Comments (Page 110)

I appreciate the artistic look of almost any sci fi movie. As a geezer, I understand modern movies need to look a certain way. I also understand and agree with the suspension of belief that is required with scifi.

For prequels, I have noticed the apparent technological advancements with prequels such as the Alien franchise as well as Star Wars and the POTA franchises. I will toss in The Thing prequel in there too- even though it occurred within a day from the original 1982 movie. The Star Trek reboot did a fairly decent job regarding weaponry though.

I get it. I just think it would be refreshing to see a prequel take in the look and technological capabilities of the original movie. 

Leto,

Chronologically it is impossible to carry over the original props conveyed in Alien to future productions. In 1979 Alien was "state of the art," as you can get!

In terms of pure technological aesthetics it is difficult at best for audiences seeing old cathode ray tube monitors, "PAL TV'S" boob tubes, then making the leap to fully independent interactive holographical computer interfaces that were seen in Prometheus.

As movie watchers we are all under the assumption of  suspension of disbelief such that what we saw in Alien is the same aesthetically as what we have watched in the prequal films. 

I am not sure subjectively why anyone takes issue with creative narrative license when it comes to sci-fi films. I believe the main difference is that the earliest film, Alien, was so iconic that deviations from the overall props of the film cause some dissonance in some viewers when technically it should not.

If I may be so bold, I would like to artistically put this another way. Alien is no doubt a masterpiece as good as any other artform. Comparatively to masterworks in renaissance painting Alien is another separate art form equally as good in terms of contemporary art. Having stated this I believe the logical test then is never to judge any film or painting comparatively against anything earlier or later. 

There simply is no comparison constructively or any argument to compare these films to each other. They are all separate works of art each independent on their own.

We can all of us always state preference for styles in art; however, I think we all do ourselves a disservice to say that any future works must rigidly be defined in exact terms relatively from previous works down to exact details.

Great art is great art, no matter when it is made chronologically, and so there is no subjective comparative qualitative requirements that the two should measure up exactly. 

This is just as good as this...in some ways each is better than each other; but, I dare not fall into those types of subjective traps.

dk

There are no excuses here.

It was strange if multibillionaires like Wayland were traveling on muddy and oily barges. Prometheus is not a cargo barge, it is an elite yacht. You can see both: yachts and barges today; so, why should things be different in the future?

Of course, I love the retro-futurism style of Alien/s, but we must understand that the idea should work for the story, not vice versa.

If the next story will be about an ordinary workers on a cheap ship or about colonial marines on a minimalistic warship, then there must be an Alien art-style. In all other cases, no. Not necessary.

DK,

Yeah aesthetically carrying over 40 year old film props would be a difficult stretch of the imagination for many audiences to sink with what they see in so many other contemporary films with similar special effects and treatments.

The aesthetic dissonance you are seeing in the newer films is just something you are supposed to overlook as a film goer or at least that is what the producers of this franchise expect.

I certainly can understand your expectations. I like the look of Alien and I also like the look of the newer special effects.

One thing that bothers me about the prequels and prequels in general is that the technology is better when it should be as good or even less advanced. We heard excuses that the Prometheus and Covenant ship were more advanced since they were more highly funded than the lowly Nostromo crew ship. I think that is sort of a cop out. If there is another prequel, I would like to see the technology be on par with Alien- small screens with DOS looking text, equipment that malfunctions and has to be mannually fixed etc. That is part of why I still think A3 holds up against AC. They were pretty primitive tech wise. It could still be done in a great visual way, but I don't want to see holograms and such in a prequel when the original was comparably low tech.

Some parts of these films are masterpieces. Artistically I believe we all enjoy certain aspects about each of these films. What I find interesting about AC are the updated special effects for specifics scenes. The back-buster scene I think would have been terrifying years ago; however, contemporary audiences in general have so much more exposure to similar gore and violence. As powerful as the scene was visually contemporary audiences were unimpressed. This was not lost on me at all and in fact I enjoyed the evolution of seeing how far RS had come in terms of translating his vision onto the big screen.

There are other treatments in AC worthy of notable mention where artistically the work is unique demanding further discussion. Over all the ending did not work for me.

Alien gets a little harder to watch just because it is getting dated. My thoughts on Alien are thus. When Ash demands the crew go to the surface, lets it in the ship, watches it as it slowly infects Kane, tells the crew nothing scientifically, tells Kane nothing of what is inside of him when wakes up, and so this is when I realize Ash is a bad guy. I do not believe this sentiment has come before when discussing Alien. I thought it was implied everyone got this from many subsequent viewings of the film.

In retrospect if I were Dallas I would have shoved Ash's ass right into that airlock with the flame thrower and made him go after what he obviously was so responsible for in terms of breaking quarantine.

Alien has a high level of sophisticated deceit attributable to Ash's character and so the real introspective movie goers establish that his character is working entirely against the crew. I enjoyed this aspect about Alien so much because it raises the bar for the average movie goers to really discern what motivates Ash. 

As far as the other films, I enjoy Aliens just as a great popcorn film. Prometheus has so many problems structurally and is only enjoyable abstractly for me. I have to ignore many plot holes in Prometheus to call it a complete film. Prometheus has powerful visual elements; but, these are all diminished by it's other sins.

I love Covenant. My quadrilogy (by chronology):

1. Prometheus.

2. Covenant.

3. Alien.

4. Aliens.

Prometheus has the better worldbuilding than Covenant. Covenant is a more solid story than Prometheus.

That's just plain bizarre, holy shit.

Isn't the pharmacy there to make your situation better? ;-)

Honestly, if I would get a paper like that I would probably save it or at least take a picture. Getting that number is a thing that at most happens some times in your life-time (if you go by probability). That you're an alien-fan just makes it better because then you find it fun.

Roger G: Where do you get that from? It still says Untitled alien prequel in his IMDB page.

I can only speak for myself, I don't like it very much since most of the characters were without personality. Reason two is because it was too much about the androids even though Fassbender did a good job. My reason for watching these movies is not the androids but the human journey.

David as the creator of the Xeno sucks balls and is probably my biggest complaint about it because to me it takes a big crap on the alien-lore. Another but smaller reason is that I was hoping to see more about the Engineers, but they got wiped out and also they didn't look that impressive. Living in stone-huts, seriously?

AC is better than the AVP's and AR so I got to give it that. Not sure about Prometheus because AC had better characters because they were not as annoying and felt more like real people but at the same time it didn't have David as the creator of the Xeno. Both prequels are mixed bags to me, with good parts and those that are crappy.

To me Alien 3 is the best one in the franchise but I can understand why people have problems with it. AC doesn't come close to it as far as quality is concerned. You'll probably find people that disagree with me but that's fine. We have many movies in this franchise and the more movies the less likely it is that people have the same preferences.

Covenant to me comes after the original three as far as the quality is concerned and maybe after Prometheus. During the time of Prometheus they didn't have David as the creator but the characters are better in Covenant. The characters are not as annoying, which is important to me but there are other things that I don't like. Quit this android-thing and keep Scott far away from the story.

It's pretty good until they get down to the planet and the characters become largely uninteresting or stupid and then it gets shut off. It doesn't even come close to aging as well as A3.

It has problems but I'd probably put it third behind Alien and Aliens.

It gets hate mainly because people don't like David being the creator of the Aliens.

I believe BigDave hails from the Birmingham area of the UK. The UK is now three days into its 2nd national Covid lockdown, so if he’s having computer or internet problems it could be tricky for him to get online. Let’s hope it’s nothing more serious than that. I mean, Covid is running rampant now in the UK.

Years ago I had a phone hookup with Fox about some Alien project and later that day went to a stationery shop to buy something and the girl on the checkout was named Fiorina.

It was a second draft and needed a lot more work before coming to fruition.  

Bearing that in mind, it was pretty entertaining, as was the comic adaptation.

I'm constantly playing catch up on games within my collection. I've found a lot of series that I like but I'm almost feeling like I'm getting burnt out on some games. For example I just finished Kiwami 2 and it was really good. I have the remastered collection to move onto next but I'm unsure if I should play something else in the meantime. I kind of felt the same moving from Witcher 1 to Witcher 2 and I haven't really been back to Witcher 2 after playing the first chapter and prologue. Now this always hasn't been the case since when I played Assassin's creed I pretty easily transitioned to brotherhood, revelations and Assassin's creed 3 before I hit a bit of a wall to play a new game. Now comes the question of trying to play some sort of filler before getting to the meaty games or to play some other meaty game before getting back. I could play Fallout 4 before heading back to the Yakuza series but that could mean I won't be back to the series for a long time making it even more difficult to catch up. Do you guys ever experience this?

First of all I have to say that Alien 1979 it's by far my favourite movie. I still remember when I watched it at the theatre for the first time, the horror of not knowing how the creature looked like, the darkness of the whole world, the relentless pace until the final duel between Ripley and the Alien... a perfect movie.

All the love and admiration I have for the film is obviously shared by the creators of the game. The attention to detail to capture every asp192.168.0.1 ect of the film it is outstanding. Every screw on the walls, every console, every furniture in the spaceship makes you feel like you are inside the Nostromo. Even if you are not a gamer just walking around looking at the details that surround you is a total joy, and you can do this at the beginning of the game because at some point you won't be able to walk casually anymore: the Alien has arrived.

As many people know the behaviour of the Alien is not scripted, his behaviour changes depending on what you do in the game. This random behaviour it is totally unnerving as you can imagine and in the lower game difficulties is not very noticeable but I played the game in Hard difficulty and you could see how the Alien "learns" based on your actions. For example I was always hiding under furnitures for a while when the creature was around. After being discovered a few times you can't hide under furnitures anymore because the Alien will look for you there directly, so you need to use lockers or other hiding places until, of course, the Alien finds you again and you need to change your actions. This non scripted behaviour adds to the whole tension of the game another layer so you feel unease every time the monster is around, not knowing what to expect.

Hi, I find this interesting I will read it, thank you.

Hi, that's really cool thanks for sharing!

It's a fair question on just about all movies and games. For instance, when do characters or creatures go to the bathroom for a poop? When do they scramble around to make a meal? I don't make light of the question. I think if we get bogged down in these details, it takes away from the actual story that has to be delivered in a certain amount of time. 

On a lighter note, it could be funny to see Ripley get a poo interrupted by a crew member screaming being murdered within earshot. "Who do I have to f&ck to leave me alone for a quiet poo?" Or the Xeno to scurry away from you and get caught sending an Instagram- "Stupid humans turning on each other because of me when they should unite. Napping in the vents before taunting them again. Maybe I will make some rattling noises or hiss a bit to keep them frosty."

For Isolation, I never wondered what the Xeno was doing- I was just glad it wasn't close to me.

Is this about the game Alien Isolation? It's been awhile since I played.

I read a book when I was a kid about a female vampire in space that eats chocolate chip cooks to keep from drinking blood. Does anyone have any idea what the title and author of this book is?10.0.0.0.1

In the small prequel shot film about what happned to Shaw and David after prometheus it is shown that David can pilot the ship without a suit. He sits in the pilot seatSHAREit

He is in the UK. My post was basically a signal to let him know we are here if he could see but unable to respond. Sort of a signal flare. All we can do is wait. 

Come on BigDave- do it for Sox!

BlackAnt I hope you are right Friend. I like your take on it- it gives a lot of room for speculation- and well earned. I am hopeful but I have to call out what could be an uncomfortable truth. I hope that I am wrong. Come on BigDave- give SOME kind of signal!

What does everyone think of this?

Let's presume BigDave is not coming back for some time and it has nothing to do with us or him in some trouble of any kind.

The only thing I can think of is BigDave writing for a movie studio and signed a non disclosure agreement. So he can no longer come here and talk, about you guessed it, all things to do with Alien....BigDave has been coming here since this placed opened it's doors eight years ago.

After 11,804 posts the equivalent of 20 length books of War and Piece of posts, I really do not believe he would stop posting here if it were not something to do with his writing.

BigDave has privately been working on screenplay treatments for the Alien franchise.....some of this work he was very secretive about. 

If anyone knows anything about this or thinks this is not possible please comment down below.

I do think that Planet 4 was the Engineer home planet , however I do not think that is the full story.

My hypotheses

1. The 'city' where the goo was aerosolised over was actually a citadel, and the aggressive mutagen quickly spread across the rest of the planet, wiping out the rest of the population living in more urban or developed areas.

It could also be a sacred ground or centre of power. David was likely able to quickly calculate the most effective point of deployment of the payload, so this was probably not a mistake even if it appeared like one.

After all, that is precisely the design of the derelict, to completely wipe out a whole planet with one payload, so this seems to have done exactly what it was purposes for.

2. The destruction of the home planet severely handicapped the race as a whole.

I have faith that we will see the Engineers again, and I hope they have a showdown with David. It's possible a hero Engineer tries to stop David from delivering the ovomorphs to earth but is impregnated in the process, and only makes it to LV-426, or a 'surviving' Engineer hijacks the ship to finish the job they had started only to confront one of David's (?) facehuggers, and, not realising he is pregnant, wakes up and tries to complete the journey.

No matter what you think about Ridley and the Prometheus arc thus far you have to admit that there is so much room for activities with this background storyline.

I haven't read it but I totally understand that feeling of joy when you've discovered something that you really like.

Very hard to summon BD. Instead of similar topics, you should create an interesting topic with theories or your own vision of Engineers or AI.

why in the ampoule room the ampoules remain intact, neatly placed if the Engineers in panic fled to this room. if they were so they would knock them over. unless they rearrange them or from scratch. but what for? and where they fled. I think the second door from this room was where the mural of the crucified deacon was. but in another scene, is the pile of engineers' corpses by the door the back door to the ampoule room? you can see that the bodies were torn apart as if it was a black goo, as in Covenant or during the intro of Prometheus. So why, after being infected, would put these ampoules back on the spot, as if they had set a trap, but who and from whom were they escaping? How did the Black goo flow out of the ampoules if it was still inside the glass ampoules as shown by David.

Roger G: It's easier for some people to listen than to read.

Even though I don't have any problem to read I usually listen to podcasts nowadays.

I hope that he’ll be back

BigDave...

Sending wishes of divine love! Hoping you are strong and well...we all await your return.

BigDave....reach out to Chris if you have password issues...you can even log in with your cell phone. You know we all care about you brother.....we would send out a search party to find you; but, we have no idea where you are at...

I can't say farewell to BigDave, I hope he's well, just a little busier, and wait for his comeback. 

C'mon BigDave, we need you back!

I like many of the designs in Aliens....the weapons....the lab, the inside of the ship....the sleep chambers, the WY complex......that was a cool movie overall for its time.....would challenge anyone to do better. Say what you will about Cameron but he gets stuff done! The Alien Queen Priceless special effects....but hey if anyone wants to throw it all under the bus I really could care less....its not going to stop me from enjoying it one bit.....

Didn't they have to scrap the story of a pyramid and roll it into the derelict? I think if so then the derelict could be re-configurable and the bomber from the prequels was tooled up to be a transport making the pilot deck higher up and the lower deck for carrying stuff. It could just be a different model of the ship, an older design or something like that.