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5002 Space Aliens Review
Image Credit: Scott Bateman & Lucas Ferrara
Loading...5002 Space Aliens Review
Directed by Scott Bateman
Screenplay by Scott Bateman
Distributed by Bitmax
Not Rated
Runtime– 87 minutes
5002 Space Aliens will be available via Amazon, Apple, and Google/YouTube starting August 10th, 2026.
5002 Space Aliens, written and directed by Scott Bateman and set to be available via Amazon, Apple, and Google/YouTube starting August 10th, 2026, is one the strangest animated movies I think I’ve ever seen. There’s no real plot or even story to speak of. There is a sort of concept that informs what the audience sees through its nearly 90 minute running time, but 5002 Space Aliens isn’t really about anything necessarily. 5002 Space Aliens just is. It exists. And, somehow, that fact is what makes it brilliant. 5002 Space Aliens exists, and the world we live in is a better place for it.
5002 Space Aliens is technically a sequel to the 2021 movie 5000 Space Aliens, also written and directed by Scott Bateman, but you don’t have to see 5000 Space Aliens to understand what is happening in 5002 Space Aliens (I went into 5002 Space Aliens completely unaware that 5002 Space Aliens is a sequel to anything and I was able to grasp, essentially, what was going on with5002 Space Aliens). There are no actors or characters in 5002 Space Aliens. When the movie begins, the audience is told that what they’re about to watch is a sort of government report featuring 5002 space aliens known to exist on planet Earth (well, when you take into account 5000 Space Aliens, it’s 5002 more space aliens known to exist on planet Earth). The audience is told that if they go their local “Space Alien Commission field office,” they will be able to requisition for themselves a pair of “anti-alien glasses” that will, I guess, allow regular Earthlings to be able to see and identify the space aliens more easily. Or something like that.
Once all of that is put out there, the actual movie begins. And the actual movie is essentially a montage of animated images, most of them rotoscoped in some way. Some of these animated images you will recognize, as they appear to be taken from movies, TV shows, commercials, and other advertisements, while others appear to be taken from things like old home movies, public domain images (I assume. I mean, that’s what some of them look like to me), and anything else writer/director Bateman liked and inspired him to include it in the movie. All of those images are then manipulated in some way. Every single image included moving in some way. And all of these images are seen in what amounts to clips that last around one second. Some of these moving images include text with phrases like “Keep art weird,” “Jason Robards nearly died,” and “Artists don’t publish directions.” I don’t really know if those messages, as a whole, end up “meaning something,” as they all go by so fast it’s difficult to read all of them. I suspect that the text messages don’t really mean anything at all, they’re just phrases that writer/director Bateman wanted to include simply because he wanted to, but I could be wrong about that. It might be interesting to watch 5002 Space Aliens super carefully and write down every single text message to see if they mean something on their own (you know, sort of lay them all out in order on a big sheet of paper to see if there’s a pattern in the phrases used or some such. Because everyone has time to do that kind of thing. Ha).
While you watch the one second long animated clips, the movie’s soundtrack, also created by writer/director Bateman, pumps along. The soundtrack resembles upbeat techno dance music but isn’t quite that. When you hear the music alongside the animated images, the movie becomes almost hypnotic as it moves along. It’s fascinating watching the movie unfold because you’re going to ask yourself multiple times throughout, “What the heck is going on here?” It’s actually a fun question to ask.
Now, some people may question if 5002 Space Aliens is an actual movie. Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to experience something like 5002 Space Aliens in a museum? Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to call 5002 Space Aliens a sort of moving art installation instead of a movie? I can see where people might come to those or similar conclusions. There’s a real possibility you conclude that you’re maybe not smart enough to grasp what the heck is going on with 5002 Space Aliens after watching it since it is so different than anything else that’s out there calling itself an “animated movie.” It is fun to look at and listen to, but is recognizing that enough to understand it? Is there something else going on that you just missed?
Maybe. But maybe 5002 Space Aliens really isn’t any more than what you see on the screen. It’s a montage of animated images set to thumping music. It’s fun to watch and look at and listen to and just experience. Maybe that’s all it’s doing and that’s all it’s asking you to do. Experience it and have fun. That’s what I tried to do.
And every image you see are meant to be space aliens. So there is that to consider, too. Just about everything that is a space alien also looks sort of human. Maybe we’re meant to conclude that, since all of these aliens also look like humans, we’re all alike in this universe. We’re not all that different, no matter where we come from.
Maybe. I don’t know. I could be wrong about all of that.
5002 Space Aliens is a fascinating, strange, and weird as hell animated movie experience. It is unlike anything you’ve ever seen. It’s fun, too. And if you’re an adventurous movie watcher and looking for something wholly different, you should make an effort to see 5002 Space Aliens. Writer/director Scott Bateman has created a perfect object that’s also engrossing, entertaining, and bizarrely unique. I may not completely understand it, but that uncertainty is what makes it worth seeing. I loved every second of it.
See 5002 Space Aliens. See it, see it, see it! 5002 Space Aliens will be available via Amazon, Apple, and Google/YouTube starting August 10th, 2026.
So what do we have here?
Dead bodies: None.
Explosions: None.
Nudity?: None that I saw or remember.
Doobage: Secret government report on space aliens. Text messages appearing randomly throughout. Constant motion. Thumping techno sounding music.
Kim Richards? None.
Gratuitous: Anti- AI message. Rotoscope animations. What may have been an image of John Madden from an old beer commercial. Andy Warhol. A shot from the Mick Garris Stephen King movie Sleepwalkers (1992). Dick Clark. What appeared to be Fidel Castro and a penguin. Dancing people throughout. A woman jumping. Albert Einstein. Alfred Hitchcock. Paul Wight as The Giant (maybe). Another John Madden image. Mark Harmon. Steve Jobs in silhouette. Phil Collins. An image of movie producer Lucas A. Ferrara. The Space Alien Commission, whatever that is.
Best lines: “Keep art weird.” “Jason Robards nearly died.” “Where does this leave Japan?” “Help keep Ohio clean?” “Revenge can be yours for only 18.95.” “Use a VCR.” “Radioactive teeth.” “You are the product of television.” “Crime leads to show business.” “Artists don’t publish directions.” “Music shouldn’t be safe.” “The creature from Cleveland.” “Canadian minimalism.” “Cracked nipples.” “Honk for vodka.” “A field of magnetic force.” “Art in Florida.” “Japan’s new robot.” “Economic imperialism.” “Keep out of my coffin.” “
