The "board" game is not Science-Fiction... at all... ever. Maybe
Electronic Battleship, but that's just because the player (you) can face
off against the computer (SkyNet) without the need of another human
player. That seems a little Science-Fiction-y to me, especially at a
time when the best home gaming console was the Atari 2600. I can only
guess as to why the makers of the movie decided aliens need to be the
opposing force in the movie. It was already taking place during THE
naval exercise, known as RIMPAC (which is actually real). Why, then add
aliens?
Primariy what makes this movie Sci-Fi is the alien invasion motif. The timeline of events is as follows:
2005- "Planet G" is discovered, a terrestrial world in the Goldilocks Zone of its solar system
2006- NASA finishes the Beacon Project which is a laser communication system to signal "Planet G"
2012- During RIMPAC 2012 an alien invasion begins in the Pacific
I can't wrap my brain around a direct need to fire what looks like
the Deathstar Superlaser at a planet. Was it a message with information,
or, as the name implies, was it a beacon just advertising "Earth is
here and we are listening?" But we already have been broadcasting radio
and TV signals from Earth for the past 100 years. I guess that's not
good enough. Part of the technology involves three antennae, on the
hillsides of Oahu, that "combine" into one laser mid-atmosphere and hit
an amplifier satellite. It should be noted all with a limited window of
use every 24 hours. Then the satellite fires the laser to "Planet G."
There is some unexplained science here, since NASA has been using this
signal for six years. Lots of things that require this to work are
constantly in motion; the Earth (with Hawaii on it) spins, the amplifier
shares an orbit with GPS satellites, "Planet G" moves around its star,
and both our solar systems move relative to each other.
This is an example of Super Science that Earth scientists in the
movie manage to invent. I won't get into the fallacy of seeing lasers or
hearing stuff in space. But I will get into the Speed of Light.
Assuming that Project Beacon wasn't a faster-than-light (FTL)
communication system and that the aliens themselves are not capable of
warp drive/hyperspace, then this leaves a maximum distance to the alien
solar system at 3 Light Years (LYs) away (6 divided by 2 for math
people). There are no stars that close to Earth. Proxima Centauri is the
nearest star at 4.2LY and until we have better space telescopes there
appears to be no terrestrial planets in its habitable zone. If the
aliens have warp drive then that gives them a maximum of 6LY distance.
There are only four stars that close to us, the three stars that compose
Alpha Centauri and Barnard's Star. The movie never fills in any blanks
but I like Barnard's Star for their origin.
It's never explained but I think the aliens have a warp drive. As the
movie plays out, the alien's primary concern becomes the use of Project
Beacon to call for help or report on first contact. It would be almost
useless to "phone home" if you weren't getting a response in six Earth
years. Also, for whatever reason we only see the aliens when they pass
Saturn. Their approach involves breaking up the ship into five parts,
entering Earth's atmosphere, then (after splash-landing) combining back
together. This all goes wrong when one of the ships collides with a
satellite and breaks up in orbit. That at least shows us their ships are
more delicate than one would expect. My guess is they never use
satellites so they never thought to check for any on their approach to
Earth.
All of this is tracked by NASA from Saturn to Earth, showing all the
planets in between in a nice line. That doesn't happen very often (on
the galactic scale) but certainly isn't happening now. We also can't
track things that far away. We're lucky to find Near Earth Asteroids
(NEOs) days before passing near us. So NASA must have built a solar
system scanning radar just in case we make contact. I kind of think that
puts this movie in an alternate time line. By the way, when did NASA
get the funding for these projects? Is that what happened to the manned
space flight program? It got shelved to talk to aliens? Even the
scientists involved thought it was a bad idea. As they put it "it would
be like Columbus and the Indians, and we're the Indians."
The ship that collided with a satellite breaks up and tumbles out of
orbit spreading debris and at least one escape pod across the Earth,
before crashing into Hong Kong. The rest off the four ships plunge
separately into the Pacific off the coast of Hawaii and appear to rejoin
into a larger ship. It turns out the crashed vessel is a communications
ship, with paneling made from elements that don't appear on our
Periodic Table. These panels are thought to serve the dual purpose of
solar panels and communications antenna. All of our elements in our
solar system were created by the previous star that went super-nova and
formed the nebula which eventually formed our solar system 4.7 billion
years ago. This implies wherever they get their material it ain't from
the same nebula that we formed out of, even though their star is nearby
(galactically speaking).
The alien fleet is composed of a mother ship, three smaller combat
vessels, and the aforementioned comms ship. After landing, the ship goes
silent and floats in the ocean like an iceberg, more vertical than
horizontal. And that's where the human cast of the movie gets involved. I
don't know why, but the aliens wait for Hopper to touch their ship
before launching an attack. Aliens by definition should have completely
different thought processes, so that tends to be my go-to answer for
weird alien behavior. It seems overly dramatic though. But first an
enormous energy barrier is erected around the Hawaiian islands, reaching
300,000 feet up and 2 miles underwater. It blocks all conventional
radio and telecommunications as well as destroying an F/A-18 that slams
into it. Standard Sci-Fi force-field that blocks matter and energy. Not
only that, but it also jams all communications within the bubble, too.
Later in the movie a NASA scientist finds a weakness that allows a
signal out so it isn't perfect. It also doesn't matter where the mother
ship is, it just has to continue to beam energy straight up.
The aliens have some powerful weapons systems, but for all their
technology it doesn't come equipped with a guidance system. The
"shell-pegs" they fire head to a predicted location, which works wonders
only if the target isn't moving. Maybe it's something they learned from
space combat but never adapted to atmospheric fighting. And to make
matters stranger, they never overtly attack unless threatened, but will
destroy potential targets if their heads-up-display (HUD) highlights
them. The aliens wear a completely armored suit reminiscent of the
Master Chief's armor in Halo. The helmet's HUD (which we see a lot of)
filters everything they view as either green (ignore) or red (do
something like destroy it). I never once got the impression the aliens
were in control of their data. I think a computer was dictating all
their actions, like when a video game shows you important targets and
directions to go. This is disastrously stupid, because as we quickly see
when the destroyer USS John Paul Jones (DDG-53) turns its guns
away from an alien ship, they are no longer considered a threat. No
thought of destroying it just in case it's a future threat. In fact,
during a couple skirmishes the destroyer's main weapons are able to
fatally damage alien combat vessels and dodge a few attacks. No
shielding around their ships, just shielding around the battle-space.
Their other weapon is a drone (which looks like a spiky ball with
spiky, extendable tentacles) that homes in on designated targets but has
a really strange Rule of Engagement (ROE). The computers running
everything may not understand life that is different than the aliens. In
one scene a "battle drone spheres" nearly kills a little-leaguer during
a game, but redirects its attack on a bridge abutment, which kills
dozens of people. Why the difference? I think the computer in charge
doesn't understand life and just wants the destruction of infrastructure
and war machines, but it knows enough about life not to kill it
directly. Weird. This is almost Borg thinking. Only get involved when
you need something or there is a threat. So why come to Earth in the
first place? Probably because we fired what looked like the Deathstar
Superlaser at them which is determined to be a threat. Or the movie is
just poorly written. There is also a sonic weapon which implies they do
sometimes need to fight in an atmosphere. I also think the machinery
(and maybe the AI) was stolen from the Decepticons.
Interestingly they don't appear on radar or sonar, which would be
invaluable in space. Maybe they use a computer in space combat just to
help target opponents better. These seem like wasted concepts on a
planet, though. They can be physically seen, but somehow the hull
absorbs sound and energy. Maybe they aren't used to being shot at with
actual shells from actual barrels. This eventually means during the
movie that both forces have to guess where on a grid the enemy might be,
and fire on them. That sounds more like Battleship. Another odd feature
is the apparent ability to hover, but not glide over the ocean. The
combat ships "hop" from place to place, but the "battle drone spheres"
can fly no problem and they aren't exactly aerodynamic. The mother ship
just seems to drift in the water. How exactly were they supposed to get
back into space? Or was this a permanent settlement? For that matter,
how was Project Beacon supposed to help them if the force field jams all
communications? Were they going to drop it for a second, send a
six-year signal, and hope the entire US Navy fleet doesn't manage to
sneak in?
The aliens themselves (never named) are bipedal with, I think, four
opposable thumbs, and chin spikes. Hopper and Nagata manage to get a
helmet off of an unconscious alien, which quickly wakens. So, these they
have similar atmospheric needs as pressure and breathable air, but no
discussion of diseases or immune systems or anything that would make
H.G. Wells proud. At least a character put a helmet on and learns its
just an expensive sun shield, that the aliens are light sensitive. Odds
are this means they're from a dim-starred planet. This is three knocks
against them that leads to their eventual loss by the end of the movie.
The suits they wear have "switch-blade" appendages with different tools
snapping out for different needs, but other than armor, I don't know why
the aliens don't just have sunglasses.
There are a couple strange actions from the aliens which lead me to
believe they don't know what they're doing. What was first contact
supposed to be, if they still had a comm ship? Did they think we
attacked them in orbit? Are they that stupid or are they a war-like
culture anyway? It one point a scared NASA scientist and an alien meet
face-to-face and he's shaking badly. The alien reaches out to calm him.
What? The alien didn't kill him? He was green, a non-threat. Even though
he had the device to communicate through the jamming he was still
allowed to live because the HUD showed green. An alien even mind-melds
with Hopper, imparting some kind of imagery about a space battle or a
ground campaign, but it's hard to determine if it is the past or a
visual interpretation of their plan for the Earth. Human and alien minds
shouldn't mix easily so it's okay by me if the visuals are confusing.
The same thing happened in Mass Effect.
In the end, with all their technology, the alien fleet was destroyed
by a satellite and 20th Century artillery. Everyone is happy by the end
that the alien threat is vanquished, but don't they think some aliens
might notice their scouting trip to Earth disappeared? Once again, a
poorly written movie.
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