Ok, then Resurrection was filled with scientists/mercenaries/soldiers who all displayed a fairly critical inability to think, plus a total lack of plot. That adds up to lose/lose in my book.
You mean scientists seeking weird perfection which is apparently what drove Prometheus’ and drives Convenant’s plot? That plot you say? Cause if you like people drooling over murderous perfect aliens, Resurrection is your girl.
Prometheus had some interesting things. If nothing else, the design of the environment was cool.
Did Resurrection have any redeeming qualities, at all?
Ron Perlman. That’s all I got.
Ah, that’s not a bad redeeming quality though. Ron Perlman is pretty awesome.
And Sigourney Weaver!
Also it’s kind of the first one in the franchise to really describe these Aliens as any sort of perfect being which the later half of the series is totally running with.
Huh?
[quote]
Ash: You still don’t understand what you’re dealing with, do you? Perfect organism. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility.
Lambert: You admire it.
Ash: I admire its purity. A survivor… unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality.
Parker: Look, I am… I’ve heard enough of this, and I’m asking you to pull the plug.
[Ripley goes to disconnect Ash, who interrupts]
Ash: Last word.
Ripley: What?
Ash: I can’t lie to you about your chances, but… you have my sympathies.[/quote]
I meant the humans, like the people involved see it as more than just a monster. The scientist dive is talking about are in love with their creation, or what they can create.
Ah, okay. I get your meaning now.
I think Ridley Scott has always thought of them as “perfect” and keeps going back to that in his Alien movies. There’s a clear line from David to the Xeno as manufactured perfection.
Nah, the notion of the perfect creature is a core idea going back to the original Alien. Has even more direct ties, given that the description comes from the android Ash.
The perspective of the androids is interesting to me, I think. I have yet to see covenant, but I’m looking forward to Fassbender’s depiction of David in more detail. The android perspective is interesting in that it kind of represents an objective viewpoint. Simply the fact that the alien murders all the humans isn’t a bad thing, from an inhuman, objective perspective.
From the creator of the franchise sure, from the human characters in it, not so much. I mean there is fascination from what’s going to kill you and then there is the attempt to worship and better it… more the android approach.
I want to hear more about this line of thinking, but after you’ve seen the movie of course.
I haven’t seen Covenant yet either, but I’ll defend Prometheus as an ambitious movie - probably too ambitious, but I’d prefer a movie’s reach exceeds its grasp than show me something I’ve seen a dozen times before. And Prometheus concerns itself with the origins of life itself, and humanity’s place in the universe when its creator rejects it as a mistake. And also humanity’s creation itself, David, as a reflection of its creators. Yeah, it’s also got some goofy funhouse crap in there too, but I liked what they tried to do.
That movie has a lot of problems, but the opening of Alien 3 alone is better than anything the franchise has produced since. (At least in terms of movies; I think Isolation is pretty terrific.)
As I recall, the Jon Spaihts draft of the script specifically adressed this, with the guy calling out the fact that the suit could withstand an absurd amount of pressure before he started to freak out when the worm exceeded it. (It also wasn’t an overtly threatening vagina cobra at that point; people have a pretty visceral reaction to that behavior in a snake like thing and it’s absurd that he disregards it.)
Yep, credit where it’s due. :)
http://www.tested.com/art/movies/458897-dan-obannon-and-origins-alien/
A fun fact that I learned recently was that the original alien costume actually has a human skull behind the “bubble” section, but you never really see it due to the lighting, and it was dropped from later incarnations.
That’s a great find! Thanks for linking it.
I like the way it pays homage to the original intro while setting up the transition before the credits are over, and Goldenthal standing in for Goldsmith, but I had forgotten that the title is actually Alien^3-- how annoying is that!
I’d move Aliens a step up but your right on with the rest which are all garbage in their own way. Alien 3 had moments but not quite enough.
Covenant was a bit of a frustrating mess. As a horror movie it was generic. As another Alien prequel it was an awkward concession to what they thought think fans wanted to see. As a sequel to Prometheus, it was… well, kind of nothing, actually, because that stuff is so haphazardly spliced with those other aspects that the Prometheus story is left stunted or ignored.
There were bits I loved, though. I wrote a bit about all this on my blog, mostly about how well Alien: Covenant succeeds (well, mostly doesn’t) as a horror movie. I don’t want to copy-paste anything, but if you’ve seen the film I think you might find it interesting.