Yes, children, go to sleep and don't even speculate about UFOs. Big brother, in the form of Big Media is going to tell you to stay home and not see The Fourth Kind, lest it trouble you.
And it is scary as hell, and it is worth every damned penny so don't listen to them!
But did they do this with Paranormal? Which for me was a total waster. No. Do they do this to vampire films? No of course not. Did they do this to any number of movies that attempted to blur the lines between fiction and reality? Of course not.
Shhhhh, little sheepies, don't think about UFOs! Not even in fiction, not even in movies. Go back to sleep until the farmer comes.
Reviewer Kyle Smith, a good little slavish doggy for the New York Post, lambasted this movie, missing the point like a republican feigning ignorance of the Watergate.
I invite you to read his take on it and note how far he stretches to include himself in the dated, boring downing-discussion of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.
What?
Yes, this is what news geeks do: they are vying for a new spot, a new desk, a new set of busines cards they can display at O'Neals' over drinks, always. This imp is obviously shooting for a political beat and here he is stuck reviewing movies, UFO movies at that! He wants to let you know how important, not to mention bored, he is doing his job when he renders a 2 out of 5 swipe at a very good, if not excellent, flick! He does this with an eye-rolling, smirking stab.
Is there an editor somewhere at the Post going "Psst. (wink) Kyle you know the drill, how we treat little green men here ?"
In my honest opinion, you bet your damned ass there is. Because it has been my exprience that there is just such a person, in every newsroom. This is the man or woman who signs your paycheck; who, with droll witicisms, and cutting disdain for anything requiring a bit of imagination, sets the tone and "(tsk tsk) Little green men, well, (lofty tilt of the jaw, admonishing shake of head) we don't do that sort of thing here at the (You name it), Post, Tribune, yada yada, Scranton Weekly Buzz etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum. Fade out.
One has to wonder how deep it goes, though. It's been nearly twenty years since Whitley Strieber's Communion was turned into film, and the reviewers are still savaging it, as they attack this newer effort in the UFO genre!
Oh yeah! That's hatred.
I had enemies in college I wouldn't continue to hound across 20 years of time-space. You talk about obsessed!
See here as I rise to at least defend the right of artists to pursue the fledgling genre of UFO fiction.
Speaking of Strieber, I went into the B and N to pick up a paperback of his latest The Grays, and was asked by the local manager "who is Whitley Strieber?" I had to describe for her the book Communion which she at first pretended not to remember. I thought this a bit odd, and creepy, reminiscent of the newsroom when it comes to this subject. For Strieber is to fiction, of UFOs, as Stanton Friedman is to the science of it.
Strieber, who claims to have some personal experience with the abduction end of it, has gotten farther than any other writer attempting to get his big ole mind around the speculative end of who they are, and what they may want from us. And Big Brother really can't have that, can he?
I hold The Grays up here, and right there on the cover it says, "Soon to be a major Motion Picture." Chhhyeah, as if. Not after some of these reviewer pinheads get through ripping into Fourth Kind.
Anymore - and as I have detailed in previous blogs - literature, and the movies are intimately related in this country. As it stands a novel will not take one step toward publication unless an editor or an agent sees a Harry-Potter-Payoff at the end of the tunnel. Which means, kids, UFOs will also be rendered untouchable UH-GIN, by nasty little reviewers scratching away their souls and their integrity like ferrets in a cage, just to keep their gigs writing for the man. Just the way it works.
It's disturbing enough that every reviewer has to qualify in some way during their take "now I don't believe in UFOs." These cowardly caveats take all forms: take Glen Boyd for Blogcritics.org "for those who take this subject matter seriously.." I can't help but hear the old Shakespeare saw "the lady doth protest" in all of these. For how often do they begin a similar review "Now, I don't normally believe in vampires, but..." or "Now, some of us do believe in werewolves, but..." or "Now, having seen Rocket Boy, let me qualify this by saying I don't believe in children flying with rocket jet packs over skyscrapers, since I have never seen one myself, but..."
Assinine! Review the damned movie; keep your damned opinion about the subject matter to yourself, or at least not the focus of your article. How often do editors allow this sort of bias in articles about other events or phenomenon?
"I don't beleive in icebergs, since I have never seen one, so, let me talk about why, the greenhouse affect is bs!"
You will also hear today across the net, it sounded with trumpet and bazooka, the fact that there is no "Dr. Tyler" as portrayed in the horror film! Yes, a small Alaskan newsaper sorted this out weeks ago and it has been passed off as proof positive that THERE ARE NO UFOS SO SHUT UP ABOUT THEM.
You will not hear that there HAD BEEN a very prominent Harvard psychiatrist named John E. Mack who boldy titled his decade of research Abduction: Human Encouters with Aliens, based on 200 plus interviews with patients who all shared similar stories with him.
I say had-been because Dr. Mack died after being struck by a car on a London street in 2004 . Dr. Mack is a Pulitzer Prize winner.
You won't hear about him today, even though he perfectly could be a substitute for the fictional psychiatrist in the movie, because this information is all so ten minutes ago. And in dealing with technology that enslaves us so elegantly, our attention span has been reduced to that of a gnat along with our cognitive skills.
As to that latter statement: Go to the video box to your right labeled "Go See Fourth Kind", hit refresh on your browser until you get the previews, and one review, of The Fourth Kind. Watch the individual reviewer. I rest my case.
Yes, Virginia, this isn't a good movie about "Alien Adoptions."
But....there is still hope, and there are bright spots.
There are some decent reviews out there, here Jenna Busch for Huff Post. Not bad, although she goes too far to criticize Will Patton, I think. In more of a gesture: well we must find something to fault.
But as someone who has sifted through the literature out there covering the phenomenon for my own novel series on it you find two things. 1. The Big Denial, leads to some strange psychological effects to the sufferer whose world is collapsing around them. I equate it to a decompression sickness of the mind. I mean, here you are learning that everything your authority figures have been telling you, from your president on down to your local ministers, is a lie! And, big surprise, it hurts and it makes you angry! 2. The side effects of step 1 are agression, substance abuse, raging paranoia; I think Patton conveyed all of that. He walks through the movie with a permanent five o'clock shadow and his eyes get more crazy and bloodshot as we go.
You want specific reasons why the man was acting strangely? They were self-evident.
The tension between Patton and Jovovich was outstandingly portrayed, mirroring the tension between those who believe in UFOs and those who do not.
Many reluctant witnesses across this country are attacked, some physically, by their neighbors, bosses, yes, and even law enforcement for speaking out about what they experience.
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