Some philosophical overviews and perspectives on the aliens

Rating: 6/10 (29 August 2009)

After hearing much about this film from friends and being a very big sci-fi fan, I was excited to see this movie tonight. I left the theater feeling mildly entertained, but not really moved subjectively or intellectually speaking. The movie was brilliant in its technical aptitude on so many levels, yet it lacked that awe-inspiring, fascinating, and eternally mysterious quality of wonder. You know, that feeling of wonder...of what it would be like to meet highly evolved extraterrestial beings that traveled such unimaginable distances (for our species) to arrive here on this pale blue dot (carl Sagan).
Perhaps its just me, but when it comes to sci-fi films I go the route of Stephen Spielberg in portraying aliens as actually highly intelligent beings that far surpass ours due to the millions of years they had to develop and evolve their alien culture and civilization. I always think or hope that we can have some modesty as humans and know that if anything had the level of technology to travel several thousand light years across to reach our solar system, they will sufficiently be far more advanced in every way, sociologically, biologically, technologically, psychologically, philosophically...in ever way, in hopes that we may actually LEARN something from them to evolve past our own predicament of "the human condition".
So my point being is in relevance to this misguided marvel of a film, that as brilliant as it is in its originality and realism, it does a major flop in its presentation of the alien beings that where supposedly sick from something in the mother ship.
My first impression of the aliens in the film in the way they where portrayed, was utterly disappointing. Not because of their appearance, but by their mannerisms as if they where mindless primitive savages that only wanted cat food. Clearly, they where portrayed as beings who had the intelligence of lower life forms. This was extremely insulting to my intelligence and basically rendered the movie as just another sci-fi masturbation flick of the stupid kind. How can I take this film seriously after that?
There was no mystery or beauty like Space Odyssey 2001 or Close Encounters of the Third Kind. This film could have been so much better, in fact it could have been a masterpiece had someone with a extraordinary vision and philosophical depth added some dimension to leave the viewer contemplating in awe and wonder.
HA! I know I ask too much, for such kind of films come by perhaps once every decade. Nevertheless, it was fantastic entertainment at best, but not of the interstellar kind. Those kind of movies don't make money, only mindless action flicks do. Typical Hollywood Formula crap.
I give it a rating of 6 due to the originality of the film and the technical achievement. Truly top notch. Could have been a 9 if the movie didn't insult my intelligence so much.
SIDE NOTE: Please, all future film director and writers, if you are going to make a sci-film with aliens in them,
A) Please don't make them look like they are mutated from lobsters.
B) Give them some level of intelligence will you? These are not stupid beings, they are far,far more advanced beings than we can possibly comprehend.
C) Extremely intelligent beings know that less is more. Their ship designs would be very simple and elegant in their design and would not need thousand miles of piping in the exterior of their ship...that's a human model of engineering.
D) Aliens would have more advanced communication skills than we could even comprehend, they would be doing us a favor by lowering their level of communication to ours. Get over yourselves humans!
E) Please demonstrate a highly compelling reason why the aliens have traveled thousands of light years to arrive here in this tiny microscopic corner of our tiny little galaxy in a universe filled with billions of such galaxies x 10. Please demonstrate something of great of wonder and reason. Are they here for example to give some clues to the origins of the universe? or are they here to help give us a gentle push into the next evolutionary leap of mankind through advanced philosophies, systems, and sciences so that we can open our eyes and start REALLY exploring what is out there? or are they here to help solve the ongoing problems within our own species, like war, poverty, money, greed, stupidity, religion, etc.? or demonstrate new models of reality we have never even contemplated or seen?
Movies have power to move, make it so future sci-fi film directors!