Where are the monsters?

"Out of the Blue" is a fascinating documentary about the UFO phenomenon. The team behind the movie support the ETI hypothesis, the notion that UFOs really are space craft from other parts of the universe, manned by intelligent aliens. The documentary features interviews with military personnel, pilots and astronauts who claim to have seen UFOs. The Rendlesham Forest affair is prominently featured. Much of the information in "Out of the Blue" comes from previously classified government documents. One UFO case involved a luminous object which disabled 20 nuclear warheads! The Condon Committee report is effectively debunked, and many official "explanations" turn out to be quite absurd: swamp gas, light houses, the planet Venus (an old classic)...

Somehow, "Out of the Blue" restored my belief in UFOs, which I lost when I was about 15 years old...

However, there are still major problems with the approach taken in the documentary. For instance, the laws of physics seem to suggest that travel faster than the speed of light is impossible. It's also somewhat mysterious why an advanced civilization would take the trouble to come here in the first place? What's their motive? Also, why have the USAF, CIA and NASA covered up so many UFO reports? What's *their* motive?

Here, the documentary attempts to be as "respectable" as possible. It doesn't mention any close encounters with the actual aliens supposedly manning the nuts-and-bolts space craft. Nor does it investigate the myriad of reports about "alien abductions". Contactees and UFO cults aren't featured either, despite being a vibrant part of the ufological landscape. If the team behind "Out of the Blue" can believe that a UFO has disabled nuclear warheads, or that a UFO landed in a British forest outside a US military base, why don't they believe, say, the Barney and Betty Hill abduction case, George Adamski or Whitley Strieber? This obviously calls for a closer discussion. Also, why don't they believe in a gigantic conspiracy from Roswell to Area 51? I'm not suggesting all these things are real. I'm simply pointing out a weakness in the methodology of the movie. What's their criterion of "reality"?

Personally, I don't think UFOs are literal alien craft. If they are, I have to conclude that alien civilizations are even more stupid than humans! A clear case of evolutionary overspecialization-degeneration... As already noted, the natural laws of physics are pretty well known, and seem to preclude long-distance space travel by purely physical means. As for the illogical, occult and "religious" aspects of UFOs, they simply aren't going to go away. Perhaps there is a way to distinguish the occultist aspects from the nuts-and-bolts observations, but I frankly doubt it. As Hilary Evans quipped years ago: "The last thing a nuts-and-bolts ufologist wants is for monsters to enter the stage. Unfortunately, people have seen too many strange creatures together with UFOs. We simply cannot get rid of the monsters". (I'm quoting from memory but this was the gist of it.)

Whatever the explanation for the UFO phenomenon might be, it must somehow incorporate those monsters...

Despite that, I will nevertheless give "Out of the Blue" five stars. Monsters or not, this documentary at least shows that something *really* strange is going on at this godforsaken planet. Ah, I feel like 14 again!

PS. This review is based on the version of "Out of the Blue" posted on Youtube by UFOTV. This DVD set might contain additional material I haven't seen...