Diversity in Alien species

Something that has always baffled me is Hollywood’s tendency to depict aliens in a certain way. The stereotypical alien is more advanced technologically and physically, and their intellect is a skyscraper towering above our humble shack of a brain. They usually have the ability and the tools to build space ships and weapons capable of shocking amounts of damage, have mastered movement at the speed, or exceeding that of light, and are often twice or even three times the size of a normal human being. Their skin is often translucent, and their bodies athletic and chiseled into the perfect shape for combat and running at high speeds.

                      

                          

Yet with all this in mind, they seem to lack one very important ability: coherent speech. I have only very recently noticed the lack of discourse that goes on between aliens in films, which is often limited to a series of grunts and high pitched noises. This is something I find highly confusing. Were it not for our ability to communicate with one another, our species of human would have died out thousands of years ago, and the less talkative homo erectus would be dominating the earth’s surface.

Could it be that aliens are conveyed to be the equivalent of our homo erectus? I find this utterly ridiculous for, without the ability to communicate with one another and share ideas, how would such a being be capable of building a paper aeroplane, let alone a spacecraft?

Another thing I find to be unfair in the depiction of alien beings is their lack of diversity. All aliens in one particular film look exactly the same, quite often it is hard to distinguish between the males and females. One exception to this would be the film ‘Aliens vs. Predators’, where two types of aliens (one from each planet) battle it out for the title of ultimate alien. Well done, Hollywood, for showing two different groups of aliens in one film. But again, we have to consider the fact that as human beings, we come in all different shapes and sizes, races and other physical differences. Correct me if I’m wrong, but in all alien films, aliens from the same species all look exactly the same.

There are no different shades of alien, no particularly short or particularly tall aliens, and for god’s sake, where are the overweight aliens? I’m sure other planets out there have a problem with obesity, considering how little humans have to exercise with the surplus in technological advancement which limit us to playing tennis in our living rooms. Surely aliens with even more advanced technology have even less reason to move at all…shouldn’t they all be overweight, then?

Or perhaps they choose to only send the strongest, most intelligent aliens to invade earth, in which case, I fully understand. But when it’s humans who invade (which is hardly ever the case – aliens are always the bad guys) still, there is no trace of diversity among the native alien clan. Why is it that they are all the same? Is there only one country on other planets? Do they all speak the same language? These are things that we, as casual sci-fi film watchers, don’t consider often enough, if at all. One exception that I can think of is the portrayal of aliens in Men in Black. From what I can remember, there is some diversity there. However they still look ridiculous.

I just want some more realistic representations of alien life forms which are relatable to humans. Not only would they be more realistic, but also they’d actually seem more threatening because their lack of tentacles or extra mouths/heads would hint at hidden capabilities. If we know what their weaponry is we can find ways to defeat it. if we don’t…well we’ve got the potential for an interesting sci-fi film