Alien Nation (1988)

I've seen this a couple of times... It's an intriguing concept for a science fiction film.  The aliens, a genetically-manipulated/created slave race, have already arrived a few years before the film begins and are already incorporated into our culture as the film begins. There are about 250,000 of them. Many years later, the film District 9 had a similar premise... though the aliens in that one were not incorporated with the rest of us.

The intent of the story was to make the existence of these aliens as almost incidental. The focus of the story is a standard police detective procedural. But... why? Why introduce this great concept and then turn the whole thing into another police thriller and cop-buddy buddy-bonding plot? I think this approach weakened the film - it's OK, but kind of average, as a result. James Caan stars as the human cop; Mandy Patinkin is made up as his new partner, the alien. Terence Stamp, billed 3rd, has a small role as the main 'Slag' heavy; I think that's the term - Slag is derogatory towards the aliens.

This does have a few interesting tidbits about the aliens: they get drunk on sour milk, eat food uncooked and sea water is like battery acid to them. But, mostly, they're pretty much like us. They turn on each other and have the same moral weaknesses as us, including drug addiction. The story does suggest that their adaptability to new environments is what prompts them to basically copy us in most ways. But, that's not very interesting. It would have been more challenging to present them as quite different from us in many ways - and more realistic; these are, after all, aliens from outer space, not our cousins.

I did note one more thing after I watched this again. These aliens are most vulnerable to sea water and the character played by Patinkin is even too afraid to go to the beach. Yet, the film tells us that all of them settled in the L.A. area - close to the ocean. Sado-masochistic too? And,  near the end of the film, Patinkin is hanging off a helicopter over the water; so, as the film finished, I sat there for a few seconds, thinking.. waitaminnit. All that spraying... yet Patinkin's character was concerned only for his hand? Not acid spraying all over him? Yes, a miscalculation by the filmmakers. They shouldn't have used a helicopter in that scene. BoG's Score: 7 out of 10
Alien Nation trivia: this spawned a short-lived TV series in 1990, with different actors. That show was followed by several TV movies.