Also 4 had Perlman and the angry dude from Criminal CSI [Town] both acting as comic relief (albeit, in a less iconic fashion than Hicks. But I laughed a decent amount).
Alien Convenant’s first trailer is basically “how not to do trailers” but as art. It also looks awful.
I thought the trailer looked fine. People lost their minds when the Prometheus trailer first dropped because it had Ridley Scott and aliens. I’m pretty sure most people are projecting their feelings about what Promethus turned out to be onto this trailer. It’s hard to watch this video and not think of the dumpster fire that was Charlize Theron and Noomi Rapace running from a big space donut right after Rapace cut an alien out of herself.
If the trailer for Alien Covenant had come out in a world without Prometheus, people would be going nuts for it.
I like the trailer too. I’m totally ok if they want to essentially remake Alien. Could do a lot worse.
I always got the vibe that Alien Resurrection started off as a separate, non-Alien script, and then after sitting however many years in some repository, was found by a 20th Century Fox exec who said “Hey, let’s make this into an Alien sequel”. A lot of it feels like an adaptation of a Heavy Metal Sci-Fi story.
I know that isn’t how it happened, but that was my initial impression of it.
No, I would be giving this trailer shit regardless. Yes, it’s an Alien movie. Yes, I aware that most of the crew are going to die. It’s an especially poorly constructed trailer none the less. My loathing for Prometheus has nothing to do with the fact that it’s such a badly done trailer. The pacing is all over the place. There’s zero intrigue.
My loathing for Prometheus is responsible for me saying “so, we;'re back to the original Xenomorph now? Top Kek there, Ridley. Top Kek indeed”, however.
How is it especially poorly constructed? The editing? The WHOMP noises? The effects?
This all seems par for the course for any sci-fi movie trailer.
I can see that, but it’s not the case unfortunately. Whedon was tapped to write the script and it went through extensive rewrites while the execs kept changing their minds about stuff. The result was. . . well what it was.
How many times do people have to point out that showing deaths in the trailer is a bad idea? The main feature is watching the battle between increasingly an desperate (and dwindling) group of humans and the creature. I don’t want to know who isn’t going to make it before I go see the movie, and I can already scratch several names off the list. I don’t even understand how we could have a conversation about it, it’s such an indefensibly bad idea. I mean, sure, there could be something clever going on here (e.g. Cabin in the Woods) but I really fucking doubt it.
The tense, slow, tense, slow Oh here’s a death pattern is meh. It’s not that patterns like this can’t work; this one doesn’t. There is no interesting build up. Yes, we know what’s coming but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done. The opening sequence is probably better late in the trailer but would definitely be better without showing the dude dying.
There’s no coherent connection to Prometheus (although this is thematically fitting and also hilarious); I don’t want to see the plot explained in the trailer but why is David hanging out with a rando group of new humans given that he and Noomi Rapace were flying off into regions unknown at the end of Prometheus? And who are these people? They can explain that stuff without giving anything significant away (even if you only hint at why David is with them). As it is, it just seems like they needed me to understand this is a sequel to Prometheus and Fassbender is the biggest star so here’s some Fassbender.
The Jupiter Ascending trailer was better. But only just. Outside of Jupiter Ascending I can’t think of a single sci fi trailer I’ve seen in the past few years that wasn’t way better (even including Prometheus; counting R1, Ep 7, 3 star treks, the Jennifer Lawrence thingy, both Guardians movies. . . I can’t think of anything else).
I’m not defending the story content of the trailer. I thought you meant the trailer was literally poorly constructed, as in the lighting was bad, the sound was muffled, the editing was sketchy, etc.
As for the rest of your explanation, okay. I get your point. I don’t agree that the trailer didn’t show enough tie to Promethues to be intriguing, but I guess that depends on how much connective tissue you expect in a trailer.
Regarding the “Jennifer Lawrence thingy” I assume you mean Passengers with Chris Pratt? Talk about giving away the plot in a trailer!
Looks like you guys were not the only ones disappointed by the trailer. Fortunately, some fans made a recut. It’s still not perfect, but it’s a lot better.
Ridley Scott sniffs and smirks at superhero movies.
[quote]
“Superhero movies are not my kind of thing - that’s why I’ve never really done one,” he said."[I’ve been asked] several times, but I can’t believe in the thin, gossamer tight-rope of the non-reality of the situation of the superhero.
“I’ve done that kind of movie - Blade Runner really is a comic strip when you think about it, it’s a dark story told in an unreal world. You could almost put Batman or Superman in that world, that atmosphere, except I’d have a f**king good story, as opposed to no story!”[/quote]
You know. Like Prometheus.
Eh, I can’t judge Ridley too harshly for throwing some shade at the super hero boom (hey, I can talk like the cool kids too!). Blade Runner does have a better story than any superhero movie I can think of. Ok sure, that was 30 years ago, but maybe he’ll pull another rabbit out of his hat.
Prometheus had a adequate story and direction. It was mainly the dialogue and some of the acting I didn’t like.
Well, sure…but that’s 90% Philip K. Dick, not Scott. Remaining 10% presumably being Hampton Fancher and David Webb Peeples (who IMDB assures me wrote the script).
Well I don’t think he was really trying to take credit for writing, just saying he had a better story to work with. Pretty common knowledge that it’s adapted from a Dick story, I think.
I’m just saying, there are some really freaking good writers working in comics, too. They’re just mostly not being adapted, or being adapted by the sort of second-raters that have done most of the Dick adaptations. (Next, anyone? or Paycheck?) Pair the right comic and the right director and I think you’d hit Blade Runner territory. Although I admit that the superhero genre is not generally where they’re doing their best work.
It’s cute to see Ridley Scott bragging about Blade Runner’s story, when outside of the nerd circles still debating whether Deckard is human the movie is mostly remembered for its design. He even had brother Tony Scott to prove that a movie doesn’t need a story to be cinema.
Funny thing is, Ridle did pull off a great movie from a great story (by Joseph Conrad,) but he apparently forgot that’s The Duelists.
Hang on, James Franco is in this? And is that Amy Seimetz? Where have I been?
