Super 8 (2011)

So, some kids are being kids (making a movie, but it doesn't matter) and a train wreck or something happens, and some emotions happen or something, I don't really remember, but to sum up, everybody gets chased into a cave and the alien- SPOILER ALERT: It's an alien (like you didn't already fucking figure that out) gets them but then he doesn't eat them and he opens his eyes AND THEY'RE HUMAN EYES, and instead of being terrified like they should be the kids are all heartwarmed and everything turns out peachy. Weak. Oh, and I just remembered, in the final scene, there's this locket, and the kid is holding onto the locket 'cuz it represents his dead mom, and the dad says "no, let it go" and he lets it go and that lets the alien spaceship take off for some reason. Gaaay. ZERO STARS. You know what was an awesome movie about aliens? District 9.

District 9 (2009)

District 9 is what a sci-fi alien action movie should be, harsh, constantly exciting, and satisfying, but the best thing about it is how it has its way with your brain. The aliens in District 9 look like a cross between the bugs from Starship Troopers and Dr. Zoidberg, which works perfectly because even though you know you're going to feel for these disgusting creatures by the end (damn liberal filmmakers), your immediate feeling is repulsion. You're also pretty repulsed by the main character, though not because he's turning into a creustacean; more because he's an ass, and quite effectively so. His transformation is both figurative and literal, and as he transforms the nature of the sci-fi world transforms. By the end of the movie, humans explode with frequency, and all aliens are heroes who either save the day or go out in a blaze of glory. This movie is about rebellion and justice in the face of (human) oppression. Totally made me cry, and not in the lame, manipulative way, UNLIKE SOME MOVIES.

Y'know, comparing these two movies, I can't help but notice they approach similar sci-fi subjects from very different cultural angles. District 9 feels very much like an American action movie (despite its foreign production), but is about life under and the struggle against oppression. Super 8 feels like a boring foreign drama, but is about growing up in America in the '80s.

Make of it what you will, I guess.