Film Review: Alien Nation (1988)

Film Review: Alien Nation (1988) | Ecency

(source: tmdb.org)

Good idea isn’t enough for a good film. Even the best or the most intriguing ideas are worthless if they are executed poorly. One of the more telling examples is Alien Nation, 1988 science fiction film directed by Graham Baker.

The plot is set in (then future) 1991, roughly three years after landing of large alien spaceship in Mojave Desert. The ship contained roughly 300,000 humanoids, genetically engineered by their masters to adapt to various environments and work as slaves. After quarantine most of them are allowed to settle in Los Angeles and adapt to human society. “Newcomers” quickly learn the language, gets jobs and try to live normal lives, but not all humans are willing to greet them with open arms. Among them is LAPD Detective Sergeant Matthew Sykes (played by James Caan), self-confessed bigot whose hostility towards Newcomers becomes even greater when Newcomer criminals kill his partner Bill Tuggle (played by Roger Aaron Brown). He is determined to find the killers and very reluctantly accepts new partner Sam Francisco (played by Mandy Patinkin), a Newcomer who is supposed to help him with investigation due to his inside knowledge of alien lifestyle. Sykes and Francisco gradually learn to accept their differences and make an effective team that would investigate murders that might be related to William Harcourt (played by Terence Stamp), influential and well-connected Newcomer businessman.

Produced by Gale Anne Hurd, woman responsible for genre classics like The Terminator and Aliens, features the basic premise that would, decades later, be used in much better films like District 9 and Bright. It appears that the basic idea exhausted all creative energy of people behind this film. Anything else in this film represents complete lack of imagination. Script by Rockne S. O’Bannon uses plot that, more or less, carbon-copies all the cliches of 1980s buddy cop films and even the main motive in the plot involves drugs, just in line with anti-drug campaign of President Reagan (who briefly appears as voice of conscience through archival clips). If there was some deeper motive for the film, like, probably idea to use it political allegory in favour of immigration and/or condemnation of bigotry, it is compromised by having Newcomers look like cheap caricatures. Apart from being hairless and having strange spots of body, those aliens look human and actors playing their characters can be easily recognised. Alien Nation isn’t helped by mostly inept direction by Graham Baker, although cinematography by Adam Greenberg is decent, just like Caan and Patinkin try their best with their underwritten roles. On the other hand, the bad quality of the film can be best seen in one major detail. One thing that sets Newcomers apart from humans is their extreme vulnerability to seawater that acts like battery acid on their skin; nothing in script explain why would hundreds of thousands of them would settle on Pacific Coast instead of Midwest or some other place as far from sea as possible. Despite poor reviews, Alien Nation had decent box office and received sequels in form of short-lived television series and feature-length films in 1990s.

RATING: 3/10 (+)