ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Three movies about aliens . . . that couldn’t more different.

~ The first one is about an alien hunter whose hunting ground is the city of LA.

~ The second one is about a group of aliens who are escaped slaves . . . who also end up in LA.

~ The third one deals with aliens who live at the bottom of the ocean . . . or maybe they AREN’T aliens! Maybe they evolved down there, long be mankind.
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The Abyss (1989)

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. . . when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche

I'm not sure, but I think James Cameron's main aim was to convey the eeriness and sheer otherworldliness of the underwater world most of us never see.

I don't think he succeeded very well in that respect. What he did very well, as in all his films, was to project that sense of adventure and thrills of the best action films. It just so happens that most of his films have a science fiction slant. The drawback to his attempt here is that a lot of it is underwater; everything happens in slow motion under the water, in comparison to action on dry land. But, this is James Cameron; he made most of it work.


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This was a very tough shoot, by all accounts. And, it was expensive for its time, at $40 to $50 million.

The money is on screen; this is a beautifully shot, sleek saga of under-the-sea riggers becoming trapped down below. By some odd coincidence, which seems to happen a lot in Hollywood, there were a few other films that year involving thrills underneath the water, among them Deepstar Six and Leviathan. The Abyss was easily the primo picture among this group.

As usual, Cameron sets everything up with some strong characters and then gives them some unusual challenges. It would have been rather standard stuff, but one of these characters is a Navy Seal (Biehn) who happens to develop High Pressure Nervous Syndrome; in short, he steadily goes totally psycho. That plot development assures some intense scenes.



This also touches on the fears most people have about drowning. Well, maybe it does more than just touch on it. Intense stuff, right?

As for the alien beings eventually making contact with the humans, it's the character of Lindsey (Mastrantonio) who voices the thought that these are extraterrestrials. Everyone else just automatically agrees without debate.

I agree it would be more interesting if these were an unknown, alternate intelligence also spawned on Earth. And, it could be. It's never confirmed that these are aliens; in fact, their actions towards the end, sending tidal waves against the surface humans, seems to imply that they're looking out for their own planet, the planet they evolved on. These tidal wave scenes were finally created for the special edition of The Abyss, released briefly to theaters and on Laserdisc in 1993.

I think it adds a grand scale to the film.




The last act, of Ed Harris as Bud sinking into the depths and then being carried by alien hands into an undersea kingdom, recalls the better scenes of such sci-fi films as 2001: A Space Odyssey, in a watery setting.



Many people don't like the final act or the final half-hour or so. This includes Ed Harris. I happened to see an interview with him about a year ago and a question was raised about his problems with Cameron and the film.

Harris said the build up was great but the entire sequence of that funky-looking underwater city rising out of the water was all wet, as far as he was concerned and let everyone down. Harris made the point that everyone worked themselves nearly to death on this film and their reward was this flimsy ending by Cameron. I was amazed that Harris still carried this hubris around after 20 years, but he's a man of intense feelings I guess, and that translates to the screen.



In the end, I think this is a very life-affirming movie, which is a theme prevalent in Cameron's films. I mean, even the pet rat lived in this one, even though there were human casualties (there's always that chance that you will drown if you're deep underwater).

Also, check out this poster for the film, from East Germany; a bit strange.

BoG's Score: 8 out of 10

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BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
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Alien Nation (1988)

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I've seen this a couple of times . . . It's an intriguing concept for a science fiction film.

The aliens, a genetically-manipulated/created slave race, have already arrived a few years before the film begins and are incorporated into our culture as the film begins. There are about 250,000 of them. Many years later, the film District 9 had a similar premise . . . though the aliens in that one were not incorporated with the rest of us.



The intent of the story was to make the existence of these aliens as almost incidental. The focus of the story is a standard police detective procedural. But . . . why?

Why introduce this great concept and then turn the whole thing into another police thriller and cop-buddy, buddy-bonding plot? I think this approach weakened the film — it's OK, but kind of average, as a result.

James Caan stars as the human cop, Mandy Patinkin is made his new partner, the alien. Terence Stamp, billed 3rd, has a small role as the main 'Slag' heavy; I think that's the term — Slag is derogatory towards the aliens.

This does have a few interesting tidbits about the aliens. They get drunk on sour milk, eat food uncooked, and sea water is like battery acid to them. But mostly, they're pretty much like us. They turn on each other and have the same moral weaknesses as us, including drug addiction.

The story does suggest that their adaptability to new environments is what prompts them to basically copy us in most ways. But that's not very interesting. It would have been more challenging to present them as quite different from us in many ways — and more realistic. These are, after all, aliens from outer space, not our cousins.

I did note one more thing after I watched this again.

These aliens are most vulnerable to sea water, and the character played by Patinkin is even too afraid to go to the beach. Yet, the film tells us that all of them settled in the L.A. area — close to the ocean.

Sado-masochistic too?

And, near the end of the film, Patinkin is hanging off a helicopter over the water, so as the film finished I sat there for a few seconds, thinking, "Waitaminnit. All that spraying . . . yet Patinkin's character is concerned only for his hand? Not acid spraying all over him?"

Yes, a miscalculation by the filmmakers. They shouldn't have used a helicopter in that scene.

BoG's Score: 7 out of 10


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
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Predator 2 (1990)

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______________________ Predator 2 Trailer


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The sequel to the 1987 modest hit switches everything to a very different locale and even a very different time — the near future of 1997 L.A.

There's no Schwarzenegger or even his hypothetical brother, instead we have a police squad headed by big Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon). Other cops are played by Ruben Blades, Maria Conchita Alonso and new hotshot Bill Paxton. Top cops (the bosses) are played by Robert Davi and Kent McCord (as if continuing his role from Adam-12).

Then there's a secret government squad headed by Gary Busey (also from Lethal Weapon), including Bill Baldwin. Crime, as to be expected, has escalated way out of control. But, on top of all this, a new player is in town — you guessed it, another Predator alien (Kevin Peter Hall, reprising), looking for serious fun in blowing away both criminals and law-enforcement types, as well as collecting some spinal columns and heads.

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This sequel comes across as particularly violent, somewhat sadistically so in its tone. There are no sympathetic characters, even among the good guys — Paxton is the most obnoxious, but he conversely is the only one who behaves with any vulnerability, such as hiding his insecurities with his brash attitude (like he did in Aliens), so only his demise may engender some emotional resonance. Everyone else is simply expendable, just lined up for the slaughterhouse (one scene even takes place amid hanging meat).

Glover, as big a guy as he is, does not appear to be the perfect warrior epitomized by Schwarzenegger in the previous film, so his success in the final battle does not seem plausible. After this one, there was a long wait until the AvP sequels, followed finally by Predators in 2010.

BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)