Alien Nation vs District 9

Science fiction has come a long way since the 1980's. A perfect comparision has come along to us in 2009 in the form of District 9. It follows the same premise as Alien Nation (1988), an alien ship lands mistakenly on Earth full of aliens. They are quaranteened for a time, at then the movies' plots split from there. In Alien Nation they land in America and eventually are allowed to integrate into society, just like any other refugees. In District 9 they land in South Africa and are kept in a special area called District 9.
I hadn't ever seen Alien Nation before. I only remember the TV show that came out the next year and watched with my brother. It was a fun show, but only lasted a year. It's been largely forgotten(except by the ScyFy channel, who plans on remaking it soon), and received not so charming reviews. District 9, on the other hand, has gotten stellar reviews, I think mainly because everyone was so surprised it was so good. I saw it at the dollar theatre after hearing all those reviews, and still I was surprised by how good it was.

Alien Nation came out in 1988. Science fiction had been established for decades, but if you look at every science fiction before it came out rarely had the genre been established in a setting of reality. Good science fiction films commonly take place in; 1. the future(usually dystopian), 2. in far away space, or 3. in modern times but with a wild scientific change that alters the world. A key exception to this is the original "The Day the Earth Stood Still." It follows a landing one alien, in a realistic modern setting, and there is no major change that alters society. Another note, it deals with social issues on par with Alien Nation and District 9. It's also one of the earliest science fiction films to be recognized in some way by the Oscars.
So Alien Nation made a change. It was realistic and it was set in our world. (The closest that Hollywood got to that was Arnold Schwarzenegger pretending to be a cyborg from the future.)
In AN, Los Angeles was just like it was before the aliens landed. It also realistically set the plot in motion; the aliens were quarantined then released into society. (I think that's probably what would eventually happen if humanoid alien refugees landed.) This alone is tremendous.
What's also interesting is the fact that the filmmakers used a documentary style shoot. It isn't noticeable, but that's why it's actually so well done. It's so believable.
However, the reason the movie didn't, and maybe still doesn't, come off as tremendous is because the movie basically follows to the letter the buddy cop genre. That's where the innovation of the film stops and the filmmakers stopped making a unique film. It follows so closely all the cliches of a buddy cop that you know exactly what's going to happen before it happens. In fact, there are so many visual clues(zooming in on the bad guy, differently toned music, etc.) you know the entire plot. That's the problem with Alien Nation, it isn't smart in any way. They could have really made a smart movie even within the realm of a buddy cop. This was, after all, the era of Lethal Weapon and 48 Hours.
However, with all its flaws the film makes a big leap. Cultural history has a progressive nature and Alien Nation is just one stop on the road to District 9. Alien Nation is like so many touchstone films that don't get recognized for being influential. The wave of cinema keeps on moving and when the box office and reviews don't shine them they are overlooked by history. But Alien Nation predates reality TV and the overuse of documentary film style. (Thanks so much Paul Greengrass!) District 9 was almost too late in coming because of this. All of the elements in District 9 had basically been done before. It's part mockumentary, part alien landing, part apartheid allegory, part human man turning into monster. But somehow when the parts are put together it works seamlessly and like something you've never seen before.
Looking back on District 9 there isn't anything I can pinpoint that I liked so much. The lead guy was slightly annoying and a major dufus. (That's really why I didn't like Children of Men, I hated following that guy around. Also, that's another touchstone film in the science fiction genre, despite my not liking it, I accept the fact that it's unique and has some really interesting parts.)
Then, the plot in D9 took forever to get going. It meandered around for the first half of the film and you weren't sure where it was going. I didn't realize the mousey nerd was the lead until half way through the film.
But yet somehow you're compelled. And I think you're compelled because they created such an interesting scenario. To me, that's the essence of what makes science fiction great; the scenarios. It isn't fancy technology or crazy aliens. It's what happens when you juxtapose those elements with something totally different.
Since Alien Nation and District 9 basically start with the same scenario, I think what puts D9 above AN is how unique the story actually was. (Though I think Avatar has shown that unique story doesn't qualify a movie for box office success.) But I think people did see how unique D9 was and how compelling the situation was. There was nothing compelling in Alien Nation. It was just two cops doing their job. It's no more compelling than Law & Order, which isn't bad, but again just not unique.
I'm glad to see that science fiction has followed the path toward making smarter movies. The writing and story are so much smarter than even movies that are getting so much praise, like Blind Side or Precious. Those are simple character dramas. But what science fiction has to do is build not only characters(sometimes literally build them from CGI), but worlds and technology, as well as create the action. Finally, the genre is getting credit where credit is due. Alien Nation wasn't even nominated for make-up 1988, but this year more than enough sci-fi movies were nominated for various awards.
Thank you, Alien Nation, for kind of paving the way.


Here's my list of Top 10 Over-Looked or Underrated Science Fiction Films

10. The Running Man (Arnold at his B movie best)
9. Bride of Frankenstein (just about the best sequel of all time)
8. Soylent Green (Heston at his B movie best)
7. Artificial Intelligence (watch it again and see, if you disapprove)
6. Enemy Mine (great example of Sci-Fi using allegory)
5. The Fifth Element (super fun, and super cool to look at)
4. Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith (the best of the prequels)
3. Iron Giant (could also be on the list of overlooked animation)
2. Moon (most overlooked film of 2009)
1. Brazil (the best dystopian film, bureaucracy is the dystopia!)