In the late 20th century, a large spaceships lands on Earth, in
the desert just outside of Los Angeles. On board are 250,000 humanoid-like
aliens whom the U.S. government has placed in quarantine for an indefinite
amount of time. After civil liberty attorneys successfully sue to have the
aliens--known as Newcomers--released, the LA area becomes flooded with a quarter
of a million new immigrants. The Newcomers did not own their spaceship, but
rather were slaves who were bred by their unknown oppressors for hard manual
labor. Alien Nation takes place several years after the landing, with the
Newcomers now officially a part of America’s melting pot--yet as can be expected,
things are not all rosy and bright for the latest arrivals to our shores.
The Newcomers face a great deal of bigotry, such as from Detective Sergeant
Matthew Sykes (James Cann), who’s on patrol in the Newcomer area of the city,
which is rudely called Slagtown--after the bigoted phrase Slag, the non-PC term
coined for the Newcomers. Sykes isn’t too fond of Newcomers, especially after
his partner is killed by several heavily armed Newcomer thugs who were trying to
rob a mini-mart. Yet despite his prejudice, Sykes decides to team up with a
newly promoted Newcomer detective named Sam Francisco (Mandy Patinkin), in the
hopes that he could help Sykes to better infiltrate Newcomer society. But a
funny thing happens, the more Sykes gets to know his new partner--whom he
renames George--the closer the two men become, and a bond begins to form between
them.
Alien Nation is an entertaining little movie, which is helped greatly by the
marvelous performances between James Cann and Mandy Patinkin, who share an
on-screen chemistry that’s a lot of fun to watch. While the film overall is
basically an SF variation on the action/cop movie genre that was revitalized in
the 1980s by Lethal Weapon, thanks to the thoughtful script by Rock S. O’Bannon,
Alien Nation is greater than the sum of its parts. Yet it still doesn’t dig as
deeply into its interesting concept as much as it should, instead being
satisfied with just being a glossy action flick when it could have been so much
more (with a running time of just 90 minutes, one can’t help but wonder if a lot
of stuff was cut from the film). But it’s still an enjoyable ride.
The special features on the DVD are slim, with no audio commentary, and just a
fluff piece, behind-the-scenes feature that basically repeats the film’s
storyline without offering much insight into the production, other than a few
interviews. There’s a second feature that shows the behind the scenes details of
working out some scenes shot on location in LA, but sadly, this is barely five
minutes in length, which doesn’t even scratch the surface. Thankfully,
producer/director Kenneth Johnson dug deeper and created a far more satisfying
take on the Alien Nation mythos with the TV series that was based on this film.
The TV series takes place after the events in this film, so the cinematic Alien
Nation can be viewed today as a prelude to the vastly superior TV show.
--SF
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