falling skies

Ah, alien invasions. Let me start by saying that I'm not wishing that aliens come to Earth in real life any time soon, and start shooting the place up. Goodness knows the world has enough problems without aliens blowing crap up all the time. As far as sci-fi goes, though, it's pretty awesome. In fact, alien invasion stories make for some really really good entertainment, in both literature and in Hollywood.

Some of the best alien invasion stories, in fact, have been movies! In my sci-fi film class, we watched the original 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' movie from 1956. It was interesting, because (like most movies), it had a subtext of everyone being paranoid of each other, and people not being what they seem. Also, Kevin McCarthy, who recently passed away, is an awesome actor. We also watched movies such as 'War of the Worlds', both the old and new versions, and even those movies were interesting in the way they portrayed aliens coming to Earth. We watched 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind', which, while not an invasion movie, was still pretty damn scary at some points. 'Signs', by M. Night Shymalan ('what a tweeeest!' I love Robot Chicken), was also pretty scary...well, for the first 2/3rds of the movie, at least.

I purposely left off two fantastic invasion movies: District 9 and Independence Day. I left them off because they're so good, I wanted to talk about them more than just a mere sentence. District 9, then, isn't a real alien INVASION movie....because the aliens hardly invade. They get to Earth, realize they're screwed, and effectively get quarantined in a small area in South Africa. Racial subtexts abound, and after some solid acting and plot development, the movie ends on a sad sort of cliffhanger. Independence Day actually had some real invading, however....we don't see much of the aliens themselves, short of the one encounter with Will Smith dragging one of them back to Area 51 to eventually meet the President, but we DO see their massive ships that easily annihilate cities all over the planet. I often wonder if Toronto was destroyed....I mean, the movie states that they hit all the major cities first, so New York, Washington D.C., L.A., Moscow, I presume London as well...and then they move on to the slightly smaller cities, and so on and on. Would they have come for Toronto, or Ottawa first? It's not THAT far from NYC. Buuut, I digress. Human ingenuity prevails here, and the humans win, eventually, thanks to Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith. Millions upon millions die, but....we win! Also, the President's speech in the movie? Awesome.

Nowadays, though, there aren't any good alien invasion stories. It's a little sad, because there have been so many throughout the years. It's as if it peaked with Independence Day. The most recent alien invasion movie that was released was actually 'Battle: Los Angeles'. In this movie, we witness the shock troops of the aliens landing on Earth, and witness the American military mobilize itself to take them on. After a protracted conflict, we realize that even the mighty American military (and so, I'm guessing the implication is that the rest of the world is ****ed, since AMERICA couldn't deal with it) can't beat them back, and so they prepare to sacrifice the city of Los Angeles. Well, what would a good alien invasion movie be without the heroic protagonists? Along with every movie military cliche ever invented, the protagonists battle through the city, and manage to save some civilians....and also manage to take out the alien command centre, which allows the humans to mount a counter-attack that would potentially let them save the city (and this of course lets the other places around the US and presumably the world know the method for 'freeing the skies' around occupied cities). It was a solid movie, nothing GREAT, but definitely something I would watch again. I've only seen it once, so I guess I'll watch it later on for fun.

Falling Skies, though, is probably the most promising alien invasion story I've seen in years, and the fact that it is a TV show makes me even more excited. TV shows, while they can definitely be really crappy, can also be pretty awesome. This one is being produced by Steven Spielberg himself, and it follows the exploits of a group of people (civilians and fighters alike) who are traveling through the eastern United States, as they try to survive now that aliens have invaded and occupied the planet. Over 90% of the Earth's population has been killed, and so the remaining 10% is trying to survive...and fight back. Only the first two episodes have aired so far, and I loved every second of it. It's really compelling, and I have high hopes for this series. There's action, solid acting, and even the aliens seem scary...well, kind of. Regardless of that last bit, it has the potential to be fantastic, and I'm going to follow it with great interest...and if that's your thing, you should too!