ALTERED
ALTERED MOVIE REVIEW ALTERED - 2006 USA Release: Dec. 19, 2006 Haxan, Rogue Pictures Rating: Australia: MA / Canada: 13+ / Finland: K-15 / Italy: VM14 / Netherlands: 16 / New Zealand: R16 / Philippines: R-13 / Portugal: M/16 / Singapore: M18 / South Korea: 18 / UK: 15 / USA: R

EUREKA!

SCIENCE MOMENT BY E.C.MCMULLEN JR.

ALTERED passes the Science Moment hurdle like it wasn't even there. An impossible feat for the overwhelming majority of Hollywood Scifi movies. So how did a little indie flick do it?

Simple! Writers Jamie Nash and Eduardo Sanchez didn't act like they knew something they didn't. If there was something scientific that they couldn't explain, they didn't try to fake it with a scientifically ignorant jargon explanation, they just let it go.

Science is the observation of reality and as such, is filled with theories, hypothesis, and educated guesses. In fact, in 1927, physicist Werner Heisenberg (the REAL Heisenberg) defined the nature of this observational aggregate as applied to Quantum physics with his Principle of Uncertainty.

Like astronomer Karl Friedrich Gauss understood in 1795 (at the age of 18!) and mapped out in statisical detail with his Gaussian curve (a cornerstone of modern computing), there is not only error in every observation, but in order to draw up as accurate an answer as possible, the sum of all observational errors must also be taken into account.

In ALTERED, our four small-town, beer-drinking rednecks are faced with something far beyond their life experience. It would be ridiculous to have them pause to pontificate on how the Xenomorphs and their technology work.

In short, sometimes the smartest thing you can say when faced with the unknown range of probabilities is, "I Don't Know."

So let me comment on what I do know.

A part of this movie involves a thing that the aliens insert into themselves, kind of like a tracking device and communicator (we've had our own versions of these devices for years. Veterinarians have done it to our pets for decades, so think of it as an advanced micro-chip). It appears biological and works in both alien and human bodies (possibly like certain types of glass and/or metals would, though I'm no expert on xenoforms).

Let's all just calm down!

How much the aliens know about human physiology is unknown to us, but they do know how to implant things into us without leaving a scar. The scene where they show that comes in handy later when there is a seemingly psychic moment between the alien and other humans.

On one hand, many science-minded folks might dismiss the "psychic warfare" idea altogether. Various forms of parapsychology, from telekinesis to psychic predictions and more, have been tested for well over a century and produced nothing tangible, let alone definite, but often fraudulent.

However, we already saw that the ALTERED aliens are adept at making cross-species implants: tracking devices that can transmit and receive signals. So the idea that the aliens may have other more weapons-based implants, capable of firing sound, microwaves, what have you, and all activated by mind control same as modern mind/neuro-controlled artificial limbs, isn't far-fetched.

This review copyright 2009 E.C.McMullen Jr.

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