They were looking for new slave stock. It wasn’t an invasion in the sense that they were trying to take over and rule the planet, but rather a quick snatch and grab so they could establish a breeding population on their home planet or nearest convenient colony.
People do not always act rationally in a crisis. (I’d say that applies to about 90% of RealityChuck’s criticisms about Alien, btw.) Plus, he might have accidentally clubbed the kid the alien was holding in front of itself. It was a hostage situation, after all, and they didn’t want to provoke a lethal act from the alien The whole “divine message” thing was not just about how to kill the alien, but also that it was okay to attack, that the kid would survive.
He was making a movie there. Duh.
The aliens we see on the ground are not the aliens who built and pilot the starships. They’re another enslaved race used as shock-troops/kidnappers by the slavers. They’re used for this task specifically because of their water-weakness. They can’t just cut and run once they get on the planet’s surface, because so much of the planet is deadly to them. I imagine the moisture in the air, even on a day with low humidity, would be painful to them. They’ve got no real option but to return to the ship when their job is done. This also explains why they don’t have any laser guns or other advanced technology. Any tech the slavers give to their minions could be turned against them, or worse, fall into the hands of the natives they’re victimizing, who might be able to reverse engineer them and come looking for their kidnapped family members.
Scouts, making sure that the humans aren’t going to blast them with plasma cannons or something. After a few days, they determine that humans are sufficiently primitive to be victimized, and they start grabbing people up.
Sorry, should have been more emphatic: Why did they come here?
Yup.
That dog won’t hunt, monsignor. Merrill clearly gets the idea from Gibson’s line “Swing away”.
And the unfortunate drawback of every single Earthling being quite capable of easily dispatching these slaves with a minimum of effort is… what? Shit happens?
So they can make giant patterns in fields and travel between the stars, but they cannot do a rough measurement of our technical level from orbit? They have to send some scouts down to run around farms in the middle of nowhere? How would these scouts even recognize human technology?
For new slaves, like I said. They’re like the Baskin-Robbins of interstellar slavery. They need to keep introducing new flavors to keep their customers interested.
Hmm? I’m not sure I understand your objection. Gibson got “swing away” from his dying wife, who, we presume, got it straight from God. Why go to such elaborate lengths to save the one kid? Dunno. Maybe he grows up to be the Second Coming.
So long as they captured more slaves than they lose, it’s a net gain for the slavers. They had quite a bit of free run before word of their weakness got out, and as soon as we started fighting back, they split.
Sure, but that’s a rough measurement. Maybe we got some crazy tech they can’t recognize from orbit. The scouts aren’t meant to take measurements and secret photos and whatnot. They’re more like Polish mine detectors. They run around, stir shit up, and their masters wait to see if they get captured or blown up with freaky energy weapons. When that doesn’t happen, they go to phase two and start with the mass kidnappings.
Just to be clear, I’m not saying this is what Shyamalan had in mind when he made the movie, or that this is at all hinted at by the plot: otherwise, it wouldn’t be a fanwank. But it fits the events of the movie well enough for me to suspend my disbelief and enjoy the film. I make no promises about its efficacy for anyone else’s enjoyment of the film.
I’m going to have to be even more clear: Why did they come here, of all the places they could have picked? Places where, say, the most common substance isn’t deadly acid to their soldiers?
You said Merrill didn’t club the intruder because he was afraid of hurting the kid. This doesn’t fly, as Merrill clearly gets the idea of clubbing the intruder from Gibson.
Do we even hear anything about what the aliens do? Are humans killed? Kidnapped?
And the best way to stir shit up is to hang around small farms making noises and never showing themselves?
They came here specifically because its so deadly to their soldiers: that way, their soldiers have no choice but to obey. Their only other alternative is to stay on a planet that’s saturated in deadly acid. It’s been noted in other threads on this subject that water is one of the most common substances in the universe. That’s what makes that particular race so valuable for this purpose: outside of their homeworld, the only place they can safely live is in the specially designed, anhydroxic spaceships of their masters. Again, my argument is that the aliens we see are not the aliens who built/piloted the spaceships. They’re an entirely different species, altogether. We never see the true masters of the invasion.
No, he doesn’t swing at the alien, at least not at first. He swings at the glasses of water, soaking the alien. I think he gives it a few whacks after he drops the kid, though. Been a while since I’ve seen the movie. But at that point, the alien is already dying, and no longer a threat to the kid.
I seem to recall them specifically saying that they were taking humans onto the ships.
They were doing that all over the globe. We just see them doing it around the farmhouse, because that’s where the action is set. They also do it in major cities, as we saw on the tape from the birthday party they show on the news.
Er, sorry for hijacking the thread, btw. I can keep going on this, but we’re so far off topic now its ridiculous.
The Matrix. I mean, it wasn’t horrible, but I don’t know why so many people love it so much. Maybe my hatred for Keanu Reeves is clouding my judgement. but I doubt it.
Castaway. A testament to the wonderful acting of Tom Hanks, holding a movie together all by himself without anyone to work with, you say? Boring-ass movie, I say.
Star Trek V - the one with the whale calls. Maybe this is a reverse situation to the OP in that most people thought it was not so great. But, a friend of mine went to see this movie with another friend who LOVEd it, insisted it was the best Star Trek film yet, and if he didn’t agree…he could walk home!
Pays to make sure you’re in the driver’s seat when going to the theatre!
True story! - Jinx
He doesn’t swing at all at first. He doesn’t take the bat down from the wall until Gibson says “swing away”. A former baseball player gets the idea of using a baseball bat from someone else saying it.
I don’t remember this, but I saw it once when it first came out and I certainly won’t rewatch it just for this.
You keep focusing on the wrong bit. See “never showing themselves”.
I’ll go on until either blinkingblinking or a moderator tells me to stop.
I agree with a lot of what’s been disliked in this thread so far, especially Lord of the Rings (I disliked the first movie, skipped the second, and fell asleep during the third) and The Sixth Sense (cheap horror effects drowning out a not-bad ghost story). I’d add two movies that probably had smaller circulation but were plenty popular in Seattle: Broken Flowers (we walked out after the 73rd Mapquest product-placement) and the execrable High Art, the most pretentious after-school special I’ve ever seen.
Eh. I’ll fall back on “people don’t always act rationally in a crisis.” Besides, it was pretty well established that he always looked to his older brother for leadership, so it’s not so unbelievable that he wouldn’t act overtly until he got instructions from his bro.
Well, the alien overlords might not care if their footsoldiers get atomized, but the individual footsoldiers probably do.
Alternate explanation: they were window shopping, trying to figure out which specific humans they wanted to grab first. Maybe they wanted to make sure they had a complete set of the major variations in the species. Sort of like Pokemon.
**Raising Arizona **(nothing has dethroned it in almost 20 years) Forrest Gump
Almost Famous
I take my “moviegoing experience” very seriously. Some say too seriously. But I love the movies and write about them, so I will give the director, script and cast every benefit of the doubt and let them do their thing for a while before I just give up.
More often than not, I’m the only one in the room or on an MB who loves some movie that everyone else hates. Not just dislikes, but actively DESPISES. Louis Malle’s Damage comes to mind. . .
Citizen Kane had an interesting (and revolutionary, for it’s day) look to it, but that’s not enough. Bleh!
Sin City was also visually interesting (startling, even, and the director deserves kudos for it), but the overally message was jarringly simplistic and grating in it’s moralism.
Pretty Woman. Ugh. Encourages women to believe their pussies are lined with gold… repulsive, really, in it’s approval of golddigging. Sure she loved him…
The plot is very weak: Two guys go backpacking abroad and get tortured. There are no twists, no surprises, nothing that engages the mind in any way, really.
[spoiler]The guy on the bus in the beginning that you immediately think is the torturer, is.
The only “twist” is that the older friend of the two backpackers is a part of it, and it’s a weak twist, because he acts suspicious from the start. It’s also pretty obvious that the girls are behind it too.[/spoiler]
Summary: Lots of blood and gore surrounded by lots of gratuitous sex with a bit of mindless banter in between for filler.
Just to be clear, I’m not saying this is what Shyamalan had in mind when he made the movie, or that this is at all hinted at by the plot: otherwise, it wouldn’t be a fanwank. But it fits the events of the movie well enough for me to suspend my disbelief and enjoy the film. I make no promises about its efficacy for anyone else’s enjoyment of the film.