***SPOILER ALERT BUT NOT A BAD ONE***

my opinion: this is an amazing, surprising flick. its gory, action-packed, and presents an analysis counter to the american norm in terms of immigrants (or “aliens”).

i didn’t go in expecting much in terms of the analysis, but i was really pleased to see the clear condemnation of militarized containment of a people (or in this case, a species with cognitive abilities on par with or beyond our own). also noteworthy was the highlighted hypocrisy of polite colonization, fueled by an unquestioned sense of superiority.

what i saw gelled with my own lived experience: in my lifetime i have seen people whose first language is not english treated like animals and children, regardless of their expertise, intelligence, kindness, humanity, or accomplishments. in my lifetime i have witnessed the work of mercenaries of all kinds, from all backgrounds.

the best and worst traits, beliefs and behaviors are present in every person, in every people, in every nation. the leaps and bounds made in this film left several people and nations vastly underdeveloped and underrepresented - especially the nigerians and the quiet south african whistle-blowing hero.

in fact, the low point of this film is the representation of nigerians, the only mercenaries called out by name and seen engaging in behavior that could easily be respected as culturally specific (eating something in order to take on it’s power), but through director neill blomkamp’s lens comes off as gross and ignorant.

that said, all of the african and white mercenary and military characters get dismissed as wrong, stupid, violent, misled, power-hungry and horrible. only the aliens show any signs of what we so casually refer to as “humanity”.

and ultimately, in this film, only the merging of human and alien is able to open the eyes of the person abusing power. i am the living merger between two historically abusive and abusing, battling, othered peoples. i sometimes wonder if anything other than seeing the “other” in our own families will make us realize that the only sustainable path forward is the one we walk together.

octavia butler offers us the wisdom that “change is god.” but even the most open-minded of us still tend to think almost entirely in terms of our little container, our living spaceship hurtling in orbit through space. how much change can we accept and still see the divinity of it?

that is to say - if a massive alien ship full of living creatures was hovering over your city tomorrow, and if the creatures inside were stronger than you, and you couldn’t understand them, how would you react? and to make it current - how do you react now to the changing population of your city, town, world? to the constant migration and flow of people, from causes both natural and man-made, which is a part of our human existence? how do you react to abuses of power by your own people, or nation? are you an active participant, or a taxpaying passive colonizer, torturer…are you polite, or afraid, or open?

this movie can be very much about today’s world, and the horrors we are inflicting on each other at this moment. it can be about our choice, to turn away from domination and turn towards listening.

i will say it is much more enjoyable if you resist an easy watch, and compel yourself to think as much as you can the whole time.