The Aliens are Coming! The Aliens are Coming!

Earth is about to be beset by an invasion - of alien invasion movies. Aliens will be coming at us from all directions next year, some from newbie directors operating with microbudgets and some from major names with the full force of Hollywood's best special effects houses behind them. "Monsters" from first timer Garent Edwards will be in limited release for Halloween, and the Strause brothers' "Skyline" follows in November. Next year we can look forward to D.J. Caruso's "I Am Number Four," "Battle: Los Angeles" from Jonathan Liebesman, "Paul" with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, JJ Abrams' "Super 8," Chris Gorak's "The Darkest Hour," Jon Favreau's "Cowboys and Aliens," another "Transformers" movie, and a reboot/prequel/whatever of "The Thing." To top it all off, there's another "Men in Black" movie on the horizon in 2012. Now Sam Raimi is joining the fray with "Earth Defense Force," which was announced today over at The Vulture. Those aliens sure are persistent, aren't they?

If we must point fingers at any culprit, it ought to be at Neil Blomkamp. His "District 9," though not exactly an invasion movie in the strictest sense, was one of the most prominent recent features to feature aliens, along with "Avatar" and "Star Trek." "District 9" made its debut at the tail end of last summer and promtly cleaned up at the box office, despite a minuscule budget and no recognizable stars. And Blomkamp snagged an Oscar nomination for Best Picture for good measure. Now several would-be auteurs and distributors are ready to turn that singular success into a full-blown trend. No doubt the rush to capitalize on the 3D gold rush is also an influence. Aliens and spaceships present all sorts of opportunities for massive CGI spectacle. And while the bulk of the new movies are based on original material, meaning they're not part of any existing franchise, there's a familiarity to alien invasions that should make them an easy sell to action fiends.

Many industry watchers are already crying foul at the sudden mass proliferation of these films, but I remain hopeful about most of these titles. I can see a lot of variation here. "Paul" will be a comedy directed by Greg Mottola, who also brought us "Superbad" and "Adventureland." "Monsters" contains a lot of satirical elements aimed at the current immigration debate, and will have a fairly minimalist style. "Cowboys and Aliens" will be a big-budget action-adventure film in the same vein as Jon Favreau's superhero movies. "I Am Number Four" has prompted some hopeful comparisons to the "Twilight" franchise. "Skyline" and "The Darkest Hour" will play up suspense and thrills. The original "Thing" is a horror classic and the new version should follow suit. The aliens run the gamut from CGI animated critters to organisms practically indistinguishable humans to largely invisible forces that stay hidden in the shadows. There's a little something for everybody here.

Maybe I'm less sensitive than most because I've been a science-fiction fan for a very long time and alien invasions have always been a staple of the genre. I've read and watched hundreds of different takes on the invasion scenario, from "War of the Worlds" (remade most recently in 2005) to the "Torchwood" miniseries. So a bumper crop of new alien invasion films is about as worrisome to me as an uptick in police procedurals or romantic comedies. They come and go and all I'm worried about is whether they're any good or not. Before "District 9," we had a bad run of clunkers like "Monsters vs. Aliens," "The Day the Earth Stood Still" remake, and "The Invasion," which is the latest "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" remake. I'm sure there will be clunkers in the newest batch, but I expect we'll have a few diamonds too. The earth coming under attack by hostile forces from the stars is a formula that is never going to wear out and can have endless iterations. "District 9" and "Avatar" can both be seen as subversions of the familiar story.

Oddly, the upcoming alien invasion film that I'm the most interested in seeing hasn't been formally announced yet, and has been so far below the radar lately that I'm a little worried that it might not be coming - the promised follow-up to "District 9," presumably titled "District 10," that was set up at the end of the first film. "District 10," ironically, would be much closer to the classic invasion scenario than the original, and would fit right in with the new slew of invasion films. So bring on the aliens! In the theaters, at least, there should be room for everybody to cohabitate.