The bad and the good aliens
Last week I went and saw Battle: Los Angeles. I thought this would be a perfect movie to take one minds from reality. With enemy that no one cares about and a lot of explosions. And it delivered. There is about 15 minutes of introduction when we meet the team and learn that the meteorites coming to Earth are really alien invasion. I found it funny in meta way that they came to steal our water - like in the original V - but that's not really important. Because all the rest of the movie is just shooting and explosion and I think this could make a great FPS game. Frankly it was like watching a session as the point of view is as if from someone running along the characters. Add to this shaky camera that is too close to the characters so you feel dizzy when they turn around and run. But it works in this case as it makes you feel as confused as the characters when the shooting starts. I was less fond of the yellow tint and grain. Colors are not your enemy.
So after watching the movie in which brave American army kills evil aliens I decided to see a movie when a poor alien is pursued by evil American agency this week. Just for balance.
So went and saw Paul. It took some effort as it was shown in only one cinema in the vicinity but I did managed to see it. I remember the plot of this one much better not only because I saw it recently but also because there was more to it then just shoot and blow up. From the description I expected something like ET with more sex and fart jokes but fortunately there wasn't much of either. I frankly don't understand the R rating because I think this is a movie that would appeal most to 14 year olds. The swearing really shouldn't be so crucial part of that. And in the end there was more references to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. And Starman and Star Wars of course.
However the important thing is that I liked Paul the alien. He was the kind of guy we all would want to be friends with. I don't remember the last time there was an alien like that on our screens. I loved how the aliens even brought back to life the soldiers The Big Guy brought with her.
Pegg and Frost characters were of course cute but their fish out of the water adventures of Brit geeks meating the 'real' America were frankly the most cliche part of the story. The secret service agents were a bit of a surprise however and I loved how it played out. The fact that the cute and clumsy agents, one of which was also geeky and seemed to bond with our heroes turned to be bad guys who did everything to advance their careers was nice. I actually thought they would switch side and help the heroes. But Lorenzo was much better.
What surprised me the most was the definitive stand against creationism and for evolution. It straightforwardly states Darwin was right and creationists are wrong. I didn't expect that in an American movie, especially one that is a pretty simple comedy. They usually avoid aggravating the crazies. Although noone is protesting outside the cinemas. I think this way Kristen Wiig became one of the best parts of the movie for me. The other were Jane Lynch, Blythe Danner and, of course, Sigourney Weaver characters. There was still plenty of shooting and explosions but everything has proper colour so in the end I liked Paul better.
So after watching the movie in which brave American army kills evil aliens I decided to see a movie when a poor alien is pursued by evil American agency this week. Just for balance.
So went and saw Paul. It took some effort as it was shown in only one cinema in the vicinity but I did managed to see it. I remember the plot of this one much better not only because I saw it recently but also because there was more to it then just shoot and blow up. From the description I expected something like ET with more sex and fart jokes but fortunately there wasn't much of either. I frankly don't understand the R rating because I think this is a movie that would appeal most to 14 year olds. The swearing really shouldn't be so crucial part of that. And in the end there was more references to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. And Starman and Star Wars of course.
However the important thing is that I liked Paul the alien. He was the kind of guy we all would want to be friends with. I don't remember the last time there was an alien like that on our screens. I loved how the aliens even brought back to life the soldiers The Big Guy brought with her.
Pegg and Frost characters were of course cute but their fish out of the water adventures of Brit geeks meating the 'real' America were frankly the most cliche part of the story. The secret service agents were a bit of a surprise however and I loved how it played out. The fact that the cute and clumsy agents, one of which was also geeky and seemed to bond with our heroes turned to be bad guys who did everything to advance their careers was nice. I actually thought they would switch side and help the heroes. But Lorenzo was much better.
What surprised me the most was the definitive stand against creationism and for evolution. It straightforwardly states Darwin was right and creationists are wrong. I didn't expect that in an American movie, especially one that is a pretty simple comedy. They usually avoid aggravating the crazies. Although noone is protesting outside the cinemas. I think this way Kristen Wiig became one of the best parts of the movie for me. The other were Jane Lynch, Blythe Danner and, of course, Sigourney Weaver characters. There was still plenty of shooting and explosions but everything has proper colour so in the end I liked Paul better.