Hyper Sapien: People from Another Star

In this family friendly sci-fi movie an alien race, who look like humans, have set up a base on the dark side of the moon. Two alien girls stow away on a trip to Earth and decide to stay on the planet. They plan to prove to their elders that mankind is mature enough to be able to handle extra-terrestrial contact. They end up in the American mid-west and are soon in contact with some locals; meanwhile the captain of their ship pursues them.

This gentle natured yarn is difficult to entirely dislike. To give it a hard time would be akin to kicking a puppy. You would feel ashamed and always regret it. I would only be being honest if I said that it's not exactly great though. It has a Saturday late morning feeling to it, which is not a bad thing exactly but it never really goes anywhere too interesting either. The story boils down to a romantic sub-plot. You know that old chestnut - human boy meets alien girl. The characterisation is actually pretty decent which does help things a bit. While the petrol drinking, three-eyed and limbed alien pet is quite an impressive bit of special effects work all things considered. The plot-line overall never gets particularly exciting but it's charming to a certain extent.

The one thing that did amaze me a little bit though was when I was watching it I thought to myself that the little gap-toothed girl looked exactly like a child version of the ice queen surgeon from the British hospital TV drama Holby City. To my utter amazement I discovered later on that this was indeed the very same person, Rosie Marcel. It sure proves that old saying that little girls can grow up in very interesting ways

If you remember Talia Shire from the Rocky franchise or from The Godfather, you might be surprised that she has been very active as an executive producer, including this early effort in science fiction romance. Its also Keenan Wynn's last film and reminds viewers that he was a capable actor. This is a watchable movie, interspersed with pieces of plot that go nowhere (why is there a U. S. Senator wedged into the story and why is there an alleged assassination plot against her?) and an animatronic alien creature named Kirby who is both a plot device and comic relief. The editing choices also are peculiar and the other acting performances are mediocre. Still, its pleasant and, in the end, mildly suspenseful.

My title says it all. This is one of those movies that just drags on and does nothing. If it weren't for the terribly slow pacing, it might actually be a decent movie with a message. The title alone makes you think it's going to be some kind of action movie with super monkeys or something. The term 'hyper sapien' is never once brought up and there is no explanation why it should be the title of a movie.

One of the biggest issues this movie has is the overwhelming Ex Machina present throughout the entire movie. Even scenes that are supposed to be suspenseful just come off as drab and uninteresting because all anyone has to do is "read minds" or "fire a few lasers". There's no suspense at all. The aliens can read minds, see through other creature's eyes, shoot lasers, and a plethora of other things that that were used because the writers were obviously unable to come up with alternatives or reasons for "why" something was the way it was. It's as if they sat around the development meeting and said "how do they learn to ride a bike? They read your mind! How do they understand human feelings? They read your mind!" It really takes away the mystery and awe of a movie when someone can literally do anything just by reading minds, it doesn't help you connect with a character because they have nothing to solve. It would be like getting a math test with all the answers and all you have to do is fill in the blanks. For being creatures that are (literally) lightyears ahead of humans, being able to read minds would be a sure-fire way to figure out how to interact with humans so we don't just kill them all.

There is also a sever lack of explanations for anything that happens. They never actually explain WHY they have come to Earth, though one could assume reasons why, but they don't actually say. Another small thing is why does Kirby drink gasoline and eat red hot coal? Do they even have coal where they're from? Do they have gas in their ship's engines? I get he's an alien, but it's things like this that bug me when it's never explained "why". Why does Robin and Tavi's hair change color when in and out of the sun, but all the other aliens always have white hair? Were they just special? I understand a movie needs a balance when it comes to exposition and a good movie can be ruined because they will explain things that actually don't need to be, but there is literally none to be had here. You'll find that a lot through the entire movie, just random plot points and things happening that never get a reason why.

That's not to say this is a terrible movie, it's just boring. The three-legged alien, Kirby, is actually kind of fun to see. He has three legs/arms, three eyes, and like five mouths. He also shoots lasers from his eyes. It seemed like the creature department and the puppeteers were given full reign on this characters because it just seems really well done, at least by this movie's standards. There's only a few points where you can tell it's a puppet, but I think that's true for anything that is on screen like this. Most of the acting is "meh", it's not the worst I've ever seen, but it just felt like no one really cared. Cinematography is done well, there aren't any boom mics in the shots and everything seems framed nicely.

Overall, if you're bored and want to stay bored, this movie is just for you!

The film is not all that bad but it's really geared for the kids to much for me to really enjoy and not like and not as good as E.T. but it is somewhat enjoyable. If you have kids and like Sci-Fi (or your kids do) then this is an entertaining family film.

The film movie had it's moments of being okay (from adult perspective) and I'm sure if I watched this one as a kid I would have liked it. Actually I'm surprised I've never seen this one before but then again I was 14 in 1986 and this film is geared for a younger than 10 years old audience I believe.

I would recommend this movie for a family styled Sci-Fi movie night/day. I'm sure the kids would enjoy it with that 3-eyed, 3-legged monster thingy running around who's about as annoying as Jar-Jar Binks.

4/10

Film is typical for it's time period. It contains some decent character interactions which could have used a lot more work. Someone really dumped hard on this film and it's budget and it shows. Look past the awkwardness of everyone involved in this project and you might be able to ad lib into the story and it'll seem less awkward. It seems that the story had a lot of directions it wanted to go in and a lot of things it wanted to try to put into the film to create the time period and circumstances. I simply don't think it flows smoothly. Not sure if it was a screen play written from scratch, where the points got thrown in or if it was written from a longer story and we see someone trying to pull the highlights out of the bigger story. I think I am looking at this more critically now after watching it again off a disk set purchased then when I was young and it first came out. If memory serves me correctly, I enjoyed it a lot more before I knew a lot more. Now I see lots of little problems in the film that most likely could not be corrected during the editing. Maybe should have rated this a point or two higher; but, all things considered from decades of experience, just can't go that high. As another person says, I like the young love story and how it turns out.