"The only significant popular entertainment I can recall where the deep-sea/outer space/cave-dwelling creatures were not
evil, soul-ripping face-melting colon-exploding fanged-toothed
acid-dripping madness-inducing hateblobs whose sole purpose was to suck
the flesh from humanity’s bones in the most gruesome way possible, the
only film I can recall where the alien life was actually depicted as
sort of wonderful, positive, radiant, even ethereal and delightfully
mysterious, was an old, pre-Avatar James Cameron movie from 1989 called The Abyss. Close Encounters also came close. And maybe 1997’s Contact, a little. And that’s about it.
When it comes to strangers and the alien unknown, we are masters of
the vile and grotesque, but can’t do unspeakable magic or beauty. We can
effortlessly create the ugliest and most bizarre, the most repulsive
horrors imaginable, invent movies with images so disgusting you can’t
even describe them in print. This is easy. Almost anyone can do it, and
almost everyone does.
But if I say, “Please come up with a creature or a scenario of nearly
indescribable beauty, an alien organism of such staggering
luminescence, or power, or unusual character you almost can’t look at it
without weeping, or catching your breath, or suddenly expanding your
soul,” you will almost certainly fail."