Comments (Page 250)

BD:

I agree that if they reboot Alien 3 I would be even more annoyed than I am now with how the prequels are going. Any (emphasis here) retcon of Alien 3 would get a thumbs down from me.

You mention that we are in the prequel-series and that they need to finish that. I understand what you mean but the way that it is set up and how it has developed has mad every very disappointed so that is why I say that I would like to see a last prequel if they get a good story and human characters that I can get behind but not just for the sake of it. Having a last prequel just to have a last prequel is meaningless to me, there has to be more than that. To me it is like well if they plan to go on with the emphasis on David then forget it, I can make up in my mind what would happen and I would be fine with that.

“But there are a % of the Fans who EXPECTED to see more of a connection to ALIEN which this movie just never delivered... i think a lot more just expected a bit more of a Connection...”

I understand your point and I can also understand their concerns but at the same time yeah they could have made it a bit less vague. For example when I saw the Xeno Fifield it look ed a lot better and also had less of a vague connection to the Xeno. They should have had more like that instead of what it became.

Sure I would not have been too happy about a David and Shaw movie and I am glad that they got rid of her but having it about David was a mistake. They should have made more interesting characters and at least surpassed what we had in Prometheus (that should not be too hard). Now we reached the same level but that they were less annoying but that is not too much to be proud of. They have failed with the characters twice in a row (five times if you count the AVP’s and AR). Well done ;)

“...a Sequel would NOT connect to ALIEN or be about the Xenomorph, may have effected some Fans interest in seeing a Prometheus 2.”

It is not about how many persons that watched the movie, it is about the quality. They still did not manage to get it right so they misunderstood the criticism IMO.

“.... and i think they were SHOCKED at how Disappointing Alien Covenant had done.”

They never understood the criticism of Prometheus so they have themselves to blame in a way. It was not mainly about the lack of Xenos even though you might have some percent of the audience that put that as number one. Most of it had to do with lame characters doing dumb things.

“Its hard for them to Gauge what went wrong.... and deciding… ”

Someone should tell them that they need to get a movie where we can get behind the characters and that does not focus on a mad android and a lot of it will be fixed. As long as they do not understand that we are in shit. Put them in a writing class ;)

“They cant afford to get it WRONG Twice.”

They already have, with Prometheus and Covenant, and even more so if we count the AVP’s + AR. How can they just get it so wrong? That kind of amazes me, it is interesting.

BD

You mention the plot and yeah I think that is what you should look at first and the characters next. Sure I can connect to a non-human character too if they are well-written. Chewbacca is an example, or even the Naviis (name?) in Avatar or Maz Kanada in TFA. The thing is that they were sympathetic and  well-done. David was interesting but an asshole and it was all about him while Maz and Chewwie were well done characters in a larger story.

You can even have maybe some androids in the background that are sympathetic but they got to work so we can identify with them and they shall not be played by one actor. Alien to me though is not about the androids even though they can be made interesting.

“A Problem with say David having his own Colony of Engineered Superior Humans, and having little or NO Humans in the movie...  would be its hard to connect to such beings especially if they appear Less Human and are Superior and somewhat Super Human..”

Exactly because then they are more like something that we could see in X-men and not relatable in this franchise although I like X-men 1 and 2. Having them here would just be strange.

Humans made from test-tubes or made naturally, what ever. As long as they are well-written and we can support them it is fine by me.

“you could even have David become Disappointing and try to Destroy these Humanoids, and see their Peril at escaping the Plans David has for them!”

Yeah but don’t make it about David and also have some interesting monster sin it.  It is Alien not “David’s experiments” Yeah we need real humans also from someone that can write and execute them well on the screen otherwise we are fucked.

“... but this kind of PLOT could become a bit too much like AVATAR.”

Yeah but at the same time I would take that over another movie that is like Covenant. The thing is to make it your own and not make it like a copy which might be easier said than done at least if that is the story that we shall follow.

“Do they form a Bond/Covenant and work hand in hand, and then we see the Colonist start to Treat Walter as just a Machine, and so Walter (David) starts to feel... "here we go again"...  and then Unleashes Hell on those Humans?”

Or maybe David looses control over his monsters so they turn on him and the humans. WMD’s can also get out of control, that is why they are so dangerous and it is also stupid to make them. I would not like David to be featured that much, keep him in the background like a boss in a computer game. He could be in the end of the movie or in small portions but not what the movie is about.

“ TIME-RESTRAINTS”

Yeah but then cut down the time of David and have him in the background (background character). I do not want another movie like Covenant. If we would get another Covenant I would be like “fuck no”(notice there are no !!!’s, it is a matter of how I annoyed I would be and many !!!’s looks like screaming and I am usually calmer than that even though I would not like it).

More Engineers less David thanks, I would buy that. I think that the Engineers are interesting. Fassbender as a Walter like character would be fine, I kind of liked Walter although it was too much of an android movie.

“HOW would a Superior Race to Humans accept that these inferior Species have turned up and declare that they are the Creator of their GOD! and there is NOTHING important about their Creator, he is ONE of many who are made to Serve MANKIND.”

Yeah but make it tied to alien in a way because the movies are Alien prequels. This does not mean that you got to show the Xenos a lot. The shorts did not show the Xenos much and that worked.

“What happens when Engineers Turn up or do so in a Sequel?”

I would like to see that, it would be interesting but they should be as the Engineer in Prometheus, not how they were in AC. Raised By Woklves? He can make it if he wants to, I don’t care.

As far as bits in your other post I got to mention the Zombie Fifield. I was like, OK? How does this connect to the Xeno? He was a zombie, which could be fine in another movie but not there. Also they should have decided in P was an alien prequel or not, the way that they put it (is it or is it not?) was just dumb.

Yup the Engineer city what ever in AC was disappointing. They should have made it more biomechanical.

“however i feel if the Movie which is a Alien Prequel would be about David creating his own Humanoids to Rule Over, who live in a Village that is very Middle Aged (Wooden) and so kind of his own Amish Village of Genetically Altered Humans who see David as God/Creator...  i just think a majority of Fans would NOT be so happy with this Plot...”
That seems boring to me, I don’t want that.

“Even IF we go for a Davids World First (i think Fans wont be interested in unless it had some Xenomorph Elements)."

That would still be too much about David if he is not killed off early in the movie or something similar. Yeah some Alien elements should be expected, at least it will be so for me.

BD:

“Some are Wishfully thinking David does-not create the Xenomorph... maybe this can be changed.”

I hope so, at least they can try to not make it worse than it already is, that could be one step in a better direction. They could have him in a small portion of the movie but not make it about him, that is a difference. Having it about him is the problem not that he is in it at all because he was interesting in Prometheus.

About what kind of life that he wants to make could work as long as he is not the creator of the original Xeno and as long that he is not the movie so to speak. More HR Giger aesthetics could be nice which is not to say that all of the movie needs to be built on that but it could be a part. Look at how Tim Burton makes his things, dark and that.

“Tampering with LIFE that would imprint some Traits of the Xenomorph could have Dire Consequences. “

That is an interesting idea, a movie based on that is something that I could accept. Get the right story and well made human characters and it could probably be better than both P and AC, which would not be very difficult but anyways.

The worms to Hammerpedes were interesting because it showed what the goo could make. Milburn was stupid but that is another issue, they should have had the scene where he saw something easier before (a worm or what ever it was).

“So what happens when things go to POT!”

Hadley’s hope * 10? (Bigger area) As far as the spores are concerned, I think that was interesting because it showed what the goo could do. That is one of the things that I liked about Covenant.

“We still need some Answers.... and so Discovering a Disabled David to just activate and get some information from like they did with Bishop in Alien 3 is something they could explore....
The LONGER a sequel takes... the more likely this would be Davids Role/Fate!”

I could be OK with that, let it take time. I was alright with how they did with Bishop in Alien 3. The difference is that Bishop was a likable character and David is an asshole.

Seeing how the Engineers would react to the bombing by David would be interesting if they involve that part but don’t have that at the expense of the human characters.
About Xenos, Neos, and that I am fine with new monsters. They could just show the Xeno as a small part of it but then you also have people that are interested in the monster itself even though that is not what I am about when it comes to the movies even though it is interesting to see what they can come up with.

“Maybe there has to be some Compromise?”

Maybe, it got to improve from Covenant which is not a very difficult thing to do.

“For those who DONT want a David movie, well a Aftermath could show what happens when these Beings had Revolted Against David...”

That could be interesting, it depends on the story and characters but if they think it through it might work.

“This would be more interesting if they are NOT your traditional Humans but Enhanced... "

Any of those could work as long as they are well done.

“I feel HOWEVER that most Alien Fans would rather see a incoming Human Ship arrive at a World that would be kind of like a Worse Case than turning up to Planet 4 and coming across the SPORES and Davids Eggs in the Cathedral/Citadel”

The risk is that it would be a repeat of AC, you got to do something else. At the same time AC was different from Prometheus so maybe something else could be done if there is the next movie, that is the story is not very much based on David at all because it would allow more creative freedom.

“Now he could create a variant of the Xenomorph, that would also be a AI... just as the Xenomorph is.”

Maybe, it just seems confusing what he (Scott) says sometimes.

No thanks to Nolan, I haven’t liked him since the Dark Knight Rises which was eww. One director that at least did one movie that I like is Danny Boyle and Alex Garland wrote it. Maybe those two could do an alien movie? At least they have one movie that is good at least to me but maybe one is not enough.

Not a fan of the Xeno with three heads, it just looks too dumb (sorry Chris). No more Ripley and do not erase Alien 3. Write new characters, how difficult can it be? Get a competent writer, there has got to be someone out there that is able to do it.

To study the Xeno seems too much like Alien R and we know how that turned out. Maybe it is just that it reminds me too much of AR that I don’t like it, that is possible. I am not really sure what kind of story that could work but to study the Xeno seems to me to have been done.

I totally agree with Daliens, if you want a nostalgia trip go back and watch the old ones. To me, I don’t need a copy of any of them because we already have an Aliens, and so on.

Decs:

I am glad that other people enjoyed it too

It is a movie that splits people as far as likes and dislikes but that is alright. No matter if you like or dislike Alien 3, I think that many would put it in front of the AVP’s, the prequels, and Resurrection, 3 is a lot better compared to them I would say. Yeah maybe there were too many background characters but some of them were well-done (like Morse, Clemens, and Dillon). Totally agree that it would have been better if Fox wouldn’t have interfered the way that they did, something that you also bring up. Sometimes I wonder what it would have been without the studio-interference. Yup it is called The Assembly Cut, give it a chance and see what you think of it at least that is my preferred version.

DK is a member here, I guess that I should have put it in a separate post. My bad

I am not pointing finger at anyone particular because I am not sure who’s idea it was to make it all about David and to make him so evil. Whoever made that decision really effed up because obviously someone somewhere decided to do that.

“Bring me the pee David! The pee!” - Weyland paraphrased

(Weyland pours it into his drink to see how it tastes. Decides that no sugar is needed)

Crappy joke completed, sorry but I couldn’t resist.

David was interesting in Prometheus, he was one of the highlights but they made him into a simple evil bad-guy in AC. In Prometheus he was more ambiguous, something that I liked. As far as killing off the Engineers that was a bad thing because it could have been very interesting to see what they could have done with them if they would have allowed them to be in the movie like the Engineer in Prometheus. To have David being responsible for the Xenos is so lame. That was probably the worst decision that they could have done about its origins next to that humanity creates it.

Give David less of a role, only then will I be OK with it.

“As it turns out, the spore is in fact not alien, but instead is a biological weapon created by the Company.”

Wow! That idea is even worse than David creating it. Sure Weyland Yutani are sons of bitches but do they really have to be behind everything? I am glad that they just used the idea of the company wanting it for bio-weapons.

It kind of depends as far as nostalgia goes, it depends on your reason to include it. If you do it because you want it to be like before then yeah it is nostalgia but if you use it as an an idea of “that is interesting since it might develop the story” then it is not.

As far as Kylo and Rey I am not interested, I am only in it for Luke. (OT, I know)

Not interested in another Ripley movie, it is time to move on.

Having it created by the Engineers would at least be better and not tied to humans. If you say that the Engineers found it and developed it then it would leave the origins a mystery because we would not know where it originated.

Gavin: Yeah I have heard about the idea of the Alien speaking with Ripley’s voice. I am not sure if it is true or not (I take it as hear-say until I get something confirmed) but that idea is lame. Ridley is very good at visuals but he should stay far away from the story, otherwise it will be crap. Not sure if it was his idea that David created it but that idea is bad no matter who came up with it.

He was fairly new as a director when he made alien (1979) so I wonder how much of a say that he had. Now he has worked a lot and can decide more but back then it was probably different. Maybe he could be a producer but not a director, and keep him far away from the story otherwise it will be a “I love David”-movie which is effed up. Not sure how much of AC that was because of the studio and how much that was because of Ridley but his ideas did not make it better, if I put it that way.

I think that the idea of a TV-series could be interesting if it is done right. There are more things in the franchise than Ripley and the Xeno. Look at 28 Days Later (a movie that I really like), the zombies were just there to further the story, that is how the Xeno should be also. Actually you could have monsters that are related to it but not be Xenos (Neomorph, Squid-monster, etc.) so to speak, I would accept that.

To me it should be clear that it is in the alien franchise and not some confusing stuff like “is it an alien movie or not?” Decide if it is in the alien-verse or not. If it isn’t then make it into its own thing.

The colonial marines could work, it would be some action-stuff but if it is handled right then sure why not? What else is it that they have been dealing with other than what they did in Aliens? What if there was a side within the colonial marines that was in a conspiracy about something and the rest do not know about it. When they that benefit from it get in a situation that they are afraid that they will loose control over what ever that is they we see that faction trying to do what ever they can to keep its power.

More about the Engineers would be interesting. I would watch that thing if they get it right. That is one thing that Prometheus did right but unfortunately AC seemed to put an end to them. You got to keep it obvious to people that it is tied to the Alien franchise and how. Perhaps they have seeded other worlds and have made other monsters? We could also see something about their culture, and so on.

Hadley’s Hope or something similar could work, those that have watched Aliens would probably get it if it is done well. Maybe the Name Weyland is more known now when we have had Prometheus and if it is done right and the Weyland name is used then maybe it could work. This was well made in Aliens
We could follow some workers or colonists that live their daily lives at a colony run by the Weyland company and the dangers that they face. What could be tricky is to avoid it being like an Aliens 2 but that could be done in some way, don’t ask me how. They do not need to have to focus on soldiers, or the Xeno. Maybe there are more monsters in the Alien-verse that are not Xenos?

Not interested in anything that is from the perspective of the androids (about what Chris wrote). Alien Covenant killed that one for me

That sounds nice I guess but please no more movies about David. I am all for making things like the small shorts, that is fine but the way that the big movies are doing (by big movies I mean things like Alien, Aliens – you understand) is not good. The last one was a disappointment so I do not want anything like that.

I am not against exploring more about the Engineers or maybe the company but F another android story. Something that involves the goo in some way could be interesting to see although I am not sure how that could be done and by the way that David babbling short about it is not in the movie so to me it is not official at all. Rumors about Scott working on an alien-project could mean anything. I am sorry but until I see something concrete I am remaining skeptic, I think that is the best thing to do.

Don’t retcon Alien 3, I would be very disappointed if they did so. If that would be the case I would sure boycott that movie.

Getting some movies that are independent from each-other might not be a bad thing. Get a good story and characters that we can get behind and a lot of it is fixed. Yeah, find other ways that do not involve a queen (it has been done many times before, it gets stale). I would not mind another alien movie that does not have Ripley or David in it, I would rather welcome it.

Having more movies that include the Engineers is fine by my as long at it is clear that it is in the alien franchise, and that does not mean that we always need Xenos. LV-223 was more interesting than the Engineer planet in Alien Covenant and it was also darker which meant that more things were in the shadows compared to AC. I agree with Cerulean Blue about the Engineers (sorry if I misspelled it).

Daliens: Well 92000 of which of many might have read it many times isn’t that much if you look at the total of the world’s population but yeah it is interesting.

What I don’t want:

A focus on androids and to have crappy written human characters.

I am open to different things sure but those are the things that I have had enough of.

dk I am sick and tired of the alien formula and the whole lot of cliches it brings along. I want something new.

Good.  A TV series requires to much of the audiences free time.  I'd rather have a good quality movie with the perks of seeing it in theaters (big screen and great sound system) instead of some 6 or 7 episode tv show.  I don't mind paying a movie ticket to see an ALIEN movie for 2 1/2 hours.  I do mind that I have to make time to watch a tv show every Wednesday that lasts an hour for 2 months; and that's even if it is being played on a channel that I can get.  Hopefully the series would've been available on cable.  If not, I guess I wouldn't get to watch it!

Just give the fans a movie in the next few years.  I think that would just make everyone happy, even though it should've been sooner, but FOX was in a buy out.  So, I guess we can all understand the lateness of another movie.

Hybrids, mutants, clones.

Alien franchise can be diverse without this. There are still Ultramorphs, smart aliens, other subspecies.

Hmm...I would punt to Hal Douglas if he was around. Something like- "In a WORLD of human struggle pitted against interstellar and corporate interests, an unassuming woman.....BUM BUM BUM BUM.....would be tested....BUM BUM BUM BUM....within an inch....BUM BUM....of.....BUM ....her............life...............BUM BUM BUM.....and the life of her cat"

Well, here is a better example LOL! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bcKFrHFS64

I also don't belive Scott Free would throw in support without having something to show for it?

daliens I would assume the event would be recorded. If nothing else, I would expect students to coordinate efforts on the sly........

dk the encore is per the letter, no doubt everyone delivers as promised. Just please somebody record the event properly.

This is a memorable year, alright, waiting for the big guys to share some love.

daliens It might be a pipe dream, but I like to think Scott Free will keep its word per the letter and there would obviously be open invitations to supporters- especially the ones who gave either written or Twitter video support!

With Black Out, The Play, The Isolation videos and the IGN Series all with no really official news for 4/26, this already seems like the best year already. 

I have learned that the build up is actually better than the main event.

I welcome being proven wrong.

They are even good at marketing, you feel that it's something important, excitementis rising. It would be nice to have some special alien guests in the audience and, of course, to RECORD THE SHOW for those who cannot be there.

The 40th Alien Anniversary is good so far.

Excellent!

Mouse in the House- You should be taking notes and realizing the demographics. If you don't, someone else will. It may not have the Disney/Fox blessing, but the fans will follow and support creativity. 

The Bridge of Nostromo is being put back for the encore performance.

Homage

Homage in my opinion.I couldn't shake the Covenant comparison either when i watched it.

Gavin

I believe after Alien Covenant Ridley Scott is very down to earth and he feels responsible for the fate of the franchise's title character. He felt the future was in limbo and he said it was a pitty not to continue because Alien could be as great a franchise as Star Wars.

Probably he thinks his role in the franchise is sealed and that is the reason he will direct Raised by Wolves, a story somehow similar to what he planned for the Covenant sequel.

I don't think he would block any good ideas or that he even has the power to do so. When he was still working on Covenant, yes, things were different, but still he did not have absolute power, that's why Covenant is hardly a sequel to Prometheus. Almost everything changed in between and it did not seem to have been planned as such during filming Prometheus. 

Was it Giler or other tough sons-of-bitches, or mostly the negative reaction from the fanbase, we don't know. Certainly Ridley Scott could have had different views for Prometheus 2.

In my opinion they should complete the sequels. If the choose a reboot, we would be talking here for years about what Covenant 2 could have been.

I agree the script should be carefully penned, to at least try to bring together the fanbase and answer what it is safe to be answered, leave it a mystery or subject for future films what cannot be properly solved in one film.

Ridley Scott might have created a chaos with the prequels, but it is also a fertile chaos, full of possibilities for new stories to emerge, he did not block any way out. He did not leave us in a dessert.

There is nothing in the dessert, and no man needs nothing.

@ daliens,

Predators have been mimicking human speech since the 1987 original, well before The Predator, which is far from a masterpiece - in fact IMO it is the worst of the franchise (even if you include the AvP's).

As for Alex Garland's Annihilation, that movie was needlessly over-metaphorical, I would even say arty-farty; if you know my meaning. I love ambiguity as much as BigDave, but some writers and directors use it to cover up the lack of an actual coherent narrative and IMO Garland is one of them.

...

What my TLDR reply meant to say was that Ridley Scott is not and should not be the only person to determine the future of the Alien franchise. He doesn't even care for the franchises title character. I'm not saying we should all jump on the Neill Blomkamp bandwagon, but I fell after Prometheus and Alien: Covenant Ridley (and probably Giler too) is so adamant to remain at the franchises helm that he will cockblock any and all ideas he doesn't agree with, whether they be better than what he has brought to the table or not.

Don't get me wrong I enjoyed Prometheus but I feel Ridley is now drawing parallels with George Lucas during the Star Wars prequel trilogy era - the scripts and direction should have given to someone more capable.

OK

ignorantGuy thanks for enlightening me, I must admit I was dozing off before and after the bear scene. I might give it another try.

I mentioned the bear screaming with a human voice for the effect it had on audience because I believe having the alien imitating human voice at the right moment can add something terrifying to it. Probably this was intended by Ridley Scott back in 1979. That effect was later used by Predators and it was not bad.

Best news I have heard in a long time!!

ENGINEERS, PLEASE!!!!!!!!

daliens You seem to have not understood Annihilation at all. The whole story is an allegory about dealing with pain and that particular character is a stand-in for being stuck and consumed by it. And even literally, the bear was not dead, it's dna was fused with the woman's and the only thing that remained of her was the dying scream which the replaced the bear's growl. There was no indication that it used it for hunting.

As for him being it the Alien universe, I wish he would do his own thing.

Gavin in this case Bishop should have worked closely with the Company, on a research mission, more like Ash did, not trying to save Ripley, all the more to allow her to leave again LV426. 

I don't know if JC considered the conspiracy theory or the xenomorph as bioweapon.

@Gavin, after seeing Jodorowsky's Holy Mountain, I think the true visionary in the failed Dune was not O'Bannon or Giger but Jodorowsky himself. I could only imagine what he could have cooked up with someone like Carlos Huante (for me the most original of the artists working for AC, Haag being too generic and Hallett trying too hard to be Giger).

All R Scott's movies have blunders, the one you mentioned plus turkeys in Medieval Spain before the discovery of the Americas (in 1492) or the total misunderstanding of the gladiatorial games in Gladiator. But I like Prometheus exactly because of it's ambiguity and grandeur. In today's world of endless super-hero stuff (I'm on Judy Foster's side here and if you want someone to blame for the ending of Hannibal is her not RS) such thing is ultra-rare. 

But I am not considering myself a fan, just a regular guy with money to spare. Do we even know how large is the need for creature features these days? Even a highly praised (albeit very gimmicky ) movie like A Quiet Place made about 350 mils, so a block buster franchise could not even be sustainable.

Gavin

Do you mean Noah by Darren Aronofsky? Ridley Scott was doing Exodus: Gods and Kings then.

I believe it matters less that O'Bannon brought Giger to the table, was Giger's work used for Dune? No, that film was not made. It was the shy and lacking authority, as you say, Ridley Scott who had decided that Giger had to design the Alien and everything else related. And it is only Ridley Scott who maintained some Giger aesthetics in his films for the franchise (later thanks to Dane Hallett and Matt Hatton).

Regarding "the infamous twist he proposed whereby we hear Ripley's message being spoken by the Alien", it was shot down probably because he had to keep Ripley alive (then what films would be JC famous for now: Terminator, Titanic and Avatar). But how this idea sucked back in 1979 and it was so greatly received and memorable in Alex Garland's 2018 Annihilation? I wonder why many Alien fans see Alex Garland able to be at the helm of a future Alien film if a dead bear animated by an alien organism can reproduce human voice?

Not to mention, as a distraction, the ultimate Predator using the voice translator before the forest hunt in Shane Black's masterpiece, The Predator. I didn't see any objections to that.

@ setaverde and daliens,

Sorry but Ridley has less of a claim to the Alien franchise than Giler does. While Giler (and Hill, Carroll passed in 2005) holds the production rights to the characters courtesy of his alleged "rewrites", Giler has proved both within and without the Alien franchise to be one of the worst creative minds in Hollywood. But considering the fortune he has amassed from the movies and licensing rights (for games, comics, toys, models, etc.), I suspect he couldn't care less.

As for Ridley - yes he persuaded Fox to use Giger's designs, but it was O'Bannon who brought Giger to the table, having worked with Giger previously on Alejandro Jodorowsky's ill-fated Dune (this is also where O'Bannon met Giraud and Foss, he met Cobb on Star Wars).

Alien was Scott's second movie, and a million miles away from his debut The Duellists. reports at the time (that seems to no longer be mentioned) claimed that Ridley was shy and lacked authority on set, while it has also been widely reported that contributions to the script by Scott were shot rightfully shot down, such as the infamous twist he proposed whereby we hear Ripley's message being spoken by the Alien. Furthermore, Scott was far from Fox's first choice for directing the movie; all previous directors they had approached turned the movie down.

Next look at Scott's filmography. Admittedly he knows how to frame a shot, especially ones with expansive landscapes and interiors but time and again it has been shown that his creative ideas are met with a mixed response from fans - Hannibals ending, Prometheus' over ambiguous creationism, Alien: Covenants retcon of the Aliens creation, etc. Ridley has also shown a tendency to favour visuals over character development and narrative logic, with many of his movies featuring "faux pas" any other director would have corrected in reshoots or left on the editing room floor - the difference of scale in the space jockey room, a character in Noah cursing "Jesus, the numerous edits of Blade Runner" etc.

If he can bring together the fandom and retain the mystery and threat Alien gave us then I would say let Ridley return one last time. But, considering how bloated he made Prometheus with its ambiguity and needless grandeur, and then his evident bowing to social media and studio pressure with Alien: Covenant, together with his need to make Michael Fassbender the new supervillain of the Alien franchise, I would actually prefer it if he handed the reins to someone else while remaining on board as an executive producer.

@daliens,

more correctly why send Burke and Ripley to Hadley's Hope with a team of inadequate marines (Hudson losses his shit almost immediately, Hicks is reluctant to take command, Vasquez disobeys direct orders and is with drake responsible for the colony's destruction, etc) commanded by a Luietenant with little to no combat experience. 

Yes, marines were sent to LV-426, but they were far from the best-of-the-best, in fact, one could argue the marines were sent to keep up appearances that the Company cared about the colonists, while at the same time sending the worst marines possible hoping they would fail while hopefully having Ripley and Burke be convenient victims.

Gavin

Thanks for the research. I guessed about this, but you accumulated all this in one good comment.

Should we look at Covenant (and possibly AC2) as a project of Giler, not Ridley? All doubtful ideas of Covenant it's not a great vision of Ridley, but Giler's odious thoughts?

BigDave

You often mention Lovecraft in alien context. And you right about this. I mean - Alien is a cosmic horror, unknown and unknowable creature. But put Alien as semi-human creation, it turns into a space horror. Prometheus save the cosmic horror element, and maybe the next film show to us Engineers with their own aliens versus David's creatures. Main thing - Engineers should not take and upgrade David's aliens, because in this way persists the semi-human nature of Alien.

"However, it does seem like a very strange coincidence that W-Y decides to set up a colony on the very same planetoid that the Derelict and the eggs are. The real purpose, of course, might not be mining but getting the eggs (or use the colonists as guinea pigs)."

why then send the badasses Colonial Marines with no other mission than a bughunt?

There is always the problem about what can be considered as canon, but If W-Y (or someone within the company) knew there was an alien signal coming from LV-426, then the question is how they knew that? Did they also know that the eggs were there? The solution to this might perhaps materialize in AC2?

Another problem is that Sir Peter Weyland, seeking extraterrestrial life with the hopes of prolonging his own life, probably would have explored LV-426 before the discovery of Shaw and Holloway which lead to the expedition to LV-223?

However, it does seem like a very strange coincidence that W-Y decides to set up a colony on the very same planetoid that the Derelict and the eggs are. The real purpose, of course, might not be mining but getting the eggs (or use the colonists as guinea pigs).

And all thanks to Ridley Scott!

He is the one who chose H.R. Giger for the design of Alien, Space Jockey and the derelict.

He deserves to complete the prequels!