Customer Reviews

Alien Visitor [VHS]

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I believe that [some] miss the point and yet, simultaneously proves the point of Alien Visitor when they state that "there isn't much going on here". While it is true that we see no sleek space ships, ray guns, or interstellar battles, the film is rich in its storytelling and a modern mythology that makes historians and anthropologists (yes, guilty as charged) smack their lips. The principals have no names other the "She" and "the Wandering Man" but they fill the roles of ancient goddess and true believer which populates the creation and renewal stories, originally in an oral tradition but later written, which have survived from countless ancient civilizations, whether from the Near East, Africa, Aboriginal Australia or Native North America. Myth transcends time and the place is always the same: Earth! Again, Sci-fi, Action film fans may fall asleep in their popcorn, but for those who crave a good story which makes you think about where you come from, are now, and may soon be,it is a true diamond in the rough.

A great movie and a wonderful lovestory. Only for sensitive people and dreamer !

This is a thoughtful film, that, in addition to the communication between the man and the woman, uses the beautiful Australian outback to emphasize the message. Yes, it has a strong environmental message, and at the end, an excellent speech is given about man's coming together to fight wars to right perceived wrongs, but as we continue to despoil the earth....we have yet to come together to "fight the war" to right the wrong that is being done to our own habitat: the earth. The photography is great. Makes one want to go to Australia.

I purchased this DVD based on viewer comments.I realized right away there would be a problem when the alien arrived as a naked female--with gel-slicked hair and lipstick. The alien's nakedness seemed gratuitous to me and really had nothing to do with the story. Indeed, why should an alien that has a humanoid form be naked? It is a known fact that completely different creatures occupying similar environmental niches tend to behave similarly. Ergo, if this alien is humanoid,clothing would probably be expected--and logical, especially if one was traveling! Here, it was just a weak gimmick--and it's been done better in other films.

Setting aside the alien female's very humanly faddish haircut, I was interested by the idea that she and the man end up dressed similarly (he gives her some of his clothes) and I hoped that all that money saved on fancy alien costumes would be applied in some unexpected ways in the movie. Alas, no. The dialogue is more wooden than a cedar barbecue plank, and the sudden "falling in love" is so contrived and fake that a whole shipyard of herring is rotting in Denmark even as we speak. The "Save the Earth" philosophy dished out by the alien visitor is so heavy-handed and insulting, it sticks in your craw. Instead of listening to this idiot alien, you keep hoping the man would fix his jeep and get the hell away from her.

I wish the film makers had given greater thought to both concept and dialogue and made this into a beautiful parable instead of a pro-conservation rant, and a tepid one at that. (I'm a supporter of the Nature Conservancy,by the way, so I do try to put some money where my mouth is.) Worst of all, as written the script keeps talking down to the film audience as if none of us have ever heard of the evils of the combustion engine. There is some nice photography of the Australian outback but it is not in any way exceptional and certainly not strong enough to save this rather poor contribution to the fantasy genre.

Bad as it is, this film would be excellent for a film class on how not to shoot or write a movie, and for conservation or environment lectures to point out all of the potential this movie had missed by trillions and trillions of miles...

This is a wonderful movie for many reasons.Although, the cover is a tad "cheezey". First I feel Aussie movies are more pure to the subject and not masked with all the Hollywood effects. Plus, it portrays how our planet is being consumed slowly and ultimately destroyed in time but the only occupant able to do so, people. Years ago I sent it to a friend who teaches high school. She made it mandentory for all her classes to view. If you care about the earth then watch this.

When my dvd's were stolen this is one of the movies I rebought, so it does have something worth watching. Whether that's the charm of the movie, dare I say 'quaintness' (you'll understand if you watch the movie), the awesome cinematography of the Australian landscape, the gentle eco message or simply the understated characters I don't know. But its still not a five star movie.

It would be except that certain things keep getting under my skin as I watch it. Chief among them the hypocracy of the message. The woman 'She' comes to Earth and is horrified by the mess we're making of it, fine. But then she comes from a world were people can travel through space and time simply with the power of their minds alone. If we could do that, pollution would be halved overnight. We wouldn't need cars or planes. That's like going back to the stone age and laughing at our ancestors because they have to walk.

She calls us dumb, again fine from her advanced perspective, but then she falls in love with one of us 'thicko's' doesn't seem to understand that we can't get by in our world without cars etc without her mystic powers, our society would actually collapse, and then to top it all off has a childish tantrum on a battered old landrover. Is that really that bright? Especially when the message the film should be trying to get across is not that we're dumb, but that we are blind in part to the damage we do to our world and apathetic in part. If its stupidity that's our problem then we're actually in seriously bad shape, we can always get more environmentally aware, but in the end we will still need new technological advances to solve our problems. Is she dumb for not understanding that?

But the greatest failing this film has for me is in the complete lack of solutions it provides. Call me an ignorant, polluting, eco vandal, I can live with that, but if you're going to do that offer some solutions, solar power, wind power, recycling, and if you're really an alien with super intelligence, how about throwing in a few new ones that we primitives might not have thought of.

Still the movie makes a point and an impact, and thats something.

Short and to the point...pick this one up. You won't be disappointed. An ECO/scifi movie you say? Yes...and it works. IF you care about our polluted Earth, this movie will touch a cord in you. Nuff said...

I won't re-review the simple plot, but would like to say that I like the pacing of the film. For most this would prove slow, but for writers and filmmakers the pacing and style of "juxtaposition" and camera work are terrific. It goes to show what one can do with "use what you've got" then some over-done/cheesy special effect. I found the screen presence of both main actors well "underplayed" although, some more emphasis on the developement of the relationship would have been nice, overall the film was well worth the watch and perhaps a purchase.

A wonderful movie and a great love story. Only for dreamers and sensitive people !

If you are looking for a movie that reaffirms our age-old grandiose claims of being the superior life force, then this is not the movie for you. This movie dares to make you think, and dares to go against the grain. The visitor is a female who gets assigned to earth; the dregs of the universe, to try and convince us that what we are doing on this planet will cause us to become extinct. She uses the frog in a boiling pot analogy. If you place a frog in a pot that has boiling water it will leap out. If you place a frog in a pot of water and then start the fire under it, the frog will stay in the pot until it dies. The Earth, according to her, is the boiling pot that we are in. Like the frogs we are content to stay in the pot until we die. The alternative it to take drastic action to change how we use the Earth's resources and stop taking them for granted.

She chooses to approach a surveyor in the Australian outback. She decides that he will be the one she will attempt to convince and in turn he will carry the message to others. The movie then focuses on her efforts to convince the earthling of the urgency of her message. The bluntness of her message and its humbling nature will offend some viewers, which I think is a good thing. The fact that the alien character is a female will offend others who may think she needs to be "put in her place" as one reviewer stated. This is a being that can manipulate time, zip through distances covering millions of light years in a matter of seconds, so it is obvious that she knows her place. I love the fact that this movie offends some people. Indeed I felt uncomfortable in some parts, and that is the beauty of this movie. It dares to make us feel uncomfortable.

The movie also makes other points such as our inability to handle pure honesty and how we play games. At one point she is point blank honest with the human, and he is offended. So she goes away, manipulates time to go back to the moment and this time she strokes his ego, which is effective. I love this movie because it is unpretentiously honest.

If you want action, or if you are not into thought provoking movies then this one is not for you. If you want a creative, sensitive and thought provoking experience, then see this movie. This is great science fiction the likes of which Asimov would have been proud of.