45
Metascore
10 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 63Portland OregonianTed MaharPortland OregonianTed MaharWhile the whole film is well-made, it has surprisingly few surprises. There are some small ones, but the plot and many details are predictable down to small details. [7 Oct 1988, p.F13]
- 60The New York TimesJanet MaslinThe New York TimesJanet MaslinEventually, though it happens later rather than sooner, the conventional aspects of Alien Nation overwhelm the novelty.
- 50Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertThe movie is simply a failure of imagination. Nobody looked at the screenplay and observed that it didn’t try hard enough, that it had no surprises, that it didn’t attempt to delight its audiences with twists and turns on the phoned-in plotline.
- 50Chicago TribuneDave KehrChicago TribuneDave KehrAlien Nation is a sluggish, forced and hopelessly derivative action thriller, sporadically redeemed by the wit of its stars and the velvety sheen of Greenberg's night photography.
- 50Los Angeles TimesKevin ThomasLos Angeles TimesKevin ThomasThere are, thankfully, a few humorous and imaginative touches here and there, but Alien Nation is hardly inspired.
- 50Miami HeraldBill CosfordMiami HeraldBill CosfordThough there's some wit on the fringes (including splendid use of a Reagan stump-speech line), the whole thing plays a lot like a Miami Vice via Star Trek. [7 Oct 1988, p.E10]
- 40Washington PostRita KempleyWashington PostRita KempleyAlien Nation wants to be "In the Heat of the Night" as science fiction, but it's neither morally instructive nor prophetic. It proves a lumbering marriage of action and sci-fi that alienates both audiences. It's too dull for one and too dumb for the other.
- 38Boston GlobeJay CarrBoston GlobeJay CarrAlien Nation quickly abandons any possibility of an equivalently fascinating world for the formulas of a routine cop movie. [7 Oct 1988, p.40]
- 38The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenAlien Nation lives out precisely the fate of the alien nation it depicts - both full of potential, both hoping to please, and both immediately co-opted, enslaved by the same commercial forces that granted their release. [12 Oct 1988]