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Gavin
MemberTrilobite02/21/2012Seeing as things are running slow news wise I am about to stir the pot, so I apologize in advance...
I was thinking the other day on how some say that James Cameron ruined the Alien franchise by making the Xenomorph a dumb, overgrown insect, an atypical movie beast.
But upon thinking about this I have to say I disagree. IMO the Xenomorph has become more intelligent each time...
[b]Alien[/b] - the cleverest thing the Xenomorph did was hid within the Narcissus. The murders of Brett and Dallas were grab and snatch, and the murders of Parker and Lambert were just brutal.
[b]Aliens[/b] - the are numerous occasions in which the Xenomorphs show greater signs of intelligence that in Alien. The fact that they built their hive near the reactor (ensuring they would not be attacked by heavy weapons), hiding in plain view when the marines invaded their hive, cutting the power, finding a route the marines had missed, the communication between the Queen and her guards and the communication between the Queen and Ripley, the Queen operated an elevator (surely the best example) and the Queen hiding aboard the drop-ship.
[b]Alien 3[/b] - attacking one inmate sending him into a fan, killing Andrews to create fear among the survivors, killing the inmate in the ducts when the inmates and Ripley are trying to trap it with fire, using the inmates fear to start the piston etc. That said this Xenomorph had a disadvantage in that it could be coerced when needing to protect the Queen incubating within Ripley.
[b]Alien Resurrection[/b] [i](Although it could be argued that these aliens were cleverer because of contamination from human DNA lets carry on regardless)[/i] - Two Xenomorphs killing their cellmate to instigate their escape, one Xenomorph using the red plunger, investigating a dead corpse, xenomorphs luring the humans into a trap via the underwater section, the Newborn (I know) closing a door, as well as using emotion to plead.
[b]AVP[/b] - facehuggers attacking their hosts simultaneously in the sacrificial chamber, Xenomorph hiding from the Predators, Grid killing two Predators in less than 10 minutes, breaking the Queen free from her prison, using pack mentality (teamwork) against Van Halen (think that's the characters name), facehugger attacking an unawares Scar.
[b]AVPR[/b] - Okay in this movie the Xenomorphs are dumb as hell I grant you that, the only one that actually shows intelligence is the Princess/Predalien... Shying away from the Predator, selecting pregnant hosts, ambushing the Predator, hiding from the humans outside the hospital etc.
So come on, I know there are those of you that may not like the Queen idea that Cameron created, and I do admit that the Xenomorph has become visually less biomechanical and more animal-like. But lets be honest with the exception of AVPR the creature has become more intelligent than it originally was.
Yes the Queen idea makes them essentially overgrown insects, but Ridley even refered to the original Alien as an insect and many of the things Cameron showed in Aliens (the aliens crawling on walls and ceilings, jumping from wall to wall) Ridley intended upon having in Alien but couldn't because of the suit and technical limitations he had at the time.
Also why can't the egg morphing, egg laying and embryo-barfing ideas all exist alongside each other, along with everything else I've mentioned, or in other words...
[b]Xenomorph[/b] - [i]A biomechanical exoskeletal 8 foot tall insect with acid for blood and rudimentary intelligence that uses hosts to propagate and will reproduce regardless of the situation or environment[/i]... Sounds nasty to me
7 Replies
Cypher
Co-AdminMemberOvomorph02/21/2012Just curious as to where you got the notion that Ridley wanted them like that in the original?
I think Cameron made them more like insects in the second to give us something to latch on to as a point of reference. It may have been instinct that they set up the hive in the warmest possible place on the planet.
To be honest, I always thought that the egg morphing and egg laying could exist side by side, kind of like an a-sexual creature that will change from male to female or vice-versa if there is not enough of the other sex to reproduce. Or simply to continue the line of the species, I think that's what Ridley was going for. Originally the Alien was supposed to have a very short life span, so it was just ensuring that there would be more eggs to continue after it had died. Remember, it burst out of Kane and then grew extremely rapidly. However, I think they over-did that rapid life-cycle in the original AvP because no sooner had the victims woken up they were bursting. Also, Kane had his facehugger for about 24 hours before it detached and died. I didn't buy that aspect in AvP at all, it was far too quick.
Alien: Desecration (my name for the 4th movie) was just garbage. Sorry, not a fan of that one at all.
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"Is it dead this time?" "I dunno, poke it with this stick and see."
Gavin
MemberTrilobite02/21/2012
@ Cypher - It has been quoted, I am sure one of the more "Quotey" members like Spartacus, RC8 or Craigamore will be able to dig up the quote.
Cypher
Co-AdminMemberOvomorph02/21/2012Okie dokey then. Must be one I missed somewhere. I'll jump on Google for it anyways thanks Snork :-)
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"Is it dead this time?" "I dunno, poke it with this stick and see."
Not_my_intention
MemberOvomorph02/21/2012i loved the insect idea of Cameron. just one problem, it was a sequel to alien. i know they would have not done this but if aliens was the same movie, but with a different alien design and a different planet, it could have been better then it already is. this way alien could still be standalone or with sequels that follow its style, and aliens could have been its own thing. no strings attached. anybody agree????
craigamore
MemberOvomorph02/21/2012Here you go Snorky.........."'It's like a rather beautiful, humanoid, biomechanoid insect.'- Ridley Scott on Giger's Alien design."....found that here.......[url=http://www.dvdvision.fr/jco/BiomechanicalInsect.htm]JamesCameronOnline[/url]
Also found this there.........
"Ron Shusset: 'People have read all kinds of things into it that we didn’t intend, not even subconsciously. But there was one thing we did do. It was our idea that it would be the life-cycle of an insect. The way a wasp will sting a spider, paralyze it, and lay its eggs in the spider; its eggs grow off the living spider, like a surrogate mother. That we did want it to be. We didn’t want it to be a human mated with an alien and a hybrid. We thought people might pick up on it and say, ‘Yeah, an alien life-cycle can be like an insect life-cycle.’"
"Ron Cobb: '[T]hat was the core of the idea that Dan had about the [chestburster scene], he got that from the paralyzing wasp, you know, it paralyses the spider and lays its eggs on the spider, then buries it in the ground so that the living spider serves as food for the uh, wasp larva and you know, he always was so horrified at that idea.'"
"Ridley Scott: 'There's a fundamental connection in nature because we actually watched, in preparation for this, Oxford Scientific had this interesting piece of footage where they'd watched a slice of bark - which, in our terms, to a human being, would be about 12 feet thick - and there's a grub underneath the bark, between the bark and the tree. There's always a space between the bark and the tree. Across the top of the bark was this insect, which passes over the grub, stops, backs up, and "feels" the grub is there let's say, the equivalent of 8 foot below you. It goes up on its hind legs, produces a needle from between its legs, and drills through the bark and bulls-eyes right into the grub and lays its seed, so that the grub becomes the host of the insect. And does what comes out of the union between the grub and the insect, does that become a version of both? That's what we basically went along with.'"
....I still don't like the whole queen thing and anyway........my main objection has always been Cameron's insistence they change the genre fro sci-fi/horror/ to sci-fi/action as though it was absolutely necessary.....the existence of 'Prometheus' makes that nonsense and rather lazy..........
Gavin
MemberTrilobite02/22/2012Thanks Craigamore I knew there was a quote out there somewhere.
But, Queen and insect ideas aside I think the OP shows that the Xenomrphs in the sequel where actually more intelligent than the one in Alien, despite claims by some fans that the sequels dumbed the creature down, into a typical monster.
Spartacus
MemberOvomorph02/22/2012i Absolutely loved/love the insect IDEA's {plural-The spaiths imposter's script had some really really good ones as did Jean Pirerre Jeunet for resurrection's special edition Intro.
Also, I never for even one second thought of the XENO's as dumb, and as an exampkle of this in "Aliens", too me any species that can have warriors which communicate telpathically is a very frightening and intelligence suggesting idea, case in point, when Ripley carrying Newt enters the Queen's lair and they have an enitre dialog as does the Chief Bitch with her Drones without making a sound. These Ideas Rocked and Made Aliens Unique unto itself.
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