8/12/2019 Aliens and political metaphors
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How does Transformers and Kill Zone represent
alien identity in relation to political metaphors?
Most media texts are based on political references. The
metaphors allow writers and directors to
expose their unspoken opinions about previous or current
political figures; either portraying them as
good or as pure evil. Looking specifically at Transformers and
Kill Zone helped look at both these
types of representations.
The video game Kill Zone has one of the most interesting
representations of aliens. They are not
your typical hideous evil characters. Instead the storyline is
constructed in a way in which aliens are
almost human which has hardly ever been done before in video
games or even in Sci-fi films. The
plot tells the story of a nuclear war between two nations, the
ISA (protagonists) and the Helghans
(antagonists), with the aim to wipe each other out. The
interesting thing about the opposing nations
is that they are both human, however the Helghans are still
considered aliens because of their slightphysical differences. As
supported by the medial trend, the aliens are considered the
villains and this
is reinforced by the fact that they are shown wearing a uniform
with what looks like a gas mask with
lit up orange/red eye pieces.
There are a few political metaphors within the Kill Zone sequel.
The game creates an almost hidden
link with WW2. One of the two main antagonists, Admiral Orlock,
can easily be compared to Adolf
Hitler. Clips from Kill Zone gameplay show Orlock standing at a
podium, giving a speech to his
Helghan army of millions. This is very similar and nearly
identical to historical photos taken of Hitler
standing on stage with his Nazi army. The idea of WW2 in the
game can also be applied to the
storyline. Hitlers aim was to ethically cleanse Germany, he
attempted to wipe out anyone who was
not Aryan. Similarly, Orlock ordered his army to invade planet
earth and destroy anyone and
anything on it. Therefore the metaphor in Kill Zone claims that
the alien evil leader, Admiral Orlock,
and Hitler are the same.
Transformers tell the story of two groups of robot aliens from
the planet Cybertron which come to
earth either destroy it or to save it from being destroyed. The
alien representation within the
Transformer films are both positive and negative. The
protagonists are the Autobots who mostly
transform into expensive cars as they have positive connotations
for their hero image. Whereas the
Decepticons, the antagonists, usually transform to objects with
negative connotations e.g. tanks,
bulldozer or laser canons. The aliens arent portrayed as the
typical gooey, big-headed alien instead
as powerful robots which can transform into machinery or even
house hold appliances to disguisethemselves from humans.
The character types in Transformers are quite different as both
good and bad are alien robots,
whereas in other films such as Cloverfield, the humans are good
and aliens are bad. However they
still fit in to Vladmir Propps character theory. The heroes of
the film are the Autobots. The helper
and the princess are quite obviously Sam Witwicky and Mikaela
Banes; human characters who
befriend the Transformers and help them throughout the film. The
villains are the Decepticons who
have the intention to destroy earth.
The main alien protagonist, Optimus Prime, was compared to
George Bush who was president at the
time of the making of the first Transformers, by the media
because of the some of the things he had
said within is enlightening speeches in all 3 movies. Freedom is
the right to all sentient beings a
