Friday, May 14, 2010

InAlienable


I've always liked Walter Koenig the actor. I believe, however, I'm not fond of Walter Koenig the screenwriter.

The cast is a who's who from Star Trek and other sci fi T.V. shows and features. Actors include Richard Hatch (Battlestar Galactica, new and old), Walter Koenig (Star Trek), Alan Ruck (Star Trek, Ferris Bueller's Day Off), Jay Acovone (Beauty and the Beast), Patricia Tallman (Babylon 5 and several other genre shows), and, well, you get the idea. One of the other actors is worth noting: Andrew Koenig, who is Walter's son and who recently took his own life.

Eric Norris, a biochemist, discovers that his body is host to a parasite from another world that arrived by meteorite. About half of the movie sets up Eric's family tragedy, an accident that he still feels guilty over, and the development of this parasite. When Eric "gives birth" to the creature, the movie moves into Measure of a Man mode, a trial situation, where arguments are presented that this creature should have rights. If you've seen Measure of a Man, it's a Star Trek: Next Generation episode where Data is either determined to be property or given the rights of a human. While Measure is a good episode, showing the meat of why we like Star Trek, showing a lot of pathos because we care about Data, we really don't care about Norris and his offspring. And the ending is terribly done.

Thumb's down.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home