The ‘Bug’ in Men in Black wore an “Edgar Suit”. Actually most of the aliens wore clothes or human disguises.
But yeah. Invading aliens always seem to take the form of some sort of space chimpanzee / lizard hybrid. They have advanced interstellar technology, but their “language” is a bunch of indecipherable grunts and screeches and they will tear you apart with their monster claws.
For that matter, why are some alien races like the Klingons still using medieval swords as anything but ceremonial weapons? Really? The “bat’leth” pizza cutter sword is a viable weapon on a battlefield with phasers and orbital photon torpedo bombardments?
I realize the Jedi light saber is a cool high tech weapon from a “more civilized age”. But it still has the range of a sword.
From “Stargate Atlantis- The Intruder” Hermoid is Asgard.
**(Sheppard stares at Hermiod suspiciously)
McKay: Don’t stare. He hates it when people stare.
Sheppard: (whispers) Am I the only one who thinks it’s strange we’re working with an alien?
McKay: Intergalactic hyper drive technology is kind of new to us, so we need his help.
Sheppard: Is he supposed to be naked like that? **
According to the Stargate wiki:
After Lt. Colonel John Sheppard says “Is he supposed to be naked like that,” Hermiod says something in his native tongue. When played backwards, Hermiod says “These humans are infants.”
Paul wears trouser-looking things but is bare chested. Probably a habit he picked up from being on earth for so long. Really, if you spend a lot of time in a spaceship, clothing would be more of a problem. You get fibers in the air, and it gets stinky and eventually wears out, much easier to just keep it in a trunk, for just-in-case. The only thing a space traveller really needs is a towel.
Signs is a profession of faith, a statement of the existence of a God who has a divine plan for everyone. Thematically, it’s got more in common with A Prayer For Owen Meany than Star Wars. Signs is terrible science fiction, and only mediocre horror. It’s not bad as a sort of spiritual cinema, if you happen to be in agreement with its particular theological worldview.
Well the crew of his rescue vessel were also fully clothed. And unlike the usual imagine of Greys Paul’s species do have external genitalia. Very prominent external genitalia.
Like the aliens in Independence Day the invading aliens in Battleship wore combat-armour (and I thought were pretty cool and creepy)
And I have to say that despite all the negative vibes directed towards those movies I liked and enjoyed watching both of them, I also liked Signs and even Skyline had its moments (no clothes-wearing aliens in that one either).
In fact the most generally popular alien invasion movie of recent times Battle: Los Angeles was the one I liked the least. And I’m not just being thran (good word, look it up, slip it casually into your next conversation).
Most science fiction stories are parables about various aspects of belief and behavior. That doesn’t change the fact that the McGuffin/antagonist/plot device in Signs is a water-susceptible alien sent to a water planet with no clothing. That’s just dumb and contrived.
I don’t recall specifically. You might be thinking of Buckaroo Banzai where the aliens all wore cheap business suits and had the first name “John”.
The “men in black” style of alien is also pretty common in fiction. Not suit-wearing human agents like Men in Black the movie. Aliens that sort of look human and wear human clothing, but there is something weird and “off” about their mannerisms. Or they just look like a weird alien in a suit.
I guess the idea is to create a sort of “uncanny valley” effect where the aliens seem so much more alien by their inability to pass themselves off as human.
It’s not Backaroo Banzai. I think it was a scene in Strange Invaders where the Alien Overlord wearing a leisure suit appeared on a large screen, addressing aliens who have taken on the identities of townspeople. I’m almost sure of it, but I haven’t seen the film in years, and I haven’t checked to see if I have it.
b.) The filmmmakers want us to see and appreciate the alien’s shapes. It not only satisfies their want to show upp their model-making or animation or CGI effects, we can appreciate the body design.
I have also pondered the question why movie aliens are always naked.
All the aliens we are familiar with in movies, TV Shows, literature etc are ultimately figments of someones imagination (even witness accounts of actual alien sitings are derived from speculation). It’s not enough to just see an alien head. Sometimes, the artist also wants to promote the physiology of their creation. I believe that is also why the human nude is so prevalent in fine art.
Why don’t we ask why do humans wear clothes? Because we have a variety of environments to be comfortable in. Animals don’t wear clothes. Why? Because their bodies are adapted to whatever environment they are living in. Perhaps aliens don’t need to wear clothes because the environment doesn’t affect them the way it does us. Imagine the savings in resources if we had no need for clothing.
What was that recent movie where the aliens wore what looked like old-style diving suits? Their helmets were illuminated inside-the looked vaguely pinkish?