Anti-corporatism themes in Sci Fi are not only no problem... they're necessary, considering how lately gutless more "serious" forms (eg, Literary Fiction) have been, generally, in responding to the MacMenace; I'm sure DeLillo appreciates the help. But what I take exception to is the tendency of the white auteur to let the subhuman (eg, Planet of the Apes) or the grotesque (eg, the dreadlocked Predator or JarJar Binks or the big-headed humanoids of Alien Nation) signify human minority groups in their fables (even in Sayles' PC "Brother from Another Planet", the titular hero is a mute, three-toed slave). When it's Jeff Bridges as Star Man or Bowie as T.J. Newton or Chris Reeve as Kal-El or Michael Rennie as Klaatu, the message isn't about minority travail and the leads are therefore Messianically beautiful. In film, what you show is so much more powerful than what you "say"... what are all these hideous Sci Fi minority-stand-ins showing?

As much as I liked this movie, you (unlike Engber) have a point. Plus, there's no shortage of ooga-booga from the Nigerians.

It's such a consistent pattern that it's rather funny; no great-looking, angelically super-humanoid aliens of *color* (I don't mean green) out there in the Universe for us to look up to? But, then again, if Lt. Uhura can't even sport a damned Afro, how post-racial can the Cosmos (or the future) be?