When Aliens Attack ....Or At Least, Go Bad
This movie has everything that I look forward to in a sci-fi adventure. Suspenseful action, solid story, distinct characters (with great chemistry), great visuals, kick-@ss aliens, a turning plot-twist (we all thought for sure, that Bishop couldn't be trusted), and of course, a catch-phrase that made the entire theatre that I saw this movie in to roar ("Get away from her, you b#tch!").


Ridley Scott directs a tale of "in-your-face" first contact, followed by a fatal game of hide and seek between a interstellar search party crew and a xenomorph, just one of what will turn out in following sequels to be a hive-race of double-mouthed acid-blooded slick black visitors who take the role of their hosts quite literally.
Never have the film genres of horror & science fiction been so perfectly blended as in this stylish, dark and damp first entry into the franchise which first introduced what is, IMO, one of the most unique & simply bad-@ss alien life-forms ever produced for film.

Which is basically just what this plot entails.
Some kind of alien thing is going around and merging with whatever lifeform it can get its tentacle on,
and transforming it into this... uhh... thing.

Definitely a thinking man's science fiction film whose intellect sacrifice none of the science nor none of the fiction.
The plot utilizes the fantasy element of the genre to delve intricately into themes of the psyche such as regret, love, pity, self-inflection and even the most monumental of these concepts, the justification of life and death. It does so with enough room to allow the viewer with no other answer other than the store of reflection which he or she carries with them into the film, before and after.
Despite an incrementally moving pace that many of today movie-watchers may at first be uncomfortable with, once you settle into it's richly layered rhythm, Solaris is a great film whose provocation of thought is as richly satisfying as is the grandest world-demolishing visuals of any other more explosive sci-fi extravaganzas.

But just when it seems like all hope is lost for our defeated species, a savior is revealed. In the form of our bacteria. Looks like these giant tripod riding raiders have an immune system that would make a bubble boy's seem like an iron-clad defense system. Yep. The aliens literally catch their death of a cold.
Turns out that, all the while they were cutting us down with their sophisticated disintegration rays, all we had to do was to sneeze on 'em.
"... aah....
... aah....
... aAH-CHOOO..!!!!!!
Take that, ya blasted Martians!!"
Germ warfare in it's purest form.
"Oh, and if you greenblooded bastards want some more of this,
bring it!
Cuz I feel a fart coming on with all yo' names on it!"

And rarely does the black and white look of the time capture this cultural sub-genre fear of the unknown and magnify it so that even today, Invasion makes the viewer feel the sparseness of trust that was running amok during this era of red scares and McCarthyisms.
At the time, this movie made you look at your neighbor with a questioning look of " Are you my friend, a Pinko or a pod?"

As an adult, one of my absolute favorite things about going to the movies is when I see a film that brings back those feelings that I used to experience as a kid whenever I saw something that was too fantastic that it was beyond the realm of our realty and yet here I was watching it come to life on the big screen in front of me.
Watching a giant alien monster ragin' through the streets of the Big Apple in a manner of disbelief that at the same time is believable is a pretty good f'rinstance of that experience.

Which means that this scenario would never work in "real" life. The whole of humanity would be extinct within a day of the invasion.
Because from my experiences on this planet, particularly on the internet and social media, a vast majority of you out there really don't know how or when to shut the f#ck up.

The graphics are absolutely top-notch, but some of the sheen has been lost due to the fact that they're also something that I'm sure viewers are pretty much starting to become accustomed to by now. And teen-agers today, let alone the more targeted little kid audience, will barely, if at all, get any of the references made to the Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman, the Creature Of The Black Lagoon and the like.
Now don't get me wrong. I think that MvA comes off with enough of the high quality wit and quips that we expect from this type of picture, but for some movie-goers who didn't grow up with double feature drive-ins and late night creature feature TV shows, it may feel like this science radiated farce, may have come out a fews years too late.

Three equally super-powered criminals of ruthless intent have escaped their prison of the Phantom Zone and have made their way towards the star, Sol, and her third orbiting planet (us).
And unless the Man Of Steel can stop them,
the entire planet may find itself kneeling before Zod.



During the height of McCarthyism and the Red Scare,
comes yet another science fiction film taking advantage of the fear inducing attitude scoring across the country at this time.
A big red mass that keeps getting bigger and bigger, terrorizes a small American town, swallowing up innocent denizens of democracy.....
get the symbolism?
Or is that stretching a metaphor farther than what an extended slimy flesh-disintegrating tentacle can reach?

And he did (although, because of the fate his character suffered in the first one, the "starring" part was limited to a short prequel scene at the beginning). However, as a result of the CoVid Pandemic, the movie theater market ended up being the only quiet place of 2020, forcing the film company to delay the release of the sequel for over a year. Finally released in the summer season of 2021, Part 2 reignited the socially distanced cinema scene and put asses in the seats again (although, preferably with two or three spaces in between 'em).


Loki, the God of Mischief, arranges the worldwide conquest of the Earth. Because he's a cosmically powered supervillain, & that's basically the goal of most cosmically powered supervillains. His latest scheme of global domination involves the use the Cosmic Cube and, luckily for the purposes of this list, a vast army of extra-dimensional aliens.
And the fate of the world hangs in the balance.
As usual.
"Avengers Assemble!!"


That's because the story for this time-loop epic is basically just same thing as Groundhog Day.
Except, instead of Bill Murray, it stars Tom Cruise as the lead.
And instead of Andie McDowell as the romantic interest, it's Emily Blunt.
And instead of Chris Elliot as the supporting role, it's Bill Paxton.
And instead of taking place on Groundhog Day, it takes place on "Judgment Day".
And instead of a romantic comedy, the movie is an apocalyptic sci-fi thriller.
But other than that, it's just basically the same thing.


How does one gain the World Championship title belt of Total Badassery? Come from another planet, in full tilt sophisticated battle-gear & then proceed to kick the combined @sses of ""the Terminator", Apollo Creed", Jesse "The Body" Ventura & that one guy who played one of the corrupt cops in Payback. (Not to mention, in following sequels, take on another alien franchise).



Love knows no bounds.
Even in the midst of an intergalactic war with a buncha Martians (in this case, they are particular type of Martian known as "Tarsians"),
this movie shows that as long as you've got a cell phone, a good distance carrier & a hell of alot patience,
long distance relationships can work.
And as most of us who've been stuck in a short distance relationship for awhile know,
sometimes, the idea of flyin' around in space in cool manga tech-gear and battling a buncha aliens, light years away from Earth, sounds alot like heaven.
All that said, this modern take on a famous fictional intergalactic one-sided battle of the planets is nothin' to sneeze* at.

* Yeah, yeah, I know the sneeze joke wasn't funny nor witty the first time around, but whaddaya want... you're reading this on a site that been pretty much dead for several years already....
It's a war between two different alien robot species that have the ability to transform. Into cars, planes and stuff.
The bad guys are known as the Decepticons. Because they deceit you into believing that they're ordinary Earth vehicles, when in reality, they're evil cyber-otherworlders lookin' to conquer our planet through, well, uh, y'know.... deception.
However, we good citizens (and the bad ones too) of this planet need fear not.
For the heroes of the Transformers are the Autobots. And they have also transversed through space and lightyears to Earth in order to combat those dastardly Decepticons, and thus, protect us from them and their malevolent machinations.
Now, if you'll excuse me, after typing out this entry, I feel a strong desire to go and play with my robot action figures....


Okay,
so at first,
in District 9, the aliens aren't so bad.
A bit messy, a bit dumb, but not so bad.
But as always, we humans have to push it.
And even to a bunch of generally benevolent giant cockroaches,
we find out that every one, no matter what galaxy they may have spawned from, has their limits.
Therefore, the time-traveling Trekkers must save the whales in order to save the whole future of the galaxy.
On top of that, Chekov gets saved from the barbaric medical system of our time, Scotty "invents" a plexiglass, and, as always, Kirk gets the girl.
Now, I confess, I've never been much of a Trekky, but I gotta admit this is a pretty great story that is brimming with a lot of fun energy, and, for my money, the best of the entire ST franchise series. I found the interaction between the crew members in this film as the most integrated of all the "old" generation series. You can really get a sense of family that this group of people (whom we've come to know after so many years) have grown into.


We Earthlings did it to the American Natives, we did it to the Australian Aborigines and in the not-so-distant future, we tried to do it to the alien populace of Pandora.
Only to find out that, despite not having any weapons, what these blue-skinned giants do have on their side is Mother Nature.
Now, in a completely unrelated movie, the 2003 version of The Italian Job, there's a famous quote that goes something like "If there's one thing I know, it's to never mess with Mother Nature, mother-in-laws, or mother fuckin' Ukrainians!". For this movie, Avatar, that can be rephrased into "If there's one thing I know, it's never to mess with Mother Nature, mother-in-laws, or mother fuckin' Na'Vi's!". Because messin' with the third, you will find yourself messin' with the first. And that's something that the Earth's military didn't know. Until know they fucked around.
And then, of course, they found out.
Could somebody hand me over a city-sized piece of tissue, please?



After watching this reboot of the original crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise, it becomes obvious that space is no final frontier,
time travel is.
And "reboot" is a loose use of the term in that Kirk, Spock and all the rest of the gang are not so much back, as much as they are introduced. And yet, this storyline is still a continuation of the "current continuity" of the Star Trek franchise, just that, in this episode, it has branched off into.... well...
to try & explain it any further would require spoilers.
Anyways, this newest manifestation of the "old" crew comes off as fresh and invigorated, with sets that look detailed yet stylish, the special effects are typically awesome (as is it is always expected in this genre), the starship battles kick ass and the plot's purpose doesn't stray too far off from what made this film series popular to begin with.
So, while fans of Star Wars grumble all over the internet and at sci-fi cons of how low their beloved franchise has fallen,
with this latest chapter, Trek fans, old and new, have been given A New Hope for a future filled with the possibilty that, as Trekkies, they will truly be able to live long and prosper*.
* Oh, come on...! You knew that phrase had to come along eventually.
Once within, they discover a mutated form of wildlife and fauna, and that the entire environment itself is slowing changing and expanding as such.
Annihilation takes a few risks in it's presentation of it underlying meaning and while it sometimes feels like it may have needed to marinate in it's own brand of mutation in order to leave it' own mark on the genre, it's still manages to come off a beacon of light for future depictions of sci-fi stories that are told in the dark.

talking to strangers is never a good thing.
And even worse,
letting 'em take over the planet & trying to control over all reality is even worse.
Particularly when they're a buncha endangered parasitical pyrokinetic extraterrestrials, whose only hope for survival are the souls of their human hosts.



You guys know what a Loc-Nar is, right?
It's a green glowing orb from outer space.
And it's basically an alien life-force that is made up of "The sum of all evils."
So y'know.... that kinda pretty much explains why this movie is being included on this list.

But is it the outside world that has come to an end, or is it her host's sanity?

And in L.A., it's gonna take more than Proposition 187 to keep 'em from taking over the City Of Angels.

A la the title of this semi-classic 80's sci-fi flick

And wouldn’t you know it, when it came to giving their oceanic otherworlders a weakness, only in the land of shamrocks and sheep would they make it beer

And even though, because of modern movie audience's shrinking ability to suspend their belief for this kind of stretched out subject matter, it took longer than I would have liked, Pacific Rim finally came along and sated that almost life-long anticipation.

Not for general consupmtion, this is one of those rare cinematic abstractions that comes along every couple of years to remind the more finicky of film fans that there is more out there in the world of horror and sci-fi flix than the typical big budgeted so-and so.

Try sending down an alien or two to start forming big ol' circles in his crops.
I really liked the theme of a man-of-faith who has lost his faith that provided the personality conflict of the main character.
And, IMO, the first part of this flick almost matched The Sixth Sense in terms of building up the creep factor.
However, once the guilt-ridden veterinarian (played by M. Knight) announced that he had an alien in his kitchen, & then just drove off (...uhmnnn...whut....?),
it kinda began showing "signs" of the kind of rushed, crumbling logic that we could expect to dominate Shyamalan's future films.
Still, in the end, for me, the majority of this movie make for an over-all solid down-to-Earth alien thriller.
Not to mention, that it's always cool to see Joaquin Phoenix in a role that depicts him as a normal person, as opposed to the alien life-form that he has since become. Nowadays, he's seems more frightening than the extra-terrestrials of this or any other sci-fi-horror film.


The closing chapter to the Simon Pegg and Nick Frost's Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy (although, to be quite honest, at first I thought that the 2011 sci-fi flick Paul was the final story since it also features the Pegg & Frost coupling and also because Paul fits perfectly with the theme comedic homage to various movie genres that seems to be the whole purpose of the trilogy).
And to be quite honest,
when I first heard that this was the name given to this three film set, my first thought was "What the hell is a 'cornetto?'".
So, utilizing the power at my fingertips, I googled it.
Turns out that cornetto is either a 16th century woodwind instrument or a brand of ice cream.
To which, with the bullet quick speed of my wit, I instantly realized that it was probably being used in reference to the ice cream in this particular instance.
So as a result, because of these movies,
if the world were to end right now, not only would I die a little bit smarter,
but also, I'd die with a cravenous desire for a frozen treat.
And in this franchise, this applies to idea of aliens as well.
Extra-terrestrials have not only touched down to Earth, they are living amongst us. And have been doing so for quite some time. So, how did we get by for so long without knowing?
The MIB, a secret organization that makes sure that unidentified flying objects remain unidentified and that extra-terrestrials remain "extra" (if that makes any kind of sense...).
And for any of those Area 51 enthusiasts out there, don't get your pannies all in a bunch... it's not a conspiracy, it's for your own good. These black suited, dark spectacled agents know that if any of us average joes were aware of the fact that our humble blue planet has been being visited for years now, it would be too much information for mere Earthlings to handle.
In short, to save us from being taken away by the men in white, we need the Men In Black.
We just don't know it.

Heck, as far as you know, a being from another planet could be typing these very words that you are reading right now.
Along with 2007's Invasion starring Nicole Kidman.
And any other future sub-standard remakes from the idea-deprived Hollywood machine decides to crank out.

The first V/H/S movie sucked. Yeah, I undetsand that that first flick has a bit of a cult following. And yeah, I don't mind being part of a cult. I mean, a bunch of people who get together because the world outisde rejected them and therefore they find comfort in each others' arms by enjoying a film that the rest of the movie viewing community ignored, I can get down with that. I like having disenfranchised friends.
But V/H/S and me, we didn't click. It's as simple as that.
After my initial viewing of it, I wasn't kind and didn't rewind.
And I had no intention of watching it's sequel when it was released less than a year later. However, as word of mouth spread on the internet that it was better, way better than its predecessor, I eventually caved and decided to it a looksee.

And after watching it, I can say yes, V/H/s 2 is much better than the original. That doesn't mean that I'm a member of the cult that follows the franchise, but I do admit, I do like the Kool-Aid.

When it's a giant flesh-craving Venus Flytrap from another planet.

A little shop that demonstrates that in order to properly take care of a house plant from outer space,
one need simply add water, potting soil and lots of sunshine.
Not to mention, a carcass or two.

For the first time ever, Godzilla, Minilla, Mothra, Rodan, Gorosaurus, Anguirus, Kumonga, Manda, Baragon, and Varan, all together in one movie, kicking all sorts of ass with their big, floppy rubber feet (or any other appendages of like-minded floppy purposes).
And it's all because of those stupid aliens!
This is the original Monsters Versus Aliens epic,
not to mention, the battle royale of all battle royales! With cheese!
Run for your lives!!!!

Which pretty much explains why the title of this movie in named like the way that it is.

And they're huge! Again!
Actually, before I go any further, I should mention that despite the name and set-up of this movie, Monsters is more of a love story than it is a science fiction thriller or alien invasion epic. The plot is basically following a two people, a man and a woman, as they try and cross an area known as the "Infected Zone" (obviously meaning that it's infected with the aliens in question). And the focus here is more on how these two people end up falling for each other as they try to maneuver through this zone. This isn't so much a spoiler as it is a warning, but we barely see any of the monsters, just enough to see that they are huge and have tentacles.
And for some of you internet weirdos out there who may have perked up in your chairs when you read the word "tentacles", no, I don't mean that kind of love story.


A Thanksgiving family get-together gets interrupted by big-eyed visitors from, well... since I'm going by the assumption that if you've gotten to this point of this list, you are someone who obviously has the ability to read. And if you can do that, then there's also a strong possibility that you also have the ability to do simple math. Which means that you can read the title of this film, put two and two together and easily figure out what route this story of a family's turkey day celebration is going to go.
And if your family is anything like my family during the time of year that this is all supposed to be taking place, maybe aliens crashing in on the party is a conclusion that could be considered as "all for the best".
Movin' on...
Sputnik the movie, was also created by the Russians, in 2020, long after the thaw of the Cold War. But in this film, the "Sputnik" in question is an alien with parasitic tendencies and a taste for human flesh. And with it's ability to control it's host to meet it's appetital demands in a rather macbre version of "how to serve mankind", this Anti-Sputnik shows that it when it comes to human race acting as an "all-you-can-eat" buffet, this orbital nasty is much more of a symbolpc statemants that says that what's down here on the ground is what truly is the limit.

Believe it or not, back in 2016, there were still a fair amount of video rental stores around. And in that year, a movie about a bunch of aliens touching down here on our humble little Big Blue Marble came out which was simply called "Arrival". Therefore, it wasn't too surprising that there were quite a few of mix-ups at the cashier's booth when people went to rent that Arrival and instead ended up getting The Arrival instead. A 1996 release that was also about extraterrestrials coming to pay us Earthlings a visit, and therefore, the continual mix-up was pretty understandable. Of course, the differences between the two may have been subtle, but they were there. Obviously the first one is the fact that the first one had the The in the title. The other is that while the second was about hospitable beings from outer space, this one the beings tend to lean much more towards being inhospitable. Which leads to yet another difference, this one being much more subtle, much much more minor, and one that only my fellow members of this site will notice. Here on Listal, I prolifically created two movie lists themed around the concept of aliens. One is about aliens who come in peace, and the other, which is this one, is about aliens who come to attack. 2016's Arrival is the first list, and this one, 1996's The Arrival is in this one.
Although now that I think about, even this Arrival with the in front of it, even if this one was more about aliens with intentions of peace, I may still have included it here on this list. Because the star of this movie is Charlie Sheen. And with that much tiger's blood running through this sci-fi semi-classic, it may still have qualified much better here than it would there.


Hey, do you want to know the secret to making a movie that will bomb at the box office despite putting in millions of dollars into it and wasting months and months of effort on computer generating it? Just do what The Spirits Within did here... name the film after one of the most globally popular video games in the history of gaming but create a story that has nothing to do with said video game. It'll piss off the millions of dedicated fans of the game and in the age of the internet, the negative word of mouth will spread like wildfire.
After that, just sit back, relax, and watch the holes in your pocket grow bigger and bigger. I tell ya, the process of how this first Final Fantasy got made, then marketed, and then just completely bombed, it's a story almost as pathetic as coming onto Listal and posting lists about favorite movies when everyone else here in this site just wants to post up list about pretty girls from all around the world.
Moving on……
That is the moment when the entire populace of this Big Blue Marble decides to come together as a species, roll up our sleeves, and then go off to, in the immortal words of the Fresh Prince, "kick E.T.'s ass".


But what it does have going for it are a kick-ass looking alien race of giant insectoids and some pretty decent CGI enhanced battle scenes (not to mention the dramatic debut of the ultra-fine Denise Richards).
This is definitely what you'd call a beer and popcorn movie.
Preferably more beer than popcorn.


Hard contact.

BTW, here's the opposite of this list: www.listal.com/list/good-aliens
Other lists by The Mighty Celestial:
My Top 20 Female Movie Bad-Asses www.listal.com/list/my-top-10-female
10 Movies That Feature A Dancin' Travolta In 'Em www.listal.com/list/my-list-9158
My Top 15 Guilty Pleasure Movies www.listal.com/list/guilty-pleasures-thecelestial
Can't We Be Dysfunctional Like A Normal Family? www.listal.com/list/dysfunctional-family-movies
A - Z
www.listal.com/list/ay-zee-my-favorite-films
My Favorite Movies By Genre:
WAATAAAH!! My Top 10 Favorite Martial Arts Flix!
www.listal.com/list/my-list-thecelestial
Science Fiction:
- Favorite Sci Fi's Of Like....Ever. www.listal.com/list/scifi-movies
Horror:
www.listal.com/list/my-top-ten-favorite-horror
- Run For Your Lives! My 25 Fave Giant Monster Films www.listal.com/list/my-top-10-favorite-giant
Comicbook:
- Superhero Movies www.listal.com/list/yep-am-huge-comicbook
- Non-Superhero Movies www.listal.com/list/my-favorite-nonsuperhero-comicbook-movies
My Top Favorite Westerns, Pard'ner www.listal.com/list/westerns-thecelestial
Romance:
- Romantic Comedies www.listal.com/list/my-top-30-romantic-comedies
- Straight-Up Romance www.listal.com/list/romance-movies
Animated:
- 3D www.listal.com/list/animate-this-my-favorite-animated
- 2D www.listal.com/list/my-favorite-animated-movies-thecelestial
Foreign:
- From Around The World www.listal.com/list/my-top-10-favorite-foriegn
My Top Favorite Movies By Year:
1977
www.listal.com/list/10-77-my-favorite-films
1980
www.listal.com/list/my-favorite-films-1980
1999
www.listal.com/list/my-top-20-favorit-movies
2000
www.listal.com/list/2000-my-top-ten-favorite
2001
www.listal.com/list/2001-my-top-ten-favorite
2002
www.listal.com/list/2002-my-top-ten-favorite
2003
www.listal.com/list/2003-my-top-ten-favorite
2004
www.listal.com/list/2004-my-top-ten-favorite
2005
www.listal.com/list/2005-my-top-ten-favorite
2006
www.listal.com/list/2006-my-top-ten-favorite
2007
www.listal.com/list/2007-my-top-ten-favorite
2008
www.listal.com/list/2008-my-top-ten-favorite
2009
www.listal.com/list/30-9-my-favorite-films
Lists by decades:
20's
www.listal.com/list/10-20-my-fvaorite-films
30's:
www.listal.com/list/19301939-my-top-ten-favorite
40's:
www.listal.com/list/19401949-my-top-ten-favorite
50's:
www.listal.com/list/my-top-20-favorite-movies-thecelestial
60's:
www.listal.com/list/30-60s-my-favorite-films
70's:
www.listal.com/list/seventy-movies-70s
80's:
www.listal.com/list/my-favorite-100-films-80s
90's:
www.listal.com/list/films-from-the-1990s
00's
www.listal.com/list/200-first-decade-new-millennium
Of all time:
www.listal.com/list/150-favorite-movies
Added to
list by hulkargh

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