Now across the galaxy to the world of Star Trek. Some would say that pointy ears had their origin in the illustrations for The Lord of the Rings. I can't say for sure, but "ears of Spock" have been popular culture shorthand for ages. It's amazing how many alien species on series like Star Trek are really just humans with one or two little tweaks. Spock wouldn't be Spock without the pointy ears, but he would also look equally weird if his eyebrows didn't tilt up.
You didn't really see aliens get "alien" until the late 1970's, when movies like Star Wars and Alien came out. Sure, the aliens were all still humans in suits, but shapes and balance centers were changed. Once the 1980's arrived, and prosthetic makeup and animatronics improved, more elaborate aliens with more lifelike appearances could appear. Mind you, we still had "V" and its "aliens in human suits" reversal...:)
Once we got the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park out of the CG box, very few of us wanted to put them back. George Lucas couldn't resist giving us a CG Jabba. But then Farscape came along and prosthetics and animatronics were back in vogue.
In the end, though, we're all still humans in suits. Pointy ears and pencilled-in eyebrows don't really change who we are. We all love putting on different costumes and seeing ourselves in a different light. That's one of the reasons I loved Kick-Ass so much.
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