They Live (1988)

This film was quite interesting. It was funny, but i don’t think it intended to be funny. It left a lot of questions unanswered, in ways that could be considered to be significant plot holes, and it had major pacing issues. That said, i don’t think it was a bad watch.

The main character was aggressively macho. We don’t even get to find out his name, or any backstory, just that when things don’t go his own way, he lashes out. This does not make for a relatable protagonist, but sometimes that’s okay, if the explosions and fights make up for the rest of it. Unfortunately in this case, the fight scenes were also not so expertly put together, with one being very very drawn out and not very dramatic, while at the same time (presumably unintentionally extremely homoerotic), and the other being a very generic infiltration affair.

The first major plot concern for me was that for an alien invasion relying on the goodwill and support of the ruling classes of the world it seems strange that these people so willing to sell out humanity for some more money and power would also be willing to accept that the aliens also recruit from a group of people generally looked down upon across the world—the homeless community that the protagonist, co-protagonist, and resistance movement all form a part of. Then again, perhaps they are powerless to push their own biases on the aliens, perhaps the aliens have their own reasons we are not privy to.

Another confusing aspect is i have no idea what these aliens actually want. It seems they want money. But why? What do they gain? In general, the invasion seems very benign, with the aliens acting like normal humans doing normal human things, and even making themselves look like humans. They hide subliminal messaging everywhere, but from the conference scene towards the end, it seems that this occupation is a fairly new occurrence, so it’s not even like they are the ones initially responsible for this way of human life, which had been developing over the last century already.

If this film had no aliens, just the american government forcing subliminal messaging down our throats, and if that subliminal messaging had been a bit more radical than simply anti-consumerist, i think this film would immediately become more engaging. The aliens serve as some kind of excuse to patch over a shaky premise, rather than tackling the flaws in the premise at the source and crafting a tighter, better film.

But i don’t want to knock it too much, because it’s a cheap film with fun parts. The famous bubblegum line, for example, is pretty good, even if the surrounding scene feels forced and superfluous. The effects separating the real world from the fake world are nice, and the scenes of shops with monochrome signs encouraging consumption look amazing.

This isn’t a must-watch, but i don’t think it’s bad either. It’s just got enough major flaws that the message that it appears to be trying to get across is really muddied.