aliens

Prior to the 1930's, films about aliens and outer space were thin on the ground and mainly restricted to adaptations of Jules Verne novels. Possibly the difficulties in producing special effects was the reason but it didn't stop the directors of Flash Gordon which ran for many episodes. The special effects weren't in fact very special consisting mainly of electrical charges crackling across two glass tubes and a rocket-ship powered by what looked like a firework. The same electrical charges could be seen bringing Frankenstein's monster to life, doing something or other to captive's brains and perhaps making robots stir. But I didn't see them like that then ---in fact it thrilled me to bits when Ming threw a huge switch and the dynamo went zzzzzzz and you had to wait a whole week to see if Dale had been disintegrated. Life was so simple then.
From the 50's onward there was a veritable explosion in the production of Science Fiction films. They were all made attractive by beautifully painted posters of swooning space-girls bursting out of their Dior space-suits and I for one was drawn like a moth to a flame. The films invariably failed to live up to their publicity but the trailer for next week looked great and the poster promised all manner of good things so by the time the following week came last weeks disappointment had been shrugged off and anticipation was as high as ever. The posters themselves were works of art in their own right and resembled the covers of the pulps a great deal and I only wish I had acquired some at the time although there is no doubt that she-who-must-be-obeyed would have consigned them to some dungeon in the basement rather than pride of place in the living room ----- don't pretend you don't know what I mean.

The Day The Earth Stood Still { 1951 }
Many people attributed all manner of political and religious sub-plots to this film, going so far as to see it as an allegory of the Cold War. All that was lost on me at the time and as far as I was concerned there was an hour or so of boring dialogue to get through before we got to see the alien. When the alien craft from the reaches of Outer Space, having got through customs, did finally did make an appearance, it was one of the major disappointments of my film-going career. In the guise of an ambassador from a group of confederated planets devoted to peaceful co-existence, Michael Rennie stepped out of the space-craft looking as smug as he ever did and about as chillingly alien as our vicar. Klaatu as he was called, declared that the planet earth must join the confederation or we would all be annihilated forthwith, which I have to say that even at that time seemed to me a little at odds with their desire for a quiet life. Anyway, somebody in the crowd as disappointed as I was takes a pot-shot at the man from the stars and by this time I was too bored to care so I never found out if we were annihilated or not.

Destination Moon poster
The Man From Planet X { 1951 }
Sounded good so I went along to see another alien set down in the mists of the Scottish Highlands of all places. This proved to be even worse than The Day The Earth Stood Still ---- at least Michael Rennie had bothered to bring a robot with him which livened it up a bit.
It Came From Outer Space { 1953 } ensured that the standard of dross was maintained, along with Earth Vs The Flying Saucers, Invaders from Mars, The Day The World Ended and many, many others. I know because I went to see them all.

By this time, even I was beginning to suspect that despite the beguiling posters these were not quality films that I was borrowing good money to see -------still This Island Earth had a ring to it and the alien looked pretty grotesque so once again I turned up at the box office trying not to look as if I cared whether I got in or not -------when all the time I was dreading if it was a full house - even though there had never been one since the cinema opened.

This Island Earth { 1955 }
At the time and for reasons I could never fathom, it was obligatory to have to sit through an hour or so discussion on ionization layers, decompression consoles and thermonucleic diatoms before the alien finally turned up----- and This Island Earth was no exception.
The alien - being was called the Monitor of Metaluna and his tiny body wobbled under the weight of his massive, multi-coloured brain which could be seen pulsing rhythmically in line with his thought processes. The Monitor's brain was quite obscene and for someone smart enough to make the journey from Metaluna you would have thought he would have had the sense to wear a hat. He also had huge, crab-like pincers for hands and in idle moments I wonder to this day how he pressed the buttons on his space ship not to mention his remote-control.
The film was one of the first in Technicolour and as well as the Monitor's brain the make-up department had spared no efforts on the scientist Vic Morrow's appearance and he turned out to be weirder than the alien with his flashing white teeth, a beetroot red-face and a mop of blindingly silver hair.
There was unfailingly a love-interest in the films of this era and mostly it was the one who could scream loudest who got the part. In this film it was Faith Domergue who got the nod despite trying to hide at the back. The studio put out a publicity blurb that her costume was so skintight that she couldn't get any underwear on underneath which must have dragged in a few dozen pervs to make us S.F. geeks look even geekier.
Anyway, the Monitor has a meaningful conversation with Jeff Morrow about his O-level in physics and they have a fight and they all go home.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers { 1956 }
Things started looking up with this film which as far as I was concerned was a straightforward Science -Fiction tale of aliens infiltrating the earth by taking over and duplicating humans. There was a distinct lack of action which was amply substituted for by the tense plot and for once there was a suggestion of some good acting. A measure of the quality of Invasion is that it has since been remade twice and stands up well to this day.
What completely went over my head and still does today was once again the preoccupation with some underlying meaning to what in my eyes was and is just a well-made film and no more than that. According to some sources, it is not about alien seed-pods at all but " the threat of Communist infiltration and brainwashing in the post McCarthy era". If I had known that I wouldn't have gone to see it.
Forbidden Planet { 1956 }
Regarded by many as the best Science-Fiction film of the 1950's I frankly found that there was a lack of action and the sets were so uninspiring that it came over as a play. As it turned out I wasn't far out in that assessment because true to form the producers once again unable to resist a sub-plot had based the story on "The Tempest" by Shakespeare.
But just when we were about to drown in a sea of sub-plots along came ;

The War of The Worlds { 1953 }
Director : Byron Haskin
"No one would have believed in the last years of the 19th century that this world was being watched by intelligence's greater than man's. That we were being scrutinised and studied as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.
Across the gulf of space, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic regarded this earth with envious eyes and slowly and surely drew their plans against us."

With this adaptation of the opening lines of H.G.Wells novel Cedric Hardwicke created the atmosphere which at long last fulfilled all the expectations of a good Science -Fiction film. Wells's novel was written in 1895 and set in Victorian London but Director, Byron Haskin and Producer, George Pal saw fit to set the action in America for all the usual reasons. Apart from the setting, the film is reasonably true to the book and engenders something of Victorian naiveté in mid-western U.S.A. The scene where the ship is seen like a shooting-star in the night sky and the crowd then gathers around the ship cooling in it's crater is superb, followed by the hushed expectation as the screw slowly opens and the machine takes it's first look at earth. The Director cranks up the tension as the machine humming and clicking surveys the awed crowd. There is very little fear in the people watching as the sinuous and symmetrical lines of the machine have a certain alien beauty all their own. Fascinated as if by a snake-charmer, the spell is suddenly and unexpectedly broken as the Martian machine unleashes a death-ray on the now panicky audience. This is scene-setting of the highest quality.
The rest of the film does not disappoint as the Martian machines expand into vast tripods with their raison d'être being the extermination of the human race. Gene Barry is an inspired casting as the phlegmatic Dr Forrester and for once the usual heroics are abandoned for an intelligent hero. The Martian machines are beautifully crafted multi-purpose killing machines and even 50 years on they would be a vital acquisition to any S.F. film.
The tension continues throughout the film with mankind and all it's sophisticated weapons on the brink of extinction as the Martians kill indiscriminately. The moral is painfully obvious as the Martians begin to die of a microscopic bacterium and somehow Byron Haskins injects a note of pathos into their dying.
I have a great affection for this film and for that reason alone hesitate to make any criticism but there are just one or two points applicable to both this and to the latest version with Tom Cruise. In this case Cedric Hardwicke is the commentator and in the latest version Morgan Freeman is the reader but neither of them can hold a candle to Richard Burton speaking on The War of the Worlds album by Jeff Wayne. His rich baritone voice complements the theme perfectly. As for the music---it had not been written at the time of the Gene Barry version but how it would have improved the second version ! Just one other thing is that the true era of War of the Worlds is in Victorian London and for this reason alone the definitive version remains to be made.

It would have been reasonable to assume that following the standard set by War of the Worlds the next generation of Science Fiction films would be well-made, intelligent and thought-provoking ---but not so : there followed a whole host of Crab Monsters, Shrinking Men, Colossal Women, Giant Claws, Blobs, Deadly Mantises ad infinitum, until the whole genre became a bye-word for schlock and its devotees regarded as between eccentric at one end of the scale and moronic at the other. Most elements in any given subject follow some form of evolutionary pattern but for decades Science Fiction films branched off and were lost in a morass of mediocrity.
But all was not lost and it was no coincidence that the advent of space travel as a reality and the celebrity of awesome minds such as Stephen Hawkings, Carl Sagan et al began to give respectability to Science Fiction inspiring a far more intelligent and balanced view of the subject.

Planet of the Apes { 1967 }
Director : Franklin. J.Schaffner
Based upon a short story by Pierre Boule called Monkey Planet { also the author of The Bridge on The River Kwai }, Planet of the Apes was a sensation when it was first released spawning several sequels and a T.V. series which ran for years. The cutting-edge make-up special effects now seem quite ordinary and emphasise just how fast cinema is moving in every department. There's some sharp dialogue mostly of a Darwinian nature with the best line coming from Charlton Heston when he is protecting Nova, his girl-friend ;
One of the apes says "I didn't know your species was monogamous" and Heston ripostes "On this Planet it's easy"
Planet of the Apes doesn't really stand the test of time although it is a most enjoyable post- apocalypse movie with one of the all-time great movie moments in the final reel as Charlton Heston rages at The Statue of Liberty half-buried in the sand ----- shades of Ozymandias. Nevertheless, in its day Planet of the Apes raised the bar and there were plenty to take up the challenge.

2001 : A Space Odyssey { 1968 }
Director : Stanley Kubrick
From the novel by Arthur.C.Clarke
When Stanley Kubrick's caveman tossed a bone into the air at the beginning of A Space Odyssey, the face of Science Fiction films altered irrevocably. All at once the subject became fashionable and going to see A Space Odyssey became de rigeur in some circles. There was at the time a certain snobbishness about this film in which it was implicit that anyone with an ounce of intelligence would certainly understand what was going on and that situation still exists today in some quarters. I for one never completely understood the whole thing but I could see that it had been made with sincerity and it had quality .
The central theme is the discovery of an alien artifact upon the Moon and the space craft sent to investigate. Kubrick indulges himself in his own unique version of Space Opera with docking manoeuvres turned into machine minuets set to The Blue Danube waltz. Sometimes beautiful, sometimes tedious but always brilliant, Kubrick's outer space is a place of beauty and wonder.
The on-board computer HAL which runs the ship so competently turns into a nightmare of computer logic at odds with human logic and threatens the whole voyage. HAL is extremely interesting to all of us as there is no doubt he is the prototype for P.C.'s everywhere ----- illogical, dogmatic, domineering, erratic and omnipotent. Well yes, I suppose it could also be said of the wife but don't say I said so.
But it is the ending of the film which is so intriguing with a voyage into a kaleidoscopic world of psychedelic imagery which is wide open to any and every interpretation. I did at one time think that it was either Kubrick not knowing how to end his opus or alternatively he wanted to avoid the standard alien monster scenario. There have been many other explanations but when Arthur.C.Clarke, no less, states that he doesn't know what is meant then who am I to argue.
Whatever the merits or otherwise of A Space Odyssey , it was a watershed in S.F. film making and a challenge which other directors were not slow to take up. At a stroke, Kubrick had destroyed forever Giant Crabs and Blobs and all the other monsters from outer space. They would return at a later date in many different and deadly guises.

Silent Running { 1972 }
Director : Douglas Trumbull.
Valley Forge is one of three gigantic space-ships travelling around the solar system. Each ship carries huge bio-domes containing a selection of the last trees and animals from earth. As one of the astronauts proclaims - " the earth is a place where disease has been eradicated and everybody has a job" and the implication is that human interests have completely superceded and replaced animal and plant life and Joni Mitchell's worst nightmare has come true.
When orders come to blow up the bio-domes and use the space craft for commercial reasons, Freeman Lowell played by Bruce Dern reluctantly kills his fellow astronauts with the cry that " this forest is irreplaceable" and escapes into space carrying his precious cargo and becoming the ultimate eco-warrior in the process.
Bruce Dern in all his films appears as just this side of rational and is no different in this film as he befriends two robot drones Huey and Louie who provide some light relief from the monotony of life aboard ship. Eventually, he gives his life for the forest in the sky and leaves it to sail on tended by one of the drones.
The film has an overall 70's feel about it with Dern's hippy-looking clothing and long hair and a background of Joan Baez songs but it is to be applauded as one of the first warnings about the way we treat the earth and it's resources.
At the time the film was released the message was comparatively new and therefore it had more impact. Sadly, thirty years on and more species are being lost each day, the hole in the ozone layer is bigger and greenhouse gases are worsening. Silent Running is not a great film nor is it particularly gripping but it is a warning just the same and to be applauded for that if nothing else.

Dark Star { 1974 }
Director : John Carpenter
Unlike Silent Running Dark Star has no great message for mankind unless it could be that space travel is bad for your health. Dark Star is a space ship seeking out unstable planets and blowing them up but the crew are more unstable than the planets. They become more so when a computerised bomb which makes HAL seem a model of reason and composure, refuses to release threatening to blow them all into eternity. The crew's attempts to reason with the bomb end in philosophical conversations and the bomb quoting Descartes' dictum of " I think therefore I am" amongst other gems.
At the same time an alien mascot causes havoc amongst the crew and looking very much like a beachball with legs prompts suspicions that not too much in the way of a budget was allocated to this film.
There is I am told a cult following for this film but frankly I can't see why. The 70's music and the crew's long hair dates it and the slapstick humour escapes me completely. As a movie buff it is worth watching if only as a project for John Carpenter and Dan O'Bannon to cut their teeth on but as for the rest it is not my idea of Science Fiction.
There is one scene which was intriguing when one of the crew takes out a knife and begins to stab between his fingers as fast as he can. The same thing appears in Aliens when the android does the same thing faster than the eye can follow.

Alien { 1979 }
Director : Ridley Scott
Writer Dan O'Bannon who was light years away from the Dark Star Dan O'Bannon
It's hard to believe that it as long ago as 1979 that Alien sent a shock-wave throughout cinema audiences which still reverberates to this day; Alien raised the bar to heights unprecedented and is still the standard for everyone else to aim at. After Alien, Science-Fiction films improved immensely but to date nobody has even come close and perhaps they never will ; It is entirely possible that Alien is the definitive film about outer space and will never be improved upon.
From the opening scenes of Nostromo gliding among the stars to the knuckle-biting finale there is a sustained atmosphere of menace and foreboding throughout every corridor of the gigantic mining ship.
We first encounter the seven astronauts as they awaken from hyper-sleep and breakfast together like some suburban family. One by one the characters become familiar ---- Dallas
{ Tom Skerrit } , Lt Ellen Ripley { Sigourney Weaver } , science officer Ash { Ian Holm } , Lambert { Veronica Cartwright } , Brett and Parker { Harry Dean Stanton and Yaphet Kotto } , Kane { John Hurt } and as we get to know and like them so we care what happens to them. Our introduction to the crew as they go about their mundane and workaday routine is one of the main strengths of the film.
The crew have been away for a long time and are anxious to go home and for this reason a signal from an uncharted planet is greeted with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. When Ripley points out that the signal is not necessarily an S.O.S. but a possible warning, her fears are dispelled by Ash.
When John Hurt finds his way into the bowels of a literally alien environment none of the structures are familiar and the whole thing seems organic in nature. The encounter with the fossil alien in the cathedral-like control room is awesome in its strangeness. Stranger still are the eggs he encounters and the alien creature which attaches itself to his face.
Back in the ship attempts are made to remove the creature with no success and Kane's apparent recovery leads to the crew having a celebratory dinner. The following scene when the incubating alien bursts from Kane's chest in a bloody "birth" is truly horrific and has moved into one of those legendary cinema experiences which are familiar to everyone ----" Frankly. My dear", "Top of the world Ma" and so on.
The alien matures incredibly quickly and in best Agatha Christie style the crew are picked off one by one. Ridley Scott is well aware that horror is magnified in proportion to what you don't see as opposed to graphic details { which are all too common these days } and the taking of Brett is left to the imagination as the camera focuses upon Jonesy, the ship's cat, hissing in terror.
Ripley discovers that Ash is an android programmed to return an alien specimen to earth and the crew are expendable and Parker destroys Ash after he attempts to kill Ripley. There is even more of a horrific element to this scene as what's left of the android still attempts to carry out his programming and there is a sense that this thing is part human being.
With only Ripley remaining alive she decides to blow up the Nostromo along with the alien and return to earth aboard the shuttle. This accomplished, she relaxes with Jonesy and preparing for the return trip discovers that the alien is aboard and she has to face it all over again. Humming " You are my lucky star" as an antidote to fear she finally blows the creature out of the air-lock.
Surprisingly, Alien only took one Oscar which was for visual effects but this genre does not lend itself to Oscar winning so it was not too surprising. What was surprising though was that this film was only Ridley Scott's second work as a director ; his first was the Duellist which is reviewed in Eclectica.
H.R.Giger's alien artefacts and the alien itself are a master-class in graphic design of a totally different life form to ours. He has also imbued the creature with a life cycle and the combination of ferocious killing machine with a technology to match ours make the Alien one of the most interesting concepts in the genre. There is also the tantalising fact that even after four Alien films nothing is known about where the creature originates and the potential storylines for Giger's Alien are endless.

Aliens { 1986 }
Director : James Cameron
The sequel to Alien is often mooted as being even better and in many ways it is : Sigourney Weaver rounds out Ripley's character, the action is non-stop and James Cameron has expanded upon themes that Ridley Scott initiated. Both films are so good and Cameron has seamlessly welded the sequel onto Alien that I now think of them as one film.
In the opening scene, Ripley's discovery aboard her escape craft in a 57 year long hyper-sleep merely prompts a laconic
" There goes our salvage" by her rescuers. During her recovery we uncover for the first time some of her background ; that she had a daughter who has sadly passed away of old age as Ripley's aging process slowed during her voyage.
Coercion by the "Company", incessant nightmares and loss of her family force her to face up to her demons and return to the planet she barely escaped, with her mission to aid a colony of terraformers.
Cameron is astute enough to realise that her experiences with the Aliens would have had profound effects upon even the hardest of people and Alien's Ripley is experienced, wiser and more cynical. Once aboard the Sulaco, in particular she is scornful of the accompanying gung-ho marine's "kick-butt" philosophy and sophisticated artillery.
At first sight, the marines would seem to be just another one-dimensional excuse for battles with the Aliens but again Cameron has borrowed from Ridley Scott and fleshed out his characters with individual personalities. We get to know them just as we got to know the crew of the Nostromo. The dialogue between them is also realistic and humourous ;
One Marine to the butch Vasquez ---- " Have you ever been mistaken for a man, Vasquez?"
Meets with the riposte " Have you?"
Her previous experience with androids has Ripley showing an overt aversion to Bishop who professes his near- Asimov programming to humankind. Our first meeting with Bishop has him performing the knife and hand stunt which Dan O'Bannon produced in Dark Star.
Once upon the planet, the marines investigate the living quarters where all of Ripley's maternal instincts are roused when Newt is discovered. Ripley identifies strongly with the traumatised little girl and vows to remain with her no matter what comes their way.
From this time on the action alternates between hysterical firefights in the foetid corridors of the unit to a truly scary scene where Newt and Ripley are trapped in the laboratory with two of the scuttling, crab-like face-huggers.
The scenes where the marines first enter the unit are extremely tense for minutes on end while the depictions of the Aliens unfolding slowly from their organic lairs are the best ever.
Cameron captures perfectly the claustrophobic and terrifying atmosphere of Alien and Ripley's despair at Newt's capture is heart-rendingly realistic.
Like all well-plotted films the ending brings together several previously innocuous scenes and characters and Ripley's skill with the mechanised loader and Bishop's alliance combine to rescue Newt and kill the Alien queen in an electrifying finale to a superb sequel.
Alien 3 { 1992 }
Director : David Fincher
It goes without saying that it is an act of courage of the highest order to attempt a follow-up to the previous Alien films but without ever having reaching the pinnacles that his predecessors did David Fincher makes a reasonable fist of his task.
The storyline is innovative with Ripley carrying an alien inside her while marooned on a prison planet. As usual, Sigourney Weaver is supreme as the now hard-as-nails Ripley but no matter how tough she appears Sigourney Weaver invariably manages to apply a femininity and vulnerability to the soul of Ripley. It's inconceivable that anybody else could play this unique character and without Weaver's influence none of the Alien films would have been nearly as effective.
It is inevitable that it will be judged against the previous two films and while the film is enjoyable and exciting it never comes anywhere near to the now legendary status of Aliens one and two.
The special-effects, claustrophobic atmosphere and deadly cat-and-mouse games with the eponymous aliens are in place as usual and seem to be almost obligatory but what does come as a surprise is that the prison planet is chock full of British character actors. This is quite unusual in that S.F pictures are largely the domain of American actors and especially Alien films which are peopled by gung-ho colonial marines and although I was prepared to give it a chance the presence of so many Brits spoils the film a great deal.
The problem is that I know them all so well, see them regularly on T.V. and can never visualise them in anything other than the parts they have always played. Brian Glover in particular lost his hard-man credibility when he went over to advertise Tetley Tea Bags and Paul McGann, Christopher Fairbank and several others can be seen regularly in sit-coms. Not only that, British actors in space just don't do it for me. The exception that proves the rule lies in Charles Dance's commanding presence as a doctor. Dance's character is exceptionally interesting but inexplicably is cut short all too soon. Dance was impressive and illustrates emphatically the difference between a screen star performance and a T.V. character actor.
When Ripley dives gracefully backwards into a vat of molten lead most people assumed that they had seen the last of the Alien films but that was to underestimate the ingenuity of Hollywood when there is money to be made.

Alien Resurrection { 1997 }
Director : Jean-Pierre Jeunet
The fourth Alien film and yet another director found Hollywood in the quandary of having killed off the lynchpin of the whole set of films. Sigourney Weaver is Ripley. And in a triumph of Hollywood ingenuity, Ripley returned as a human/alien hybrid clone. Despite the imposing presence of Ron Perlman and the cachet of having Winona Ryder in the cast list, Resurrection, like Alien 3 inevitably falls far short of the standard set by the first two Alien films.
The sets are just as foreboding and the atmosphere just as menacing but the story line is unconvincing and very much contrived.
The special effects are as usual brilliantly done and it is worth seeing the film if only for the terrifying underwater scenes.

H..Giger's superb creation is too good to be forgotten about and there is plenty of scope for a revival at some stage but Aliens vs Predator is not the way to do it. For the time being both creations have plumbed the depths ending up as no more than simulated computer games but one day they could be back better than ever.

Blade Runner {1982 }
From a novel by Philip. K. Dick. ---Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep ?
Director Ridley Scott's Los Angeles of 2019 is a gloomy, forbidding and claustrophobic city in an earth where animal life has been so decimated that synthetics have taken their place. Having directed Alien three years earlier he was quite familiar with claustrophobia. Not only animals have been replicated but several versions of replicant humans created to serve and carry out nominal duties. The human androids have taken to rebelling and Rick Deckard { Harrison Ford } is an expert at destroying the rogue androids and the L.A. police enlist his aid.
Deckard comes over as a futuristic Mike Hammer and the film noir of the 30's detective faced with futuristic problems works extremely well, especially when he meets Rachel { Sean Young } a Veronica Lake look-alike, all 30's hairdo and padded shoulders.
Deckard's first meeting with Rachel is vital to understanding the theme of the film as he routinely discovers that she also is a replicant. It is not that discovery that bothers Deckard but her reaction to his finding out ----- she refuses to accept that she is an android and is insulted by his assertion that she is. Tyrell who constructed her and the other androids has done something unprecedented in previous models and implanted them with a memory of a previous life. Consequently, the rogue replicants Decker has been commissioned to kill want to live as long as they can in just one of many human traits they have inherited.
Rutger Hauer as the leader of the rogue replicants comes to Tyrell to ask him if he can prolong his life remarking sardonically that he has "Come to meet his Maker". Tyrell's refusal prompts his demise in a horrifying " kiss of death".
The film then follows Decker's tracking down of the replicants and his increasing devotion to Rachel. They fall deeply in love and Sean Young's performance as the enigmatic and emotionally fragile Rachel { reminiscent of Bacall and Lake } as an homage to film noir is excellent.
In the final scenes Decker finally eliminates Rutger Hauer's replicant and Rachel and Decker walk off to begin a new life together. But this film is never that simple----throughout the film Decker's movements have been watched by the L.A. police detective who is in the habit of making origami paper unicorns and as Decker walks out into the corridor there is one on the floor. It would be easy to dismiss it as a sign that the detective had been there but it is a confirmation that Decker is also a replicant. There was always a vague frisson that Decker was not all that he seemed but it requires a Ridley Scott interview to tell us that he was indeed a replicant implanted with dreams of a unicorn ----hence the detective's obsession.
On the face of it Blade Runner is a routine story but the film has so many hidden depths and nuances and the dialogue is so subtle that several viewings are necessary before the whole thing assumes shape. There is a nod to Ray Bradbury when Decker enters a Bradbury Hotel, there is the film noir 30's theme and not least the underlying assertion that any life is of value ---even that of an android.
But the real lesson that comes across is that the androids value the imaginary lives that they have been given far more than we humans value ours and we take too much of our gift for granted.
Isaac Asimov would have approved greatly which is the highest accolade I can give this film..

Terminator { 1984 }
Director : James Cameron
The early S.F. films featured robots in many guises --- cutting edge then, most of them now look like they were built in a garage with a socket-set compared with the sleek androids appearing in many of today's films. Isaac Asimov was miles ahead of the field when he envisioned a world of androids so integrated into society that they needed laws specific to them ; the famous 3 Laws of Robotics.
If Arnold Schwartzenegger's Terminator was aware of the 3 Laws he disregarded them completely as the relentless assassin from the future.
Completely lacking the subtleties of Blade Runner's android epic, what Terminator lacks in dialogue it certainly makes up for in action and excitement as the emotionless Cyborg hunts down the hapless Sarah Connor played by Linda Hamilton. Managing to be both seductive and vulnerable at the same time Sarah is the girl-next-door faced with a virtually invulnerable machine programmed to destroy her.
Cameron recruited Michael Biehn { who played Hicks in Aliens } to play Sarah's protector and later lover and there was a much too small part for Lance Henrikson who nevertheless excelled as he always does.
Starting slowly, the action increases as the film goes along culminating in a gripping finale as the Terminator, even more terrifying reduced to a metal skeleton, pursues his prey to a stunning finale.

T.2 Judgement Day { 1991 }
Director : James Cameron
Arnie's " I'll be back" has entered into movie folk-lore and he was true to his word in the sequel to Terminator. Again reprising his role as the Terminator, this time he's fighting on the side of the angels as a protector to Sarah against the formidable liquid-metal, cybernetic organism called T-1000. The T-1000 looks like the metal mercury personified, has all the properties and resilience of mercury with the added bonus of the ability to metamorphose into any shape he desires, assuming the persona of a Police officer for much of the film. The T- 1000 is a wondrous cinematic creation and goes to make up much of the film's fascination.
Sarah has had a metamorphosis of her own and slimmed down into tough, urban guerrilla protecting the young John Connor played by Edward Furlong and is fleeing from her latest nemesis aided by the now obsolete Terminator.
The plot is far more complex than the first film with some interesting time-paradox themes. Apart from Reese being John Connor's dad, it now comes to light that the first Terminator's chip supplied information vital to the workings of the Skynet Super-Computer.
The young John Connor also alters the Terminator's programming to enable him to "learn" and to not take human life.
But the real strength of the film is the sheer pace and non-stop action which hits the ground running right from the word go and increases in intensity as the film unfolds. It seems to be a hallmark of James Cameron' direction that each film he makes has this roller-coaster quality , increasingly going faster and faster and culminating in a cymbal-crashing finale.
The edge-of-the-seat final battle in the foundry and the chase leading up their getting there are exciting as anything in S.F. history and certainly up there with Ripley's battle with the alien queen. After a number of nail-biting, unequal and innovative combats the Terminator is reduced to a shambling wreck by the formidable and seemingly unstoppable T-1000 but with one last throw of the dice he sends the T-1000 plummeting into a vat of molten metal.
John Connor's re-programming of the Terminator makes the final scenes quite poignant as the Terminator sacrifices himself in order to destroy any chance that his chip will fall into the wrong hands. As Sarah Connor states at the end " what he had learned was the value of human life". There's also a single note of humour when the Terminator, now looking like a prospect for the scrap-heap comments " I need a vacation". Personally, I think that this was James Cameron's way of saying that it was he who needed a vacation after the prodigious efforts put into this movie. It would also be remiss not to state that the special-effects department and the stunt arrangers should take a special bow for some awesome film-making.

If Terminator was a great S.F. movie then James Cameron was truly inspired when he made Judgement Day.
{ There's a fascinating scene in Judgement Day when the T-1000 finds himself walking through a lake of liquid ammonia and consequently becoming so brittle that he literally shatters into shards. The same process is not just being considered but is actually now an option available instead of cremation ---- what will they think of next }.

Terminator 3 : Rise of the Machines { 2003 }
Director Jonathan Mostow
Apart from Arnold Schwarzenegger all of the usual players were absent from this film -- the most notable being James Cameron. For a film which had been awaited impatiently for several years it was slightly disappointing and perhaps that was the problem --- the anticipation had built up to such a height that nothing less than perfection would have sufficed, but Arnie is to Terminator what Weaver is to Alien and his presence alone is worth the entrance fee . In actual fact, the film is a top-class action movie but there is too much of a temptation to compare it to what has gone before and by those standards it does fall slightly short. Having said that, there is much to like about the film ---not least the superb sequences during the lorry chase and the battle in the corridors of Skylab with the killing machines and the ever-changing Terminatrix. There are some interesting twists in the Terminator story not least when John Connor discovers that the Terminator sent to protect him will eventually kill him at some time in the future. There is also the surprising discovery by John Connor and his girl-friend that the Terminator has been sent to protect them and not as they believe to prevent Judgement Day and last but not least is the intriguing notion that Skylab which was built to save mankind was the instrument of its demise.
Overall Terminator 3 is fine entertainment and goes to make up a trilogy of memorable S.F. movies but it will take a daring Producer to make another one and until that day arrives it's " Hasta La Vista, Baby"

Predator { 1987 }
Director : John McTiernan
Predator will never win any prizes for artistic direction, memorable dialogue, intricacies of plot or even great acting but what it does have is a straight-forward, old-fashioned, slam-bang adventure story. In fact it is so retro that it even goes as far as to reintroduce the ancient device from the Saturday matinee era where, as the credits roll at the end, each character turns to the camera and gives a little smile as his name comes up ----- it's a bit like the screen version of an obituary.
Make sure you get to your seat early as the film gets underway within minutes with Dutch { Arnold Schwarzenegger } leading a highly-trained, specialised army unit by helicopter into the jungles of South America. Equipped with an impressive array of hardware and looking like refugees from the The Dirty Dozen they joke their way into their mission to a background of Little Richard belting out Long Tall Sally. All the signs read that nobody has ever messed with these guys with impunity and wouldn't we all have liked mates like these now and again.
After completing their mission with relative ease ---- I have to say that I'm not too sure what the mission was but part of it involved slaughtering a small South American army----- they have to make their way through the jungle to their extraction point which is when the heavily camouflaged Predator appears and begins to pick them off one by one.
Each of the unit takes on the Predator in isolation and each of them are slain and butchered until only Dutch remains. In a preliminary encounter with the creature he loses his weapons and is faced with the irony of having failed to kill the Predator surrounded by defenders using sophisticated weaponry he now must face it using primitive weapons. So, in the primeval jungle setting the duo fight a battle to the death.
The Predator is the real star of the picture and immediately takes his place in the movie pantheon of creatures from another world. The concept of an alien trophy hunter with a nightmarish visage screened by a helmet and armour and a predilection for creative butchery is the glue that holds the film together and although Gort would be appalled at the violence, Predator is extremely enjoyable despite all its faults.

Predator 2
Director : Stephen Hopkins
The clever start to the Predator sequel with the camera panning over a "jungle" and then skimming upward to reveal it as the outskirts of L.A. and then homing in on the human jungle promised a great deal but ultimately disappointed. Beginning with a shoot-out between police and a crazed bunch of Columbian drug dealers the tone of the film is set immediately as the bullets fly everywhere from an arsenal of artillery which would have ended World War 2 in short order. Thriving in the ensuing mayhem, the Predator slays the Columbians with his usual mix of medieval and techno weaponry. From that point onward, killing indiscriminately, the alien is hunted by L.A.'s finest and the F.B.I. agents who fight with each other as they clash in that now clichéd rivalry between the two. Danny Glover does his best with the now obligatory staff of maverick cops and Gary Busey is nasty as usual as the opening scene is repeated several times with various other players such as a Jamaican Voodoo gang and subway muggers. There's only so many times that you can have flying bullets and Predator killings without it becoming a little tiresome and there is so much of it in this film that the shock value is devalued accordingly. The film does improve at the end with the running battle between Harrigan{ Glover } and the Predator culminating in the death of the alien hunter within his own spacecraft. There's also a nice little touch when Harrigan spots the trophies on the wall which include an Alien skull and on a previous occasion when the Predator is flensing his trophies atop a skyscraper { reminiscent of a classic Batman pose } but overall the film is merely competent and lacks the spark of inspiration which makes a film exceptional.
The Predator is a great creation but since the initial film it has been all downhill, with the Alien vs Predator debacle lowering the tone considerably. Strangely, the Predator has been explored far more within the pages of comic books which have placed him in far more interesting scenarios. Given the right treatment and an inspired script there is still a great Predator movie waiting to be made.

Steven Spielberg first dipped his toes into the waters of S.F. with Close Encounters ----- a sober study of alien abductions which added little to the subject and was just a little dull.
He then performed one of the greatest balancing acts in the history of the cinema transforming the ungainly and plug-ugly Extra-Terrestrial into one the most recognisable and popular beings upon the planet. Volumes have been written in praise of E.T. and rightly so as it is one of the finest feel-good movies of all time and anything I had to add would be superfluous.
But in 2001, in yet another mood swing Spielberg left behind the Disneysque world of E.T. and turned his attention to the Daliesque and darker subject of ;

Artificial Intelligence A.I.
Director : Steven Spielberg
From a short story by Brian Aldiss: Supertoys Last All Summer Long.
A.I. is a multi-layered film exploring the future of robotics, the enduring nature of love, the evolution of intelligence and the future of mankind among other things ---and it succeeds on every level. It is above all else a modern fairy tale and like all good fairy tales retains the traditions of good and evil but to bring in so many themes within that context is the art of screenwriting par excellence.
David { Haley Joel Osment } is a robot boy who has the capacity to learn and above all to love. He was created by Professor Hobby { played by William Hurt } the Visionary behind the Cybertronics organisation. When Monica { Frances O'Connor } yearns for her child whose illness has placed him in suspended animation her husband { Sam Robards } brings home David. At first she rejects the thought of anyone taking the place of her son but gradually transfers her affections to David and eventually takes the irrevocable step of "imprinting" and from that point on David's love for her is undying.
Unfortunately for David, Monica's son Martin makes a miraculous recovery and returns home, displacing David in his mother's affections. The bedtime stories that Monica once read to David she now reads to Martin and listening at the door David is jolted by the story of Pinocchio who is turned into a real boy by The Blue Fairy. The super-toy Teddy prefers the company of David and Martin's jealousy inspires him to lead David into pranks which he says will lead him to win back Monica's affection but have exactly the opposite effect. When Martin tells him to cut a lock of her hair while she is sleeping Monica awakens to find David above her with the scissors in his hand. The lock of hair has floated down in Teddy's hand and he hides it in a pouch.
Forced into getting rid of David, she tearfully abandons him in the woods and accompanied by the ever-faithful Teddy, David sets off on his quest to find The Blue Fairy and become a real boy. On his travels, he comes across the love-robot, Gigolo Joe { Jude Law } and a number of ingeniously designed robots escaping from the Flesh Fair where they are to be destroyed in novel ways to the delectation of a crowd which would have been at home in the Colosseum. Escaping the Flesh Fair, still with Teddy and Joe he travels to Rouge City and on to the drowned city of Man-Hattan where he discovers many other Davids ---created by Prof. Hobby as substitutes for his dead son.
In an act of despair, David drops into the ocean and rescued by Joe in a sub-aqua plane he eventually finds his goal -- next to the Ferris Wheel on a sunken Coney Island is The Blue Fairy.
Two thousand years later an alien race discover a frozen David and Teddy still imploring The Blue Fairy to grant his wish. They discover the lock of hair held by Teddy and using her D.N.A. the aliens bring Monica back and David is reunited with his"mother" at last.
The special-effects in A.I. are stunning and unlike many films they complement and enhance the story and never detract from it. The story is thought-provoking and intelligent and at times it is deeply disturbing and even depressing ---the same could be said of most of the stories by the Brothers Grimm. Nevertheless, it is a work of cinematic genius unlike anything else that Spielberg has done before.
Is there another child-actor on the planet who could carry such a role as Hayley Joel Osment has here ?
And is there another Teddy on the planet as cute and faithful as this Teddy ?

Steven Spielberg is indubitably a cinematic genius who has combined an abiding affection for his childhood memories and turned them into great films. In a supreme example of serendipity his genius has flowered at exactly the same time as the quantum leap in special-effects technology. Up to this point he has utilised special-effects with great skill ---none so more than in A. I. However, audiences can be fickle and stunning effects which caused gasps five years ago are now the norm and there is a suspicion in War of the World's that they have usurped the whole film and the actors just cannot compete ---tell me I'm wrong.

Dreamcatcher {2003}
Director : Lawrence Kasdan ---novel by Stephen King
Designing an alien being is a pretty formidable task if you really think about it ----it has to be different to all those who have gone before and most difficult of all the creature must be both credible and incredible at the same time. Not only that, if the budding alien creator wishes to draw some inspiration from life on earth, all the bases have been pretty well covered. The parade of creatures that have inhabited our planet have filled every conceivable and inconceivable niche and crevice of evolutionary diversity and from brontosaur to bacterium most of them are far stranger than anything seen on screen.
Most of the alien beings seen on film have their origins in creatures of earth, past or present and more and more are drawing on the bizarre panoply of life under the lens.
To date, Giger's Alien is the most creative and detailed of the alien clan but the life-cycle that Giger has given to the aliens is not uncommon on earth in the insect world and there are several species of wasp alone that lay their eggs within a living caterpillar so that the hatchlings have a supply of pre-packed, fresh meat.
The Predator is an imaginative alien life-form and I for one would like to see him back someday and the concept of an alien trophy hunter who has been preying on the earth for millenia has yet to be fully explored. However, as appealing as he is, the Predator himself is merely the amalgam of a crab's head with dreadlocks, on the shoulders of an athlete.
The plethora of giant-lizards, massive worms, reptilian humanoids appear over and over again and are just variants of some of the creatures found upon earth. The only true phenomena are the things that don't exist upon earth ----the shape-changers, mind-readers and body-stealers and most of these are becoming cliched.
Since Roswell, there have been numerous bug-eyed, slimy and naked aliens popping up everywhere with the added fillip that many people suspect their existence.
All this is not to say that film aliens are any the less fearsome or strange but it does make the case that very few are truly unique products of the human mind and if Stephen King is unable to bring forth a true original from his boundless imagination then we are all lost. And Stephen Kings' alien is definitely not an original ----in fact the author has taken an element here and there from many other screen aliens and created a chimera of an alien creature, making Dreamcatcher perilously close to being a bland and formulaic production. But what does make the film different and rescues it from movie sameness is the standard Stephen King addition of the supernatural thrown into the mix, resulting in a far more entertaining and complex plot. In fact, I would say that it is advisable to first read the book to fully understand what's going on in the film. Damian Lewis has the burden of most of the work, adopting several personas as the monster inhabits various bodies and Morgan Freeman is a welcome addition to any film.
Regular readers of Stephen King will notice the standard themes present in most of his work --- the children's storyline, the supernatural and not least the Grimm's fairytale aspect of a dark and menacing forest. The grim and forbidding forest is an ever-present in Stephen King's work, which, if the theories of A.A. Gill can be believed, betrays the author's origins. Gill was a journalist who was interested in the battle of the Teutoberg Forest in A.D. 9 when three Roman Legions were massacred by a horde of barbarian Germans. The Roman Empire suffered a devastating blow to its arms and prestige and even to the present day the leader of the Germans, Arminius is celebrated as a folk-hero, never more so than during the Nazi era when he was raised to cult status. Gill's speculation is as follows;
" The slaughter in the Teutoberg Forest divided Europe into the warm south who forever saw forests as dreadful places to be avoided and cleared, homes to dragons and trolls, antitheses of the civilized city. And the north who understood them to be healing, protecting, mystical, spiritual places. How you feel about a silent birch forest at twilight says more about your bloodline than your passport."
We all know how Stephen King feels about birch forests at twilight and the southern Europeans may be even more fearful after the author has filled them full of aliens as well as all the other monsters.
Dreamcatcher is good but never great and despite faithfully reproducing the book it never captures the indefinable magic that Stephen King's books always have.

War of The Worlds { 2005 }
Director : Steven Spielberg after the novel by H.G.Wells
It was only a matter of time before Steven Spielberg turned his attention to H.G.Wells's classic saga of invasion from another planet and he has welded his tried and tested formula of an ordinary family in peril onto the enduring tale. Ray Ferrier
{ Tom Cruise } is the divorced husband who has access to his two children on the very weekend that the Martians choose to put their millennia-long invasion plans into effect. Plucked from Spielberg's limitless supply of wunderkind, Dakota Fanning
{ Rachel } plays the cute but feisty 9-year-old-going-on-90 and steals every scene in the process while Justin Chatwin as her elder brother Robbie is the angst-ridden teenager beloved of tweenies everywhere. The sharp dialogue and tensions between the three of them belie an innate love for one another and it is that rare on-screen affinity between them that is a very likeable part of the film. A stand-out scene is when Ray is making a peanut butter sandwich for Rachel and she tells him she is allergic to peanut-butter. "Since when" ? says Ray " Since birth" says a weary Rachel.
There is a sense of the film having been made in sections as the family race from scene to scene but the set-pieces are as we have to expect brilliant in their execution --- the overturned ferry, the air-line crash, the attacks by the tripods are all memorable. Not least is the sequence in the cellar when the Martian probe seeks them out and confronts a mirror behind which the family are cowering accompanied by the half-crazy urban guerrilla Harlan played by Tim Robbins. The conclusion to the cellar sequence is the killing of Harlan which is a jarring note that is a little distasteful and an unnecessary addition to the film.
Among the many scary and tense scenes one of the most disturbing does not involve the aliens at all but is the frenzied attempt by a baying mob to hi-jack Ray's car ---a telling indictment of the behaviour of humanity in crisis ---well some of it anyway. Perhaps Ray's slaying of Harlan is part of the same process but heroes are meant to be above that sort of thing, surely.
The influence of the original movie is pervasive and if there is ever another War of the Worlds then it will undoubtedly be traditional for the Martians to arrive in tripartite, sleek, manta-like machines and the Martians themselves to have an amphibian appearance just as it was in the first film. There are in fact so many similarities to the original film that Spielberg could be accused of plagiarism but it is quite obvious that he holds it dear as evidenced by his affectionate nod of having Gene Barry and Ann Robinson at the door in the final sequence.
Throughout the film there are some beautifully filmed action shots of the alien tripods as they devastate the earth and it would be normal to expect the traditional grand-stand finish but the final scenes are an anticlimax to what has gone before. Many of the truly great movies are memorable for climatic scenes among iconic buildings { King Kong, Planet of the Apes, Spiderman et al } but inexplicably Spielberg has his Martian tripods crashing down in their death throes on top of what looks like a Walmart warehouse. The overall impression is that someone has pulled the plug on the funding or Spielberg has run out of inspiration which must be a first --- whatever the reason it is without doubt an opportunity missed for the creation of a classic and iconic movie scene, Spielberg style, to enter the movie Hall of Fame.
There are several other missed opportunities ; Morgan Freeman has a great speaking voice but the rich baritones of Richard Burton on the Jeff Wayne album are incomparable. Combined with the music from the same album they would have electrified the film and audiences both. There is also the point that the definitive film version of Wells's novel must be set in Victorian London which is a great deal of the charm of the book.
Comparisons with the first film are an inevitability with advanced technology the most apparent difference. Computer graphics make the extraordinary into reality and Spielberg has taken full advantage of the techniques while directing a thoroughly enjoyable film. Nevertheless, I still have a sneaking regard for the original ---nostalgia is a powerful force.

Mocked for years as the nadir of popular culture, Science-Fiction is now widely acknowledged for what it is ----simply a manifestation and means of expressing the curiosity that is inherent in all of us for even a speck of knowledge about what is out there and the reasons why. As such, Science Fiction films will always be made and there will always be an audience for them until that curiosity is satisfied. As such, Keep Watching The Skies.