Welcome to the Aroundtable's second installment on some of the most overlooked alien invasion films in modern cinema.
District 9 (2009)
Neil Blomkamp’s directorial début, District 9, may be one of the most original takes on alien invasions. The story takes place in 1982, where a massive star ship carrying 3 hundred thousand aliens appear over Johannesburg, South Africa. They seek and are given asylum. Twenty eight years later however, the refugee camps where the aliens were placed have deteriorated into a militarized ghetto called District 9. The film is a great thriller, but its central metaphor of the ongoing refugee crisis makes District 9 a must see.
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Tom Cruise stars in this largely unseen but spectacular sci-fi action thriller called Edge of Tomorrow. Cruise plays Major William Cage, a man forced onto the front lines of a D-Day like military invasion against a monstrous alien race called Mimics. Cage who is Untrained and unprepared for battle dies within minutes – only to wake up twenty fours earlier with no choice but to die and relive the same day over and over again.
Edge of Tomorrow has everything one could ever want in an alien invasion film. Brutal battle scenes, amazing effects and a truly scary and seemingly unbeatable alien threat. What sets this film apart from your typical alien invasion movie however is the plight of the narrator. It is truly thrilling to watch Cruise's character, Cage, transform from cowardly PR flack to unweaving hero.