New Alien movie: yea or nay?

Jester David · May 23, 2017

Saw it. I quite liked it.

It's not great. A firm bronze medal in the Aliens franchise. (Haven't seen the re-edited version of Alien 3 yet.) It's much shallower than Prometheus and lacks the questioning and philosophy that drives that movie. There's far less going on in terms of both theme and subtext.
And the narrative of the movie really overlaps with Alien. It doesn't bring much that's new to the table. There's little that we haven't seen before, apart from the "mould bubbles" (which actually surprised me; I was expected death by fungal eruption and not what actually happened).

But much of it worked. It was scary in tense in the right places, and I was uncertain who was going to die and how much damage there would be. While stupid decisions were made, they felt more believable than the ones from Prometheus, where people did stupid things for no good reason at all. Here, they were far less trained people doing stupid things for panicky human reasons like love or misplaced trust. And it was just enjoyable to watch in places.
It followed up nicely from Prometheus without being shackled to that movie.

I really hope it does well enough to warrant another sequel. Because damn do I want to know where it goes next.

RangerWickett · May 23, 2017

Morrus said:
Can't easily selectively quote text on a phone but it would be too much coincidence for the Engineer home world that David and Shaw went to to be the exact same place those folks decided to colonise.

The end twist was extremely obvious, yeah. Was the wrong hand missing?

I didn't think it was the engineer homeworld, just a colony of theirs. But, shrug, by my understanding of interstellar colonization, I don't know why they wouldn't have gone to earth again.

Jester David · May 23, 2017

Spoilers!

[sblock]

Morrus said:
The end twist was extremely obvious, yeah. Was the wrong hand missing?

No. It was the... right hand.

I guessed the twist, but then began to doubt myself after the final bit in the ship. A friend said it best: he expected the switch or an impregnation, but not both. He's just so helpful at the end you begin to question...[/sblock]

[sblock]

RangerWickett said:
I don't see the benefit of having the planet they land on not be their original target.

I like it for the choice it adds. The captain makes a bad call and people die as a result. Everything happens because someone doesn't stick to the plan.

But I imagine it's mostly so there can be another planet as a destination for a potential sequel.
[/sblock]

Morrus · May 23, 2017

RangerWickett said:
I didn't think it was the engineer homeworld, just a colony of theirs.

I thought at the end of Prometheus that's where they said they were going.

Ryujin · May 23, 2017

Morrus said:
I thought at the end of Prometheus that's where they said they were going.

Yes, Shaw said that she was going to seek them out to find the answer to "why."

It's good to see these mostly positive reviews. "Prometheus" had seriously disappointed me and made me leery of seeing another movie in this franchise again. From reports that i have seen the original script for "Prometheus", which can be found online, looked like a much better movie than the one which was actually made.

Janx · May 23, 2017

I was under the mistaken impression this film was by the guy who did District 9. Instead, it's round 2 of Prometheus and Ridley's evil android from Blade Runner.

it was a puzzling cascade of "no kids, you don't just change flight plans in the middle of the ride, you don't just go down to the planet right away without doing some scans, you don't leave the ship with one person who has work to do, you don't let people walk around without scanning for dangerous life/bacteria, you don't keep talking to the android who seems to be friends with the monster who ate your crewman."

I've largely forgotten large chunks of Prometheus, but if I recall, it had the same problem of characters doing really stupid things. that NASA or Army guys would have had protocols for.

Ilalanga · May 23, 2017

I'm tired of the films about aliens, it just seems that they are all the same and nothing special

Morrus · May 23, 2017

Janx said:
I was under the mistaken impression this film was by the guy who did District 9. Instead, it's round 2 of Prometheus and Ridley's evil android from Blade Runner.

it was a puzzling cascade of "no kids, you don't just change flight plans in the middle of the ride, you don't just go down to the planet right away without doing some scans, you don't leave the ship with one person who has work to do, you don't let people walk around without scanning for dangerous life/bacteria, you don't keep talking to the android who seems to be friends with the monster who ate your crewman."

I've largely forgotten large chunks of Prometheus, but if I recall, it had the same problem of characters doing really stupid things. that NASA or Army guys would have had protocols for.

Don't ever watch Star Trek, whatever you do!

Robyo · May 24, 2017

Ilalanga said:
I'm tired of the films about aliens, it just seems that they are all the same and nothing special

Well it IS in the title of the film. There is an attempt to build upon the mythos of the xenos. They show a little more about the mysterious creator race.

There is some good reponses. I agree that protocols should have been more strict. I am tired of horror movies where the protagonists make dumb decisions.

*Spoiler Alert Question: So are they trying to say the classic black xenomorph form is actually a genetic experiment of an android? That is a switch... I figured they were engineered by the Space Jockeys.