Sunday, June 9, 2013

The Great (film) Debates vol. 83

Will our seven-legged green friends be covered by the Rubio bill? Don't know.

What is your favorite alien on film?



Panelist: ScottDS

We already did "coolest alien" for question #47! My answer is the same: In terms of execution, definitely the Predator. It was designed by Stan Winston and played (in the original films) by Kevin Peter Hall. What can I say? It's a badass!

Panelist: Tennessee Jed

If I could include t.v., it would be the Horta without question. Since that doesn't count, I'll go with the Alien from Alien. I kind of like the nasty guys in Battle: Los Angeles as well.

Panelist: T-Rav

Not being an alien connoisseur (that sounds wrong, somehow), I’m going to go with the creature in Virus, which starred Donald Sutherland and Jamie Lee Curtis. It’s not a well-known—or great—movie, but it features an alien with an electrical, rather than physical, makeup, and the concept was so cool to me I never forgot it.

Panelist: AndrewPrice

Mangalores. No doubt. They're one of the few aliens to show emotions... and they're rock stupid. They are pretty unique on film. (Also, ignore Scott, he's feeling feverish.)

Comments? Thoughts?

35 comments:

tryanmax said...

I was going to say Cheech Marin in Born in East L.A. but somehow I feel that misses the question.

I'd have to say Marvin the Martian, especially when he's opposite Daffy Duck. Even though I never saw it, I'm sure he was in Space Jam, so that meets the feature film requirement.

AndrewPrice said...

No, Cheech does not work as he was actually an American. He just forgot his wallet. ;P

I love Marvin. Poor, misunderstood misanthrope.

tryanmax said...

Yes, but in Mexico, Cheech was an alien.

AndrewPrice said...

Wow, my mind is officially blown! LOL!

Tennessee Jed said...

as I look at this now, the name that popped into my mind was .... Spock. Sure, I know he was half human, but still a great and iconic character. Probably the reason I didn't consider him at first is because he was originally a character developed for the small screen. He did manage to make the jump to the big screen with a certain panache.

AndrewPrice said...

Jed, Spock is definitely an excellent alien... even if he can be moody. ;P

Anonymous said...

I was going to say Spock, but now I'll have to say Sarek, just to be original.

(I don't watch many movies with aliens in them, as it turns out.)

Anonymous said...

Spock is cooler in TOS as the constant vulcanus ex machina, though.

AndrewPrice said...

goldvermilion, I like Spock a lot better in the original series too. I felt he was more believable as a Vulcan and also as half-human. He felt more real to me.

K said...

Thermians

AndrewPrice said...

K, That line about Gillian and those poor people is one of the best lines ever written! LOL!

Anonymous said...

Superman maybe. Han Solo was Corellian and Chewbacca was from Kashyyyk so neither of them are from earth and both are pretty dam cool.

Riddick also springs to mind, he is a bad-ass.

I expected people to put down ET or maybe Yoda.

Scott.

Kenn Christenson said...

Hands down, Klaatu from the first "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951.)

AndrewPrice said...

Scott, We love doing the unexpected! That's kind of funny to think of Riddick and Han Solo as aliens, but clearly they are. Good call!

AndrewPrice said...

Kenn, That was one cool alien or alien robot... as the case may be.

Anonymous said...

I'm not being feverish! It's called being tired from working three jobs so YOU the taxpayer don't have to pay for MY college tuition.

You're welcome. :-)


And Scott/Anon -

I never thought of Superman, but you're right!

AndrewPrice said...

Scott, Sounds like you're a sucker. Just drink the KoolAid, take you Obama phone and wait for the taxpayer to take care of you! What could go wrong with that? :D

People have mentioned Superman before and it's funny because you think of him as an American, but he really is an alien... an illegal one at that!

Anonymous said...

Well Supermans real name is Kal-El.

We could also say that Captain Malcolm Reynolds is an alien and he is pretty dam cool.

Scott.

AndrewPrice said...

Scott, So you're saying that "Clark Kent" is an assumed identity? And somewhere along the way he obtained a fake social security number so he could work here? Sheesh.

Floyd R. Turbo said...

Sil.

http://cdn.fearnet.com/sites/default/files/images/legacy/eol_images/Entire_Site/2012026/species1.jpg

Duh. :-)

AndrewPrice said...

Floyd, But of course! LOL!

T-Rav said...

Okay guys, no fair on the "humans not born on Earth" answers. That's a dodge and you know it. Pick a non-human.

One that jumps out to me is the alien pet from Lost in Space, that can change color from yellow to red to brown. Unfortunately, they don't do a lot with it and it's kind of wasted. (Which is true of the whole movie, actually.)

AndrewPrice said...

LOL! Good point T-Rav! That is cheating!

Agreed about the alien pet. I'm actually planning to review that movie soon and I very much agree with your assessment.

Anonymous said...

Jar Jar Binks!

(ducks to avoid dangerous, blunt objects being thrown by Andrew & co.)

Just kidding! (dodges a tomato fired from a grenade launcher by ScottDS) Seriously! I'm just kidding!

Okay, I'm not a big 'Babylon 5' fan. I caught the series in rerun form on the SciFi Channel back in college. (The thing that keeps me from calling it a better-than-average series is the sometimes comic-book-style dialogue that just screams for speech bubbles.)

That being said, when I first saw the Vorlons, the show got my attention. Wow! Aliens on a TV show that aren't actors with little more than face paint and prosthetics. The Shadows, however, were a little diappointing since they're completely CGI.

Still, a very good, if under-appreciated, sci-fi show.

-Rustbelt

AndrewPrice said...

Jar Jar Bink!!! Ouch... my soul! :(

I agree about the Vorlons. They were fantastic. I like the Shadows a lot as well, even if they were just CGI. In fact, I liked most of the aliens on that show. I love Londo's hair!

Anonymous said...

Vogons!!!!!!

(because of their poetry)

Also re: Spock -- I thought Quinto's Spock in Into Darkness was (like so many other things in that film) FINALLY back to the spirit of TOS Spock in the way he could be blank but you knew there was an awful lot going on under the surface.

AndrewPrice said...

goldvermilion, Vogons! LOL! There are actually Vogon poetry generators online. :)

I didn't care for the movie, but I did like Quinto's Spock. He did a much better job than the quasi-religious Spock they've been using in the movies and in TNG.

shawn said...

For your consideration, Orion slave women.

AndrewPrice said...

Shawn, You're a man of excellent taste!

AndrewPrice said...

FYI, I had to turn the word verification back one because we're just awash in spam at the moment. Hopefully, they'll move on and then we can turn it back off.

K said...

(Superman) ... he really is an alien... an illegal one at that!

Odds that this will be brought up in the next Superman movie?

rlaWTX said...

I like Anon Scott's "humans not from earth" choices of Riddick and Mal Reynolds!!

How about the Ewoks? cute, cuddly, back-to-nature types living a redwood-esque forest, what's not to like?

Or Mork? Nanu-nanu (oops, that's TV, like Alf and Starman)

Kenn Christenson said...

Actually, Klaatu was the alien and Gort was the robot. In the original film, Klaatu was, essentially, a Christ allegory - from the name "Carpenter" he used as an alias, to his death and "resurrection" at the end.

AndrewPrice said...

rlaWTX, Nanu-nanu indeed! :)

"Back to nature types" LOL!

AndrewPrice said...

Kenn, Arg. I should have known that. Ooops. Thanks for reminding me.

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