Excellent piece, and I whole-heartedly agree with your point. The popularization of SF seems to making it into more of an aesthetic category than a narrative one.
Though I will say, a different cause for this specific choice occurred to me as I was reading your piece: It seems to align with other stuff we've seen in various media about how "monstrous races" are actually just misunderstood. It started with goblins and orcs, but I think we're seeing it trickle out into other media properties. Nothing that thinks and walks on two legs is allowed to stay properly monstrous.
I agree in a way, the de-monstering (?) of monsters is a bit of a loss, but i also think it's nice to see grey-er stories in some genres!
For example, i hate how they made the Alien a pet in Alien:Earth. It removes all the interesting part of Alien, which is the horror of the non-understandable monster.
But then i also like when we make some of those "monsters" more profound than just killing machines. If they have good sides too, it's more interesting to explore their civilisations, their way of being! When you only have big bad monsters, i feel that we end up in the Superman situation: he's good, all the time, so what story are you going to tell about him? There's no tension in something like Jurassic World, when they fight the T-Rex: we know the characters will escape it with minor injuries, and i don't really care if the beast lives or dies.
Yeah, I think it varies. To your point, I think a Predator POV movie that was like, “you can understand these beings but you can’t relate, they have a completely alien moral code” would have been way more interesting. Star Trek sometimes manages this with Klingons; mostly in Deep Space 9. I’m very here for grey, but you can’t undermine the integrity of what makes your fictional creation interesting.
Extremely well-argued! I remember being astonished at someone breaking down all the psych tricks employee in Cameron's design of the Naavi, to make them sexy/animal/adorable/relatable, etc. I got some of that same high by reading your analysis here. And so plainly/clearly/voicey in your explanation...
You actually make a strong argument by simply putting their mugshots side by side, 40 years apart. Such a nuanced difference, with such a huge effect.
Thank you! I loved the design of the Naavi, they really moved like nothing else! I gently trash the planet here, because it wasn't that deadly compared to what could have been, but even then all the plants and little critters were also so alien.
Enjoyed this take Rose. It made me think a lot about any franchise monsters where they just let the monster be the monster without backstorying / humanizing it over sequels. Jaws? Those sequels were shit but I don’t remember them having the shark be an accidental target of a whaling ship so we feel some sympathy about it being in the wrong sea at the wrong time.
That’s the difficult part of having a non human as a main character! The only good examples I can think of are children animated movies (the indie kind, not Disney of course).
Like I remember a story with animals stuck on a boat, and the lion tries to eat the rabbit but it’s not shown as something bad, it’s just something that happens when you stick a lion in a prey’s cage.
But if you want an actual story with actual civilizations you need more imagination than this! I can’t give credits to Avatar for eg, since it’s just a “good savage” version of what some people think of Native American culture(s).
Grogu in the Mandalorian is just a baby and Jabba in Star Wars is the mob.
It’s difficult, even impossible, to represent an alien civilization that is out of our frame of reference!
Excellent piece, and I whole-heartedly agree with your point. The popularization of SF seems to making it into more of an aesthetic category than a narrative one.
Though I will say, a different cause for this specific choice occurred to me as I was reading your piece: It seems to align with other stuff we've seen in various media about how "monstrous races" are actually just misunderstood. It started with goblins and orcs, but I think we're seeing it trickle out into other media properties. Nothing that thinks and walks on two legs is allowed to stay properly monstrous.
I agree in a way, the de-monstering (?) of monsters is a bit of a loss, but i also think it's nice to see grey-er stories in some genres!
For example, i hate how they made the Alien a pet in Alien:Earth. It removes all the interesting part of Alien, which is the horror of the non-understandable monster.
But then i also like when we make some of those "monsters" more profound than just killing machines. If they have good sides too, it's more interesting to explore their civilisations, their way of being! When you only have big bad monsters, i feel that we end up in the Superman situation: he's good, all the time, so what story are you going to tell about him? There's no tension in something like Jurassic World, when they fight the T-Rex: we know the characters will escape it with minor injuries, and i don't really care if the beast lives or dies.
Yeah, I think it varies. To your point, I think a Predator POV movie that was like, “you can understand these beings but you can’t relate, they have a completely alien moral code” would have been way more interesting. Star Trek sometimes manages this with Klingons; mostly in Deep Space 9. I’m very here for grey, but you can’t undermine the integrity of what makes your fictional creation interesting.
Extremely well-argued! I remember being astonished at someone breaking down all the psych tricks employee in Cameron's design of the Naavi, to make them sexy/animal/adorable/relatable, etc. I got some of that same high by reading your analysis here. And so plainly/clearly/voicey in your explanation...
You actually make a strong argument by simply putting their mugshots side by side, 40 years apart. Such a nuanced difference, with such a huge effect.
Thank you! I loved the design of the Naavi, they really moved like nothing else! I gently trash the planet here, because it wasn't that deadly compared to what could have been, but even then all the plants and little critters were also so alien.
Enjoyed this take Rose. It made me think a lot about any franchise monsters where they just let the monster be the monster without backstorying / humanizing it over sequels. Jaws? Those sequels were shit but I don’t remember them having the shark be an accidental target of a whaling ship so we feel some sympathy about it being in the wrong sea at the wrong time.
That’s the difficult part of having a non human as a main character! The only good examples I can think of are children animated movies (the indie kind, not Disney of course).
Like I remember a story with animals stuck on a boat, and the lion tries to eat the rabbit but it’s not shown as something bad, it’s just something that happens when you stick a lion in a prey’s cage.
But if you want an actual story with actual civilizations you need more imagination than this! I can’t give credits to Avatar for eg, since it’s just a “good savage” version of what some people think of Native American culture(s).
Grogu in the Mandalorian is just a baby and Jabba in Star Wars is the mob.
It’s difficult, even impossible, to represent an alien civilization that is out of our frame of reference!