Division of Fans (number crunch)

Where is the Aliens love?! Colonial Marines. Her Majesty. The power-loader battle. That epic APC design. The M56 Smart-gun. All iconic elements of Aliens! 

At the moment and heading forward I'm firmly in the third camp. I am way more interested in seeing more of the Engineers and watching/reading a more in depth exploration of their story.

If RS were to introduce more Engineers, possibly some Elders and more 223 type, have them conflicting with David, brutally clashing with Xenos and have a batch of humans caught in the middle, all while offering us deeper insight into the Engineers, I think the next movie/s could have something everybody in the fanbase can find to satisfy their needs.

With all this in place, a brilliant script, a decent bunch of actors and a believable connect to the original ALIEN I think RS could score big.

Cant please everyone but I think he may get better reviews than Covenant with something like that.

I'd pick a combination of the first two, because those are really the only "good" movies in the alien franchise after those two it was just this desperate attempt to get back what you lost.

Not even against prometheus conceptwise, but the execution was poor.

Perhaps I should've gone with pick your least favourite. But this is good. It shows what mixed elements viewers liked or didn't like about the films.

I Moon Girl I know what you mean about Alien. That scene where they are looking for the facehugger still gives me goosebumps and im not arachnophobic or anything, it is just such a masterfully suspenseful scene. Same as Brett's death scene.

SpellboundSynapses Alien 3 is so underrated. It captures the feel and direction of the first film so well, they just made the mistake of showing the runner in full too often.  

Ripleys_Ghost brilliant post! I totally agree on your assessment of what made Alien work so well!! 

Though it is like comparing an apple to an orange to a pineapple, my order would be:

1. Alien (Giger, Eggmorph, Ridley Scott, O'Bannon script)

2. Aliens (James Cameron, action-oriented, Queen)

3. Prometheus (Engineers, Origins, Black Goo, mututions)

As a psychological and suspense filled horror Alien is my top. As a balls-to-the-wall action Aliens is my top. But all things considered; I can't put Aliens above Alien...despite it being a great movie, within its genre.

Prometheus...meh...

A3 was bloody awful.

Alien Resurrection was bloody awful!

AvP & AvPR are, frankly, pish. Non-canon and not worth talking about (I'd not have bothered but someone else did lol).

I of course loved all the Alien/Aliens/etc/etc/etc movies but the plot of Prometheus brought up the topic of their origin which i had never crossed my mind yet really interested and excited me. I was like "...what..? dude.....!" That's why i'm in here everyday... there is so much more potential heading in the Prometheus direction then concentrating on the older storylines without any cool alien/engineer history/lore stuff being revealed. however, was just thinking that Prometheus' marketing stuff shouldn't have released any pictures videos or anything else related to the Alien or derelict. i could have simply surprised everyone and sorta like a Cloverfield thang. 

I'll take number 3.

Love the Xeno/MORB....but mutations and space zombies are what i'd like to see. Being the host and then turning into the space monster?! Sign me up!

The beast is cooked and if I never saw another Xeno...i'd be okay.

Darth Vader is dead...Death Star is gone.....Time for the franchise to move on.

A L I E N  I I

I think in Hindsight they may have now been considering leaving the Space Jockey and Eggs a Mystery?

However RS when making plans for another movie had concluded the Xenomorph had been cooked, doing a sequel to Alien Resurrection where Xenomorphs are on the loose again is not kind of the Flick RS was maybe interested in, as he calls movies like Aliens and Alien R Shoot-em-ups.

He could have gone for a distant future or even Parallel Plot to the Timeline where another Ship/Mission uncover more Xenomorph Eggs... but this would lead to just a Re-make of Alien or Aliens.

So the only thing never covered was the Xenomorph Origins, and also the Space Jockey Origins, who was this Alien what was his Purpose, his Race and Agenda.. where was he from and where was he going...  Why that Cargo of Eggs and where did they come from.  ETC ETC.

So they chose this route.... in Hindsight yes it should have been kept a Mystery.

But we need to Remember RS considers Alien his Baby.

Due to commitments he was not able to provide direct input onto a Alien Sequel and so Cameron's Aliens was Born..  Followed by its sequels and Spin Offs (AVP)

RS never had any real input in how the Story and Xenomorph Evolved from after Alien.   And so doing a Prequel to Alien would allow RS to have his hand/say in how the Xenomorph Originated and who the Space Jockey Race was.

While its great to keep it a Mystery, i feel RS really would rather cover the ORIGINS and SPACE JOCKEY Race in a way that he was happy with, because no doubt Eventually after any number of Alien Movies and AVP Movies etc...  there would always be that MYSTERY of ALIEN

EVENTUALLY... FOX would no doubt consider and maybe even had gone the Xenomorph Origins and who the Space Jockey was and what happened on LV-426 Route.... and for RIDLEY SCOTT... he would Kick himself if FOX did this in a way that would be against what RS would have wanted, and if RS had no input then not only has he LOST how the Alien Franchise Evolved after ALIEN he would have LOST any role in how the ALIEN came to be.. and who the SPACE JOCKEY was.

And so RS would have rather Answered those Mysteries than not done so, and someone else does in a way that would make RS Turn in his GRAVE

In Hindsight Prometheus did touch upon the Space Jockey, but explored more who this Race was and their Agenda and having some Bio-Logical Experiments/Black Goo that is connected to the Xenomorph.

Rather than actually showing us more how the Xenomorph came to be, BUT THIS was down to FOX taking interest in the whole Engineer Curve-ball.

The movie did not deliver for many Fans, Answers they wanted, even though eventually after another 2 movies it no doubt would have given those Answers... In Hindsight there was no Actual Alien Monsters like in Alien....

The Hammerpedes and Trillobites was connect, the Deacon at the End... but i think Fans would have wanted to see how they would connect to the Xenomorph a bit more and even see some related Monsters killing people....  some fans Straight up wanted Xenomorphs... but i think even having something more similar killing a few crew like the Neomorphs in AC would have been something to please those fans who ultimately was disappointed with the lack of Aliens in Prometheus.

This is when we then got to the Problems with AC.... they needed to give Xenomorphs to please the fans.. so they thought....

Its all up in the AIR now to how they proceed but i wonder if we went back 5 years ago... and Prometheus was never made and RS never made a return to the Franchise..

Then down the line when he is too old to work on movies, FOX come along and Explore the Space Jockey and Eggs as being a Synthetic who Created them, and maybe also the Space Jockey or the Space Jockey is a Human.

I wonder 5 years ago if this is something that would have UPSET RS... i would have to think this was in NO-WAY his Intention and Ideas 5 or even more years ago.

Original "Alien" only...NO EGGMORPH (stupid concept, sorry if that steps on toes...lazy explanation to work out plot holes) EVER!

"Aliens" doesn't exist, and should never have been made.

"Prometheus" was on the right track, just didn't check all the boxes...

BUT, ALIEN is where I lie.

1. ALIEN - The original, still fresh today almost 40 years after its release. Least flawed of the series. Cannot be surpassed by any sequel / prequel.

2. ALIEN3 - I like the acting and the suspense, Ripley is at her best. Not exactly alien universe but I enjoy the atmosphere, never get bored of watching it again.

3. PROMETHEUS  - Original in its own, the greatest cinematography of all, character development and casting made it harder to digest as a whole. Equals ALIEN for the number of questions raised / mystery surrounding it.

4. ALIEN COVENANT - Haven't watched it yet as I am out at sea bringing you guys oranges and other stuff from China, but after much reading about it I'm positive it cannot rank lower on my list.

* non ranked ALIENS - as I always said I totally dislike JC concept of alien queen and I found this film kind of insulting for the intelligent Alien fans. Comparable with AR and considering Ripley's fight with the annoying queen, the source of inspiration for the Transformers series. It is a wonder how the aliens survived at all after this movie. In my opinion we should thank to David Fincher for bringing it back.

And last but not least, I believe Ripley is cooked. I love Sigourney Weaver, but I don't see her returning to this universe. The same (except the love thing) applies for Newt, Hicks, alien ant silly queen or the marines. Let's leave some space for the new things Sir Ridley Scott has in store for us. 

@iRaptus - I am a solid # 3, followed closely by # 1 & way, way back in the distance, by default of being on the list is # 2!

Thanks for another fun post!

What plot holes does the eggmorph work out? I think Alien plays fine w/out it, but maybe I missed something...

Starlogger that's cool if you don't like the eggmorph concept, this is what the thread is for...to determine what elements fans do or don't like, and why.

Out of curiosity, what is your preferred life-cycle for the xeno? 

On the topic of eggmorphing, I've been writing a Fan Fiction piece involving that xeno trait, and its bloody hard to work with.

It is a very slow and inefficient mode of propagation. For one, you need a drone to capture a host, preferably without giving itself away to alert others of danger. Then you need time to let the host body break down and the egg to "cook" so to speak. Then the drone needs to capture or lure another host to the egg and hope they are stupid enough to put their face near it lol...

It definitely a more alien and terrifying experience for all but for story pacing it is very slow. For slow-burn suspense building and to flesh out and develop characters in between it is fantastic.

My interpretation of the Egg Morph vs Queen has always for a long time been that the Egg Morph leads to either a Queen, or a Royal Race Hugger.

BigDave that would make a lot of sense. The big chap in Alien was nesting in the Narcissus preparing to die. Why eggmorph a victim just to have the living drone die. Its just a sequential progression of single drones then. At least producing a royal facehugger allows a queen and hive to be kick-started. I have no problem with there being eggmorphing and a queen.

Why not having egg-morphing occur til a queen is present or it led to a queen. Something similar to naked mole-rats.

Later when a Queen is present egg-morphing still happens inside the egg-sack or whatever it is called in english. ;) The needed bio-matter she gets by "food". Maybe the dead hosts since they have no other purpose.

Tiwaz yes, I like that too. They are very efficient little beasty, no point leaving dead bodies around if they can serve a purpose.

You guys have given me some great ideas to work with here

Thank you kindly :-)

Any Aliens fans out there want to weigh in? Its not getting much love so far. 

On a side note; I just re-watched Prometheus for the first time since seeing Covenant. I now thoroughly appreciate Prometheus so much more, that film was right on the mark for a prequel. The marketing for the film should have totally omitted any reference to its Alien link at all before the release... would have been the best bombshell ever when the Derelict, Space jockey chair and Trilobite/Deacon was revealed. 

I am now definitely part of this third division - Prometheus, and inclined to consider first division - Alien, as part of the whole story.

IRaptus

I agree completely. Yesterday I watched Prometheus (A9 version) - absolutely superb production! With a little bit of tweaking - and A9 is pretty much spot on - it's just phenomenal! So much ground covered! And still - so much paths to follow further! So many possibilities for sequels! The least I wanted to see in sequel is actually some backburster or throatburster - and, yes, that was exactly I've been served with... :-(