Are aliens being prtrayed differently in movies?

[neytirifanboy]

Having discussed a little in the District 9 thread, I thought I would open a new thread to discuss the potrayal in Aliens.

District 9 and Avatar are the first movies where the movie encourages the audience to sympathise ambiguoisly with the aliens against human agressors.

It the past aliens have often taken other roles:

1) As the agressive preadotorial monsters or a conquering force like in the Alien or Predator movies or Independence Day.

2) As cameo apprearances, sidekicks or allies of the humans much used in Star Wars

3) As a weak race to be saved by humans.

4) As comic entertainment in comedies. In fact, comedies is one of the own genre where the aliens are the main character or on the side of good Such as ET, Splash, etc.

In all cases the humans are generally regarded as on the side of good with a few exceptions.

There are a few exceptions such as Enemy Mine and Alien Nation, but even there the aliens were quite one dimensional and really only served as subset of humand rather than being a race in themselves.

So how do you think aliens, and indeed, have been potrayed and will be potrayed. And just as importantly, why and what does it mean?

[tireafya’o]

3) As a weak race to be saved by humans like in the SG1 original movie.

They were humans taken from Earth 1000's of years ago

[neytirifanboy]

They were humans taken from Earth 1000's of years ago

Edit made. Although it was just to give an example. A better example of this may be Galaxy Quest.

[tireafya’o]

I can remember sympathetic portrayals of Aliens in other movies. At the moment only a few spring to mind but if I spent more time going through memories of the 1000's of movies I've seen I would no doubt come up with more, but for now.

Day the Earth stood Still (original) although the Alien did appear human.

Forbidden Planet: The Krell were only referred to but you still sympathised non the less

2001: Again not really seen apart from the presence of the various monoliths.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

The Fifth Element

Terra

KPAX

Starman

Cocoon

Edit: Adding as I think of them

[neytirifanboy]

I can remember sympathetic portrayals of Aliens in other movies. At the moment only a few spring to mind but if I spent more time going through memories of the 1000's of movies I've seen I would no doubt come up with more, but for now.
Edit: Adding as I think of them

So do you think that any are comparable to say Avatar or District 9 for example? So do you think think that alien potrayal has stayed the same?

But the question is not whether aliens are treated sympathetically or not. There are lots of movies where aliens are sympatheitc. It is more whether the audience is made to relate more to the alien than the humans in the movie.

With regards to The day the Earth Stood still, this perhaps comes under a new category of super powerful, but not necessarily destructive aliens. Although I foind it difficult to side with the aliens in that movie, and I didn't think the movie was very good.

[tireafya’o]

I think it does depend entirely on the individuals outlook and how they experience the movie. For me I completely empathised with the Aliens in Close Encounters, The Fifth Element, Terra, KPAX, Cocoon and Starman being a prime example.

As we have seen with the varying points of views in the reviews regarding Avatar, some people just don't see it like others do.

[HufweMakto]

I was going to make a thread about this! You beat me to it!

Anywho, I'm going to support this idea with the fact that with Avatar and District 9, the aliens are shown to be more "human", while appearing less than human. The only other example I can compare is that of Chewbacca from the original Star Wars trilogy. Chewbacca may have seemed like a big furry alien in the first movie, but as the series progressed he's shown as being just as human as the other characters in the series: he cries when his friend Han is frozen in carbonite, he's shown to hug and congratulate his friends when they win or say good bye, he's even shown to have a rather sly side during that game scene. Although little of his culture is shown, he is shown in a matter that he seems just as human and as real as an alien, more so than Spock or the aliens from Alien Nation appear. With District 9, this is shown with how Christopher Johnson and his child act and interact with each other, one touching scene is when Chris shows his kid a holograph of their homeworld and the kid's reaction to Wikus' Prawn arm. But they are also protrayed as alien in the way that they look and even in their mannerisms. Not much of their culture is shown during the film, but their technology is a very decisive piece of well-worked world-building: they only work with their DNA, and they act like no other sci-fi weapon in sci-fi (sci-fi weapons tend to have a cleaner, less gorier way of killing, the ones in District 9 on the other hand... well that's why it's rated R). With Avatar, this is taken a step further: there is a fully fleshed out culture that doesn't follow the normal varient of alien cultures in sci-fi film, i.e. no crystal towers, no veganopias, no pacifist or weak victims. The Na'vi are just as human in character as the actual Humans, but they are very alien in their attitudes and look as well, even to an extent their language. There is a definate change in how aliens are being protrayed, not just with technology although it's a relief not to have an alien that looks like a human with a bald cap on or a rubber forehead, it's also how aliens are treated and created as being on par with the detail used in depicting ancient civilzations and long gone kingdoms.

[neytirifanboy]

I was going to make a thread about this! You beat me to it!

Anywho, I'm going to support this idea with the fact that with Avatar and District 9, the aliens are shown to be more "human", while appearing less than human. With District 9, this is shown with how Christopher Johnson and his child act and interact with each other, one touching scene is when Chris shows his kid a holograph of their homeworld and the kid's reaction to Wikus' Prawn arm. But they are also protrayed as alien in the way that they look and even in their mannerisms. Not much of their culture is shown during the film, but their technology is a very decisive piece of well-worked world-building: they only work with their DNA, and they act like no other sci-fi weapon in sci-fi (sci-fi weapons tend to have a cleaner, less gorier way of killing, the ones in District 9 on the other hand... well that's why it's rated R). With Avatar, this is taken a step further: there is a fully fleshed out culture that doesn't follow the normal varient of alien cultures in sci-fi film, i.e. no crystal towers, no veganopias, no pacifist or weak victims. The Na'vi are just as human in character as the actual Humans, but they are very alien in their attitudes and look as well, even to an extent their language. There is a definate change in how aliens are being protrayed, not just with technology although it's a relief not to have an alien that looks like a human with a bald cap on or a rubber forehead, it's also how aliens are treated and created as being on par with the detail used in depicting ancient civilzations and long gone kingdoms.

As you perhaps know from my previous responses, I generally agree with you.

I think that Avatar took the development to a whole new level. In Avarar, we effectivley see a human culture that is independent from, effectively incompatible with, and not necessarily in natural conflict with humanity.

In District 9, the prawns were dependant on humans, albeit in no way inferior. However, you also got the feeling that the two species were not necessarily natural enemies. Their incompatibility was even greater in many ways, and this made it more strinking in some ways. With the Na'vi we sympathise aliens who have all the most beautiful human expressions and features, while in D9 we are made to feel sympathy for an alien that is effectively repulsive. And that is an admireable feat for D9.

However, the difference between D9 and Avatar, is that we sympathise with the Na'vi as a whole, not just selected characters. While with D9, although I sypathised for the alien protagonist, I wasn't sure if I should sympathise or not with the Prawns in general, not knowing much about them.

In general Aliens are used a mirror to reflect what we as humainty represent. The difference between Avatar and D9 and other movies/TV, is that in other movies/TV humanity is nearly always reflected in a positive light. In D9/Avatar, on the other hand, humanity is reflected in broadly (but not completely) negative light.

And this is the main difference I think, It is how humanity is portrayed in comparison to the aliens that has changed as much as anything else.

[neytirifanboy]

The only other example I can compare is that of Chewbacca from the original Star Wars trilogy. Chewbacca may have seemed like a big furry alien in the first movie, but as the series progressed he's shown as being just as human as the other characters in the series: he cries when his friend Han is frozen in carbonite, he's shown to hug and congratulate his friends when they win or say good bye, he's even shown to have a rather sly side during that game scene. Although little of his culture is shown, he is shown in a matter that he seems just as human and as real as an alien, more so than Spock or the aliens from Alien Nation appear.

I also wanted to comment on what you said about Star Wars. In the original movie, Chewy is basically a convenient strong-man lacky who is effectively an extension of Han solo. He certainly develops more softer human characterisitcs in later movies, but to be he remains not much more than an Alien lacky.

In saying that, aliens were generally treated favourably in SW, especially in ep 4-6. The main antagonists, i.e. the Empire, seemed to be very much human dominated. While there were few alien antagonists who seemd to be either crime bosses or mercenaries. On the other hand, aliens also were a major element in supporting the rebellion, and so were on the side of good, or victims of the empire (like the Jawas).

SW was quite unique in its use of aliens. As I mentioned above, aliens are often used as a mirror of humanity. But in SW, this is not the case, as everything is so mixed together.

In many ways it is the opposite extreme of DP/Avatar. While in Avtatar/Dp9 there is almost complete incompatibility, in SW humans and aliens are integrated seemlessly. Most other representations of alines fall somewhere in between.

[tireafya’o]

Well that went nowhere fast