Alien Nation Review

MPAA Rating: R
Released: 1988

Alien Nation featured a story about an alien race that crash landed on our planet in 1988 and became integrated with American society. Now these genetically superior humanoids live and work among us, but not everyone is happy about sharing their cities with these beings. In fact some are downright disdainful and suspicious of them.

Detective Matthew Sykes is one such person, and his hostility for the aliens reaches a new level when his partner is gunned down by some. But Sykes will have to learn how to put his anger aside in order to bring the murderers to justice, because his new partner just happens to be an alien…

Alien Nation was a film with so much potential. When the movie begins we're shown news footage of an alien craft hovering over Earth in 1988 as well as the accompanying chaos. Through excerpts of this footage we learn that the ship contained thousands of escaped humanoid aliens that were previously genetically created for slave labor. The ship of refugees went off course and found its way to our planet.

At first the aliens were kept quarantined, but the Reagan administration determined the humanoids were harmless and decided to integrate them into American society. Now the aliens, dubbed Newcomers, come in all lifestyles, from the respected corporate elite to the petty criminals.

While patrolling the streets one evening Detective Matthew Sykes (James Caan) and his partner observe a robbery in progress. The military hardware the two gunmen are packing is extraordinary, and the two cops find themselves seriously outmatched. During the shootout Sykes' partner is killed, and now Sykes is determined to find out the identity of the shooters and bring them to justice.

Helping him on this case will be Detective Sam "George" Francisco (Mandy Patinkin), who happens to be a Newcomer himself. Together they uncover a conspiracy involving the production of alien super drugs that can enslave Newcomers… and much worse when taken in huge quantities. The head of this drug production is no less than William Harcourt (Terence Stamp), a well-respected and powerful businessman.

As I mentioned earlier, the premise of aliens living with us contains so much potential, so it's almost criminal that director Graham Baker completely dropped the ball with Alien Nation. Rather than providing an epic or absorbing tale of extraterrestrial visitors like V: The Original Mini-Series, Alien Nation teases the audience with its sci-fi trappings and then converts into a second-rate buddy-cop movie.

There are attempts to draw analogies between racism and the populace's reactions towards the aliens, but it's done in such a hamfisted manner that most of the audience simply won't care. While there are hints of sci-fi goodness and tough issues such as racism within the film, ultimately Alien Nation is a paint-by-numbers murder mystery with frantic action and light hints of humor.

James Caan can put forth mesmerizing performances as reflected in masterpieces such as Thief and The Godfather, but here his performance was relatively lifeless; it does not appear his heart was in the film at all. Mandy Patinkin did better as Syke's partner, but the alien makeup makes it difficult to catch the nuances of his acting.

It may sound like I'm completely down on Alien Nation, but that's primarily due to my disappointment with botching a promising premise. This movie could have been great, but instead it settled for average.

Alien Nation was successful enough to spawn off a short-lived television series on the Fox network, as well as multiple made-for-television movies. Many consider the television series to be superior to this movie due to its emphasis on the aliens and societal issues rather than the buddy-cop formula used in this film.

Those looking for a decent buddy-cop film will probably enjoy the unique sci-fi trappings of this film since it lends a new dimension to the formula, but anyone looking for an engrossing and serious sci-fi movie will probably be disappointed in Alien Nation.

Movie rating : 5 stars

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