The movie stars James Caan as a police detective in a situation we’ve seen several dozen times before: His partner is killed in a shoot-out with Newcomer stickup men, and the chief wants him to accept a new partner - a Newcomer, of course. At first Caan is reluctant. But then he figures the Newcomer can give him entry into his people’s underworld, so that he can revenge the death of his partner.
This story has been recycled so often, we can recite the dialogue right along with the characters, but we’re thinking, maybe the aliens will provide a new angle. The filmmakers couldn’t think of one, alas, but I’m happy to offer several: (a) The Newcomers have a secret agenda they’re concealing from humans; (b) this is “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” all over again, except that the pod people are operating in plain sight this time; (c) the race that bred the Newcomers to be slaves sends its warships to recapture them, and humans and Newcomers fight side-by-side to repel them; (d) this is a political satire on the role of minority groups in Los Angeles.
“Alien Nation” takes none of these approaches - or any other interesting approach - because it is so pleased with its almost pathetically thin opening premise. Once we understand that the movie takes place in the near future and has aliens who are being integrated into human society, everything else is an assembly-line cop picture.
They’ve just taken the standard cop-buddy-drug lord routine and changed some of the makeup. The Newcomers have no surprises. This is especially disappointing since Gale Anne Hurd, the film’s co-producer, has demonstrated she does know how to invest aliens with fascination. Her credits include “Aliens” and “The Terminator.” Compared to them, this film is minor league.
Consider, for example, how “Alien Nation” introduces its villain, a Newcomer played by Terence Stamp. How do we immediately know he is a villain? Because he is the featured speaker at a charity banquet honoring his good works, but he talks coldly and doesn’t seem amused when he laughs. Since we are familiar with the Law of Economy of Characters, we know this guy isn’t really being honored for his civic achievements, because that would be a waste of screen time. Nope, he’s a seemingly respectable businessman who is actually manufacturing and selling a drug that his people get high on. There is not a person in the audience who could not have written this plot, and many of them probably have.
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