorky alien, and so forth. These astute assignations go a long way toward shoring up the otherwise thin characters and ho-hum plot.
Make no mistake, viewers looking for a good, blockbuster TV movie will be disappointed, simply because this isn't that kind of film. But those looking for a good TV B-movie will probably enjoy The Advanced Guard, even if they might not remember much about it a week later.
