The Aliens
The guide to learning everything you need to know about all the types of aliens.
When it comes to entertainment (books, TV shows, movies, and videogames) that has extraterrestrial beings being the main focus, the most obvious and unfortunate common assumption about aliens is that an "advanced" alien race would live so unsustainably on the planet which grew them that they'd develop technology to help them travel to other planets and murder everyone so they can drain that planet of its resources which is how they’re portrayed in the majority of the books, shows, movies, and videogames we give our attention to.
In video games when aliens are involved, the majority of the time the objective is to kill them. Some games that do this are Space Invaders, the Half Life Franchise, the Halo Franchise and the Mass Effect Franchise. The main difference that is shown in the Mass Effect franchise is that there is cooperation between humans and certain aliens while other aliens are seen as evil and need to be eliminated. In the Halo Franchise, there is a very small amount of cooperation between the humans and the covenant, but this was a small group that had split from the rest. The covent are a group of aliens that are searching for religious artifacts, which are usually a weapon of mass destruction. These artifacts tend to be on different earth colonies throughout the galaxy which is why they are enemies of the human population. The covenant are more closely seen as stereotypical aliens compared to the other aliens encountered in the game which is the flood. The flood is an alien species that is similar to a virus. They survive by destroying anything that is organic like plants and people. The main thing in common with the two very different types of aliens is that they are the enemies in the game that need to be destroyed. Within these franchises, majority of the aliens you face wish and want death for anyone that opposes them. Movies that share this perspective of aliens are Battleship, Creature, the Alien franchise, and the Alien vs Predator franchise. While the videogames and movies that have been previously stated are mostly all action-packed and follow a strict regiment of only |
showing aliens inflicting pain and causing mass destruction, there are quite a few movies that even though the main focus of the movie is fighting and killing between the alien and human race, some aliens within these movies are portrayed as harmless and humorous who provide comic relief. Movies that display aliens in this light are: Paul, the Men In Black franchise, and the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise. However, aliens aren’t always portrayed as violent and blood-seeking. In the movies Chicken Little, Paul, Men In Black, and E.T. In Chicken Little there is a tiny alien that is found by Chicken Little. Not long after finding the alien the city is being attacked and people are being abducted by spaceships. It turns out that these large destructive aliens are really just tiny aliens in machines that are trying to find their son. This perception by the movie that all aliens are large scary destructive creature is not always accurate, but because the majority of alien movies are about violent blood-seeking aliens it is assumed that all aliens are like that. The reality of that perception is not always correct. Some aliens mean no harm they are usually just trying to survive or trying to get home.
The entertainment business creates an image about aliens that they are always violent, blood-seeking creatures want to invade earth. The reality is that there are a small amount of movies that try to do away with that image and show that aliens are friendly creatures. Whether or not in real life there are aliens, and if they are friendly or not. If aliens ever do come to earth there is a fairly good chance that people are going to believe they are dangerous before even interacting with them because the entertainment business has created this perception that aliens are dangerous. |