Actually, it's funny you should mention Alien, I was just thinking of Alien 3 as a wonderful example of how sci-fi movies can be made 'Gritty' whilst still remaining fixed in the future. No lasers, practically no spaceships, just a group of convicts and Ripley with nothing more than whatever weapons that come to hand in a prison.
That film, to me, shows human ingenuity to a far higher degree than being able to write a virus (in ID4) that the most basic version of McAfee would have kicked in the head
I suppose that's why I want WOTW to stay as it was written, the fact the journalist managed to survive a war where it was literally cannons vs lasers, is a testament to humanity in itself. For me, it also has an environmental significance, the Earth protects it's own.
