A slightly better version of "Alien Nation"

Rating: 5/10 (26 September 2009)

What can I say that hasn't already been said? First of all this film is not original - from the potboiler 70s "Alien nation"(which at least had no intellectual pretensions) to "the fly" to episodes of outer limits(as someone stated before) this film is almost completely derivative.
It is in no way great science fiction like Blade Runner, 2001, Solaris(the original), Gattaca or more recently, Sunshine.
It doesn't even have the campy entertainment values of schlock like the old deathrace 2000. Though it does have a lot of explosions.
As for the plot, we have a black goo that turns people into prawns and can also power a spaceship. Hmm. Well, i guess that is campy so maybe there IS some camp value. But it doesn't fit in well with the "social message" of the film which is fairly obvious.
Then we have prawns who seem to be well, prawnish looking aliens that can understand English, though of course can't speak it due to their different vocal structure. Hmmm.
The protagonist as bureaucratic nerd is somewhat interesting but not sympathetic.
We have the end where the ship blasts off with enough fire power presumably to fry the planet and yet no attempt is made to rescue the rest of the prawns. What's up with that? There is simply no emotional impact with neither alien nor protagonist. At the end do we even care?
Contrast the underrated(and forgotten) "Enemy Mine" which also has a fairly obvious social message but at least engages emotionally.
In summary this is a film cleverly aimed at the vast majority that do not know or understand great science fiction(or great movies) with enough explosions and a thin social message to appeal to their intellectual vanity. I saw it in the big theater but now I wish I had simply downloaded it.