They Live – movie review 3.5/5
They Live has some great ideas but never reaches it’s full potential.
They Live follows a man who obtains a pair of sunglasses. These sunglasses show the world for what it really is – a world populated by aliens manipulating the world with propaganda. All of the advertisements actually say things like “obey” and “reproduce” and “stay asleep”. He decides to take action into his own hands.
They Live smartly comments on modern day society (still relevant today) – a world corrupt with fake lies and propaganda. Did this celebrity really cheat or is it a journalist who’s fabricating news in order for a big scoop? Unfortunately, They Live often loses it’s message in order for action movie thrills. They Live could of been an in-depth society study filled with paranoia – however it begins to lose it’s fitting. It’s fun, delicious B-movie action but it takes a serious subject which has rich metaphors and makes it too light-hearted.
In spite of this, They Live is genuinely creepy. When our protagonist is walking around town with sunglasses on and sees tons of aliens, then they realise he knows the truth and a bunch of aliens walk towards him, I was scared. That is just a glimpse of how great this film could’ve been.
I do love They Live – it is fun, exciting and witty, but I’m reviewing it – I can’t give a heavily flawed movie 5 stars because I had a great time. I need to analyse it. After analysing it, I came to conclusion They Live is a great movie, but it’s nothing more than a hollow shell of it’s potential. Hopefully, someone remakes (gasp, I know) this film soon so it can fulfil possibly one of the greatest elevator pitches ever – a world corrupt with aliens spreading fake news. C’mon, that’s just pure genius.
1 thought on “They Live – movie review”