Let's wait and see how they feth this one up, though it's obviously taking some notes from Alien:Isolation which was actually good so maybe they won't.
For me the trailer makes the film look forgettable. I’ve seen Aliens (TM) on a ship before, and many more aliens-on-a-ship movies since. And, frankly, the Aliens brand is a negative, it’s been handled so badly. I’d be more interested if this was about a non-Aliens (TM) alien on a ship, at least a little bit more interested.
To be fair, a movie has to be pretty bad to be so bad it never existed. As we all know, no Predator movies were released between the so okay it's average Predators and the very good Prey and the world is a better place for this truth with literally no downsides.
(I refuse to acknowledge The Predator exists, except to say that I refuse to acknowledge it exists).
I’d even settle for the Slightly Better Than Mediocre And Even Better If You Just Go With It of Alien Ressurrection.
That film is genuinely much better than folk give it credit for. My favourite point of overlooked praise is the military’s “sod that, set the self destruct and leg it” reaction when the Xenomorphs break free. No heroic last stand. No attempt to contain the outbreak. Just cut losses and GTFO.
The trailer doesn't reveal much, but what little is there looks good and I actually liked Don't Breathe so I'm cautiously optimistic. I'm sad we're not going to see the rest of David's journey as he was such an interesting character in the last 2 entries, but I know I'm the only person in the universe who liked Prometheus and Covenant so I understand the decision to go in a new direction.
Slightly off-topic, but when it comes to Alien 3, the most interesting thing about that movie to me is the production/script hell it went through plus the 3-4 different versions of the movie that exist. Apparently there is a Special Edition version in which the "lead works" part of the movie is omitted entirely.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: I’d even settle for the Slightly Better Than Mediocre And Even Better If You Just Go With It of Alien Ressurrection.
That film is genuinely much better than folk give it credit for. My favourite point of overlooked praise is the military’s “sod that, set the self destruct and leg it” reaction when the Xenomorphs break free. No heroic last stand. No attempt to contain the outbreak. Just cut losses and GTFO.
The weird thing about Resurrection is, taken solely on its own, Resurrection isn't a bad movie.
It's just not the movie anyone going to see an Alien sequel was really looking for.
Alien is my favorite movie. This looks great to me. And after Prey (imo the best Predator movie) I am ready for a good Alien movie. Disney's handling of these fox properties has paid off so far. Let's hope they can carry it forward.
cuda1179 wrote: Prey was good, but any suggestion that it was better than the original Predator is just sacrilege.
The original is great. Way up there. The second is still pretty good. The 3rd is also pretty good. The 4th is the worst movie made in the alien, predator, and avp franchises.
Prey is just more interesting. Its a cool as hell looking predator (best design since the first) in an interesting setting doing brutal gak. It doesn't diminish the first one to say its better. The first is still JUST as good as it's always been. Prey is just a slightly better movie.
Let's just hope the dialogue of this movie can avoid lines so incredibly cringey, they almost become funny, before warping right back around to being unintentionally bad.
As long as we avoid "you blow and I'll do the fingering" level writing, the movie will at least be better than Covenant. The bar is pretty damn low for the Alien franchise at this point.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: I’d even settle for the Slightly Better Than Mediocre And Even Better If You Just Go With It of Alien Ressurrection.
That film is genuinely much better than folk give it credit for. My favourite point of overlooked praise is the military’s “sod that, set the self destruct and leg it” reaction when the Xenomorphs break free. No heroic last stand. No attempt to contain the outbreak. Just cut losses and GTFO.
The weird thing about Resurrection is, taken solely on its own, Resurrection isn't a bad movie.
It's just not the movie anyone going to see an Alien sequel was really looking for.
Partial agree, I guess. I enjoyed Resurrection from the moment I first saw it. It is absolutely a decent movie in its own right, just quite rough around the edges.
Is there a term for a sequel now looked more fondly upon because what followed was so bloody awful? I mean, since Resurrection, we’ve not just had two boring prequels, but two pretty badly flaws AvP efforts.
Because there’s one for the broad, initial opinion - and thats Satiscraptory. McDonald’s food can also be described as satiscraptory. Nowt special, definitely not the best offer, but it’ll do in a pinch.
Looks like they tried to capture that old school look but should've shot it on film instead of digital. Still looks too clean, well lit, facehuggers in cgi lacks the proper physicality to be frightening. Probably gonna be a solid 6/10 movie.
I'm sad we're not going to see the rest of David's journey as he was such an interesting character in the last 2 entries, but I know I'm the only person in the universe who liked Prometheus and Covenant so I understand the decision to go in a new direction.
Nope, I actually enjoyed those too as well. Especially loved the ending of Covenant, proper grimdark!
Not sure what will become of this one. It will be passable as something to run in the background while modelling at the very least.
I enjoyed Prometheus for what it was but lament the loss of what it could have been. I was a bit nonplussed on Covenant but Manchu pointed out it was essentially an old Universal studios mad scientist film, and when looking at it like that I softened on it.
I'm not really sure how Convenant was any better than Prometheus in the idiot department. Both films suffered serious SOD problems in how blindly silly many of the characters acted just to keep the plot rolling.
I like the theory that somehow they got confused when shooting Prometheus script. The geologist/spelunker gets lost in the cave? The Biologist just runs up to alien species and goes PSPSPSPSPS? Makes no sense unless you swap them. Still dumb but makes more sense.
SamusDrake wrote: Love the Alien series and will be going to see this, but feeling lost as to why they can't just continue the stories of David or Amanda.
For the same reason they don’t continue the story of Alien vs Predator.
Lance845 wrote: Covenant was good. Prometheus was the biggest pack of idiots doing idiot things for 2 hours i have ever seen.
Covenant has a supposedly experienced terraforming party wander on to an unsurveyed planet with all the precautions of teens backpacking through Thailand. There’s plenty of idiot to go around.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
SamusDrake wrote: Love the Alien series and will be going to see this, but feeling lost as to why they can't just continue the stories of David or Amanda.
I love Michael Fassbender’s performances and I think David is an interesting character with an intriguing story to explore, but it’s not an Alien story. And it detracts from the original Alien stories; these are supposed to be ancient, unknowable horrors that expose the hubris of humanity (i.e. lots of people would happily crack open Pandora’s box if you told them there was something shiny at the bottom). Making them the product of a wonky android from a couple of decades ago just strips away that mystique for me.
Covenant is not an experienced terraforming team. It's a colony ship. Every person there was supposed to be a colonist.
Their captain/leader died when his cryo tube filled with fire leaving secondary members in command positions.
Their ship suffered other damage due to the solar flare that killed the captain that made completing their planned journey more perilous and a nearby planet showed all the signs of being a good habitable world for colonization.
The inexperienced leaders decided to take their chances on the less known planet then to take a risky trip that potentially none of them would even survive to see the new planet.
Covenant has way less stupid then you think.
Promethius has the geologist with a wrist mounted digital map of the entire complex get lost and the afore mentioned biologist sticking his finger in a space snakes mouth.
insaniak wrote: "Things happen because of other things" is pretty much how stories work.
Sure, but “and then, and then” stories are generally not highly regarded compared to stories where character choices and interactions propel the plot. And a complicated set up like that to get ignorant characters to make (believably?) bad decisions is a clear case of “so the movie can happen” as Ryan George says.
But fine, Covenant is better than Prometheus. Congrats, Covenant.
Most stories have some kind of instigating incident that sets the rest of the story in motion.
In alien the commercial star ship nostromo picks up a signal of unknown origin causing the ship to go off course and wakes its crew early.
In aliens ripleys shuttle is picked up by a salavge crew after drifting through all the core systems and into the other side of deep space 80 years after the events of the first movie.
In lord of the flys a storm shipwrecks some boys on an island with the adult crew nowhere to be found. Stranding the children.
In covenant a solar flare damages the colony ship covenant killing some of its passengers including its captain, causing those who remain to take command and seek refuge on a nearby, seemingly habitable world.
While it is true that the premises of Covenant seems legitimate, however sending down an expedition crew with very little biohazard suits/equipment id a bit reckless. Sure the planet has a breathable atmosphere, but that doesn't mean it is free from pathogens and the like, even with scans it would have been wiser to er on the side of caution.
This however would have made for a dull film... so sometimes stupid/silly things need to happen in order to propel the story along.
It's a colony ship. Not an exploratory/surveying ship. It's packed wall to wall with the supplys they need to get the colony they were supposed to start up off the ground.
It's not really equiped to do much besides basic surveying from orbit.
Now.. you can say that first guy who pulls off his helmet cause the air is breatheable is an idiot. And you would be correct. He was also the religous idiot who thought this planet was built for them and threw all caution to the wind.
Any time anyone points out the stupidity of the characters in Prometheus and Covenant, I have to wonder how many horror films they've seen. The entire genre is built on characters making dumb decisions.
Good horror movies establish solid and even reasoned rationales for why a character is making a blatantly bad decision.
The main character in Sinister is desperate to recapture his success as a true crime writer and willfully ignores the early warning signs that something supernatural is happening.
The leading girl in Thanksgiving wants to do the right thing and be responsible leading to her helping the villain without being critical of early signs of his odd behavior.
The characters in Alien, make a blatantly bad decision, are called out on it by Ripley, but then encouraged to make bad choices by a saboteur who wants to see them fail.
In Aliens the Colonial Marines are cocksure, operating on intel they clearly don't give full credence that wasn't enough to explain the gravity of what they were walking into and get wrecked for it.
The characters in Promethus meanwhile are very threadbare, seemingly solely motived solely by a desire to put themselves in the dumbest situations possible. The only ones who got rock solid explorations of their characters were David, Holloway, and the second-choice captain guy from Covenant. Caveat that the Covenant guy starts off compelling, but then the plot has to move forward into xeno-murder so he becomes a raging moron to drive the plot forward.
It's not that characters can't make dumb decision, but good horror movies show good, even smart people, make bad choices for sympathetic reasons. Their bad decisions screw them, but they don't make bad decisions because they're idiots.
Prometheus and Covenant just have really dumb people being really dumb, in situations where their supposed expertise should have told them better. Or even where their immediate knowledge of the situation would make even a dumb person say 'this is a bad idea.' The best explanation I've seen for Prometheus actually is that the characters are dumb because who signs up for a space mission without knowing what the mission is for? Someone who desperate and probably not actually that good at what they do.
creeping-deth87 wrote: Any time anyone points out the stupidity of the characters in Prometheus and Covenant, I have to wonder how many horror films they've seen. The entire genre is built on characters making dumb decisions.
The stupid person in Alien who makes the bad decisions is actually neither. He’s an evil robot.
Besides, you’re describing a subgenre of slasher horror. I don’t recall lots of dumb decisions in movies like The Thing, The Exorcist, In the Mouth of Madness, Suspiria, the Terminator, etc. uninformed decisions, sure, but not dumb ones.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Lordofhats said it better.
I don't mind some stupid descisions - - people do do stupid things all the time in much less stressful situations.
For instance I think the characters in the Thing mostly do react well to the situation - I saw one viewer say they were doing stupid things but again this does not take into acount the incresing tiredness (Mcready even states he has not slept for days) coupled with paranoia.
In contrast I thought the characters in Promtheus were stupid all the time but it also does not help that people seem to have pointless roles.
Covenant was IMO better - there are some dumb things but nowhere near as much as Prometheus who make no good desicions
Promtheus irked me. As they land we see a series of structures and they just run off to the first on and everything goes down. What amazes me is the lack of surveying ahead of scampering off to the first structure. Heck, it should have been empty. But where were the drones that they could have easily packed with them to let them do an actual survey before disembarkation. No, can't do that they were all in a hurry to run off and meet God or what ever.
One of many complaints I have.
I do like David as a character and really wish we had a conclusion to his story even if we didn't get what we wanted from the xenomorph side of things by the end of Covenant.
Prometheus and Covenant were messy. But I can cope with messy. What I can’t cope with is giving a boring answer to an interesting question, outside the realm of science.
Where did Xenomorphs come from?
Weird God Aliens who are space jockeys but also not space jockeys because that fossilised thing from Alien was actually their space suit and they made this mutation goo for reasons that aren’t adequately explained then C-Creepio goes insane at the slightest provocation and does things with the mutation goo and wipes out the not-space-jockeys again for not terribly well described reasons and then he remains completely radio rental and decides to spread his children across the galaxy but in a way which in no way explains how we got from that sad state of affairs to what Ripley and Co find,
Oh yeah and the not-actually-space-jockeys all well powerful and able to spread among the stars but also all happen to live on a single planet in a single, convenient settlement.
Covenant was slightly better than Prometheus, but still it had uninteresting characters (other than the androids), nonsensical plot and almost all payoffs and revelations were unsatisfactory.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: Prometheus and Covenant were messy. But I can cope with messy. What I can’t cope with is giving a boring answer to an interesting question, outside the realm of science.
Where did Xenomorphs come from?
Weird God Aliens who are space jockeys but also not space jockeys because that fossilised thing from Alien was actually their space suit and they made this mutation goo for reasons that aren’t adequately explained then C-Creepio goes insane at the slightest provocation and does things with the mutation goo and wipes out the not-space-jockeys again for not terribly well described reasons and then he remains completely radio rental and decides to spread his children across the galaxy but in a way which in no way explains how we got from that sad state of affairs to what Ripley and Co find,
Oh yeah and the not-actually-space-jockeys all well powerful and able to spread among the stars but also all happen to live on a single planet in a single, convenient settlement.
Trailer reminded me of a cross between Alien and Alien3 for some reason. Not a bad thing but they need to throw in something else too I feel. We'll see.
I remember seeing Aliens in the theater with my dad right before a birthday as a child. The next morning I wok up to a stuffed animal, a dragon, that my mom made for me. It was the first thing I saw. Kinda freaked me out. Ha!
Lance845 wrote: I saw Alien in theaters last night (released for 45th anniversary on 4/26 for alien day weekend i guess).
I saw it as well. Hopefully yours was a reasonably nice theater. My showing taught me that our big theater had little half screens hiding in the back of the building.
There are certainly plenty of places they can drop the ball and make a horrible movie, but the trailer looks to be hitting all the right notes. Might even try to catch this on the big screen.
To be honest, much as I’m a fan of the genre, modern horror has kind of blurred into one for me. I blame Insidious and The Conjuring sharing not only tone, but lead male!
To be honest, much as I’m a fan of the genre, modern horror has kind of blurred into one for me. I blame Insidious and The Conjuring sharing not only tone, but lead male!
Horror more than any other genre seems to be dominated by trends where studio productions are concerned.
We've been in a 'demonic possession or crazed killer' phase for a long ass time.
One of the joys of Horror is it tends to be pretty cheap to produce. So when you hit pay dirt, you make some serious, ridiculous profit - particularly as marketing wise, horror seems to work best left alone to word of mouth.
But, the downside is that when one film creates a new zeitgeist? You get cash in compilations. Because again, it doesn’t take much to turn a decent profit. And so it all goes back to being really formulaic after initial innovation.
I still enjoy my horror, and even kinda like that stuff gets formulaic. Because part of the appeal is “turn off brain, enjoy the various ooooh, nasty! shenanigans.
But it does make it increasingly difficult to remember whether or not I have seen a given flick when it comes to modern stuff.
Of course, give I can easily discern older tropey horrors from one another, is entirely a Me problem.
But just bought Evil Dead anyways, so sod it, time to do a remember!
It be nice to have an actual Aliens movie. None of that hokey 'what if god was one of us and the devil was an android who talked about fingering' stuff XD
I was on the fence about seeing it so I watched a review that I knew would be brief and spoiler free and think it may be useful to others that are unsure.
But man what if we got a proper Dead Space movie? I mean, let's not wish for too much on the back of Borderlands but let's just sit and dream for a moment of what could be.
But man what if we got a proper Dead Space movie? I mean, let's not wish for too much on the back of Borderlands but let's just sit and dream for a moment of what could be.
I dunno, we kind of did already? I thought the animated Dead Space movies that took place before the first Dead Space and the Dead Space 2 were pretty decent barring some of the animation choices in Dead Space: Aftermath (mainly the CGI one). They bridged the gap between the gaps decently and explained the significance of side characters like Nolan Strauss.
Having a live-action Necromorph that is done properly ala practical effectives in conjunction with VFX along the lines of the OG film "The Thing" would be legit amazing, but knowing Hollywood, they would make Isaac Clarke a wimpy guy that needs to be saved constantly by race-swapped Nicole, and instead having Nicole actually be dead the whole time, she'll actually be alive and helping him actively until the very end.
I wanted to like this more than I did, it's OK but that's about it, plenty of nods to the other films and tries to do some new things but also unnecessarily tries linking into things it didn't need to. It was a solid 7/10 until the ending which drags it down to a 6 there was better point to end the film. It feels like the film Resurrection wanted to be. The use of practical effects was great but the scenes that necessitated CGI look off (you'll know what I mean when you see it I don't want to spoil anything). Overall I'd put it fourth behind the dIrector's cut of Alien 3.
It was much better than I thought it would be but it did play out as "Alien: Greatest Hits, Volume I". Good in that the filmmaker makes respectful nods to all previous efforts( Terminator: Dark Fate and Clash of the Titans'2010, pay attention ) while using whats already established to create a new horror-adventure in the Alien universe. Even better, it seemed self-contained which is good in this day of multi-film cinematic universes...although I do wonder if someone with fresh eyes would agree with that, not having seen Alien first.
On the other hand it suffers from quoting lines other films, when its not needed. Also, Its got to the point where they've remade Alien so many times now that we're long( LONG! ) overdue for a return to the antics of Colonial Marines, Sentry Guns and Powerloaders. Obviously there are vintage Pulse Rifles in the film( its about 30 years before the events of ALIENS! ) but nothing as close to the electrifying action scenes of Cameron's sequel.
While Alien: Romulus is a good alternative sequel to Alien, it's lacking in inspiriation from outside the series. As divisive as Alien3 was it does have shades of Black Narcissus and Theseus & The Minotaur. ALIENS tapped into THEM! and Heinlein's Starship Troopers, as well as tapping into the Vietnam film rush at the time.
I must say that the old-school effects and the music score were welcome, and Andy stole the show.
My main nitpick is we go from face hugging to full size xenomorph in what, 20 minutes? Less? Doesn’t even eat anything, just mass from nowhere. Lack of consistent mass in stuff is a constant pet peeve of mine though so… Otherwise I liked it, chuckled at the memberberry line quotes, some of the cheesy action scenes, pretty solid. Did feel that third act was meh and drug it down/out at the end though. Some people will love that part though, but you’re gonna hear many who don’t.
I haven't seen it yet, the gestation period and growth period for a xenomorph has been flubbed in basically everything but the first 3 movies.
In the first movie it is about a day or so after Kaine is returned to the ship before the chest burster comes out. We know that because we know repairs are not completed yet (still some thing to do. "Oh we don't need that to take off!") and Parker said it would take them 24 (36) hours to complete the repairs.
We also know it takes time, though not much, for it to grow to full size with or without food supply. 1 Who knows what the chest burster might have gotten into to feed? 2 They had time to wrap and prep kaine's body for a funeral. Ash had time to rig together the motion tracker from stuff in the ship (that was not a standard piece of equipment). And the mechanics had time to rig up the cattle prods.
We don't have anything to time stamp all this but presumably it took time. Hours? A day? I doubt anyone went to sleep.
We do know from the time Kaine died to the destruction of the Nostromo was less than 24 hours. (Aliens: "Just one of these things managed to wipe out my entire crew in less than 24 hours!")
In Aliens we have the benefit that no one gets face hugged so all the full grown aliens growth happens off screen before we arrive on LV 426.
In Alien 3 the Bull (it was supposed to be a bull) gave more room for the burster to gestate and as a result it came out more developed. It's growth took time like in alien. Hours to a day before anyone saw it again. This time at least beasts of burden were around for food.
It’s really good, having an exceptional opening and middle section. But, a final section a bit on the wonk prevents outright greatness.
It does of course lean heavily on what came before. In some ways that is a bit lazy, but there’s enough original in there that this isn’t a delightful punnet of ‘Member Berries. Crucially for me? It does those bits well. And in some cases? Much better than predecessors.
I think the back end could’ve done with a belt tightening, but I’d be happy to go watch it again with friends.
Automatically Appended Next Post: And yeah. Andy deserves an Oscar. Seriously deserves an Oscar. That role and the actor were truly phenomenal.
Spoiler thoughts. DO NOT READ THESE IF YOU INTEND TO SEE THE MOVIE!!!
Spoiler:
Not sure how I feel about Ian Holm’s return from the grave. It does help ground things like, but I’m of mixed feelings about resurrecting actors when it’s not completely necessary. And even then there are shades.
Good Gravy! It just made Prometheus and Covenant make some kind of sense! And provided fresh context for why the company wanted specimens. And they’re not bad reasons either. I suspect The Emperor might be pulling a few strings.
It even managed a more visually arresting Human-Alien Hybrid. And whilst I’d need to watch it again? I’m sure it’s got its lipstick out for a moment in one shot. The mucky pup. Bad boy, dirty boy! Put your heavenly rhubarb away! In your bed, on your rug! DIRTY!
The cast are really solid. And as said in the non-spoilered? There’s enough new, done well, for this to work as its own thing.
This to me is a good example of how to stitch a film into a series’ mid-way point. And like Prey, our protagonists find out the difficulties of facing the Xenomorph in a pretty organic way. Indeed, one of my favourite additions is Facehuggers using sound and body heat to locate hosts. And then used that in a pretty effective scene.
I’d also say this borrows quite a lot of atmosphere and that from the Resident Evil games. And there is a certain shared DNA there already,
Jump scares are done well, and I didn’t find too corny,
Oh, and importantly Xenomorphs are back to being terrifying foes once again.
Overall, I’d give this a comfortable 8/10. The last third is a bit of a damper squib though, as it felt like a good 15 minutes here and there could’ve been trimmed.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Things I loved?
The sets are amazing. Absolutely spot on. And that allows for the overall atmosphere to work. We also get motivation for our protagonists to explain why they’re doing what they’re doing.
AduroT wrote: My main nitpick is we go from face hugging to full size xenomorph in what, 20 minutes? Less? Doesn’t even eat anything, just mass from nowhere.
Yes, it was straight down the throat, wake up about 2 minutes later, then five minutes later the chest burster. In the other films there's been at least an impression that some time has passed before the burst.
It was ok I guess. I'll need to see it again just to visually munch on those pratcial effects some more.. Those, for me, were the highlight of the film
First movie to get me to go out to a theater in awhile.
It's good. It's not blow off your socks good, but it's good and that in itself kind of makes the movie better if your experience in the last 2 related films was rolling your eyes and going 'oh god why.'
Some of the references to previous films are eye rolling but w/e. They're not bad enough to take away form the film being good.
I feel the need to give out particular credit for 2 things;
Andy was amazing. That actor pulled work, playing basically 2 characters in one film flawlessly. The writing for the character was subtly great too. Kudos to this guy. The characters were mostly just okay but Andy is a real standout.
Secondly; Holy gak. Someone made an alien movie where none of the characters becoming blindingly stupid to move the plot along. Actually using desperate space trucker style characters once more, and people with a pressing rationale to take some risks, does a lot to make the characters and plot of Romulus way less shouting 'that's fething stupid' at the screen inducing that Prometheus or Covenant.
Even the dumber decisions the characters make, make sense in the context of what the characters know and what motivates their actions. The film actually understands how characters not knowing things the audience knows is a useful tool to allow characters to make mistakes in a believable way.
It's good. I'd rate it as the best Alien film since Aliens, though I can see why someone might rate Alien Cubed higher.
One note;
Spoiler:
I think the issue with the alien's rapid growth could have been solved in Romulus had just been a space ship. That would have justified the characters sticking around longer for the thing to develop and Rook/Andy could have been used to explain why the characters don't just leave when gak hits the fan... Also, how the 'ship' got there in the first place. I feel like in the amount of time it took a whole space station to drift toward a planet, the 'company' would have found it.
The 'get away from her line' also might have landed if they stopped while they were in place. Adding the 'you bitch' at the end was both out of character for Andy, and kind of just took it to 'assimilate this' levels of corny.
Andy The First - glitchy, outdated. Eager to please but not a great deal of personal agency.
Andy The Second - The Evil Corporate Upgrade Andy. Physically and mentally superior, and clearly so. But morally highly dubious, albeit not of his own volition
Andy The Third - Stupid upgrade chip, you go squish now. But…he’s still superior to when he started out. His firmware remains updated, and some of his physical glitches remain fixed. But he’s also lost the edge of Andy The Second.
That it’s really subtle is again only praise for David Jonsson.
Andy is such a well-done character from start to finish and excellently acted throughout.
Like
Spoiler:
Even when he's 'evil corporate upgrade Andy', Andy is still mostly helping. He could have just ditched Rain and Who'sits and gone to complete his mission without them, but he brings them along and, so long as it doesn't endanger his main goal, doesn't screw them over for the evils.
The two worst things he did largely weren't even that evil. Keeping that one door closed probably did save Rain and Who'sits lives at the moment. Offering Kay the serum might have been, within the context of what Andy knew of it, an honest attempt to help. The characters didn't linger in the room/watch the video long enough to see how it resulted in horrific mutations. Andy might not have known that would happen and only knew of it how Rook described it.
There's a fantastic subtlety to the character at those stages in the movie that really makes Andy stand out from Ash, Bishop, or Rook as a distinct addition to the Wey-Yu Android supporting character family. EDIT: And while we're here, Rook is a pretty cool throwback to Ash while not just being an Ash clone character. Well done there too.
Just all around. Andy was probably a better character and the actor put more work into his role, than was necessarily needed for the movie itself. First class for him.
There’s a suitably inhuman, robotic coolness and surety about Andy The Second. I think it is easy and lazy to call him malevolent.
We don’t see him needlessly sacrificing lives. For instance, with the Room Of Special Hugs, if his new directive was his sole driving factor, there’d be no reason to tell the others how to get through. Their survival is irrelevant to his mission.
We also know that Rook told Andy stuff verbally, albeit off screen. So I very much agree we can’t say he would’ve known about the err…side effects, of the Prometheus Goo, as it likely wasn’t on the chip he received. Nor was he insistent when the other two questioned him.
I’m gonna make a lazy prediction and say Andy is gonna be the lasting legacy character here. The one most likely to turn up or be referenced in future films and series, and the one subject to the majority of critical analysis.
David Jonsson’s performance really is that good. Full of subtlety, even down to facial expression when weighing up a situation and deciding the best course of action. It’s not even a Poker Face, as you can see something going on there. It’s not someone trying to hide something, it’s someone not capable of expressing something. Just absolutely phenomenal stuff.
Dude has a bright future ahead of him.
Also, I loved the auto-aim thing on the precursor Pulse Rifle. It’s a simple and sense making plot device, not only because it allows Untrained McGee to kick ass, but that as something held in a science lab studying Bloody Dangerous Beasties, a rifle which allows Untrained McGee to kick ass is a sensible tool!
Heck, an unkind critic (me. It’s me) might even only half jokingly say it’s development is a direct result of the Prometheus and Covenant Mission Reports showing Weyland Yutani employees to be so staggeringly inept and stupid and fond of licking things that don’t need licking, they need all the help they can get.
The auto-aim thing is also just a smart sort of side reference to the Smart Rifle from Aliens. One of the film's more iconic weapons. Just scaled down in tech and used smartly when it would otherwise be unbelievable that the characters were suddenly crack shots.
I feel that bit really speaks to how well put together the film is.
There’s been real thought put into the scenes. Whilst I don’t necessarily agree with all of the solutions presented, I appreciate the effort all the same.
Sod it. Come pay day? If my local flea pit is still showing, I’ll go see it again.
A lot of modern films imo suffer from the plots and characters being window dressing around overdone set pieces. Romulus bucks that trend pretty hard. Most of the set pieces are 1) actually entertaining (it helps that anyone and everyone can't Kung Fu/GET THAT PARKOUR, so there's more going on than watching people punch each other unconscious), and 2) the characters and plot flow through the set pieces fairly well. Nothing stands out like 'the whole last 30 minutes were nothing but an excuse for this overdone 5 minute action sequence.'
It has common dna with Alien Ressurrection there, where the answer isn’t “fight”, it’s “RUN AWAY!!!”.
Spoiler:
The end does drag on some though, and probably could’ve been trimmed down. But I like Rain’s solution to the corridor battle. Particularly as it was ultimately an act of desperation, rather than “aha! That’ll sort them out!”. And some fantastic zero-g mucking about follows. Again it’s not perfect, but it’s plenty good enough to earn a comfortable pass.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Main thing? If this is someone’s first brush with the franchise? They’d 100% be back for more, including watching the originals.
Wikipedia is listing it as $80m in Budget, and a Box Office of $108m so far.
So looks like it’s gonna go down as a box office success.
Will this encourage a further entry? The overall saga leaves room for such, and we’ve of course got Alien Earth coming up in the next six months or so - which now really has its work cut out for it!
Quick question: how much body horror does the film have?
Specifically, does it have characters with traumatic injuries played in a dramatic fashion? For example, my son has seen Alien/s, all the Freddy movies and the 80’s Mad Max movies and was fine…but a certain injury that happened to Furiosa in Furiosa really disturbed him, apparently because the effects are better and the injury happened to a main character and received more focus.
I liked it. Not perfect, and in many places predictible (but it is a curse of Aliens movies, once you have seen one then you know what to expect) but still a good, entertaining one. Actors did a great job, and Andy was phenomenally played. It sits honorably with the first and the second movies.
Felt like a mid 5/10. Better than a lot of the stuff post Aliens, but certainly not up there with the original two. And far too much "do you remember this scene, and this one, and this one oh and this line?". Got pretty boring towards the end.
The lines and/or scenes lifted from the earlier ones were an odd touch, they got a bit of an internal groan but I don't think they hurt the film in any way except for the timing of towards the end. I've not seen the early ones in a while so probably missed a few references.
Shadow Walker wrote: I liked it. Not perfect, and in many places predictible (but it is a curse of Aliens movies, once you have seen one then you know what to expect) but still a good, entertaining one. Actors did a great job, and Andy was phenomenally played. It sits honorably with the first and the second movies.
I think that sums it up for me. Even without watching any trailers (which I avoid), it's an Alien film and thus you've got a pretty good idea of what's going to happen.
I still enjoyed it though, especially in the cinema. It might not have the same atmosphere at home, and like most films in that genre I'm not sure I'd be in a rush to watch it again.
I thought it was just fine, or 'okay'. In a way it was a return to form for the franchise. I do appreciate the Alien Isolation influence. But I wish it took itself a little more seriously, and had more of a moody atmospheric beginning. The pacing of the movie is very modern. It does feel like the director took some of his favorite bits from all the movies and put it in a blender. I'd give it a 6.5 out of 10, I liked it slightly more than that Prey movie that was made for hulu and the Predator series.
Okay, now that I am not tired and going to bed right after the movie here is a more in depth review.
I really enjoyed the opening.
Spoiler:
Seeing the corporate hellscape and lives of regular people working and trying to survive on one of these colony worlds was a good addition to the world building of the franchise. It clearly sets up the motivations for the main cast and was just all around great view of a part of the world we haven't had much view of before.
With Hadley's Hope they were the initial colonists. Everyone there was in some way a component of building the infrastructure to support future colonists. Engineers, technicians, grunt workers and surveyors. Not much in the way of an actual civilization. Just the start of one.
Here we see a mining colony with what little entertainment or whatever they can muster. Disease, dangerous conditions, and ever extending contracts. We all knew Weyland Yutani was a greedy corporation, but now we see how they crush the littlest of the little people in the cogs of their machines.
The Xenomorphs themselves were great.
Spoiler:
From the face huger swarms to the drones everything looked awesome and they all behaved how they should have behaved. The bare minimum I ask for from one of these. Then we get the black goo. Turning Face Hugers into a farm to milk and attempt to purify or modify the black goo from Prometheus is both unexpected and great. In Alien 3, real-life-person Bishop talks about all we could learn from them. Medicines and whatever. Not that it's a weapon. I think its good to see this actual motivation from the company. They are not ACTUALLY trying to turn the Xenos into weapons (though I am sure some branch of the company would be doing that too). Their primary research is in next steps controlled evolution and advancement for humanity. Neat. gak man was not meant to mess with and definitely bites them in the ass. But neat. Setting the stage for how horrible colonist life is and then using the Xeno research to talk about costs in man power and trying to circumvent that. It's cool. The people who died are still just a cost figure on a spread sheet. The company still only REALLY cares about the bottom line. But if the bottom line is post humanity hybrids that act as frontier colonizers and super soldiers well.... then how would any other company compete?
The 3rd act.
Spoiler:
I know some people think i falls apart a bit in the 3rd act. Like maybe they wanted more xenos in their alien movie. But this "Offspring" as it is referred to in the script (as opposed to the Newborn of Alien Resurrection) was a fantastic bridge between Prometheus and Alien. A Xeno with a human (Re: engineer) face and skin stretched over what would otherwise be it's exoskeleton. Bonus, you didn't just throw it out an airlock. You smashed it to piece and blew it apart along the rocky rings of a planet. I loved this thing. And it's birth was terrible. Just awful. A nightmare to watch. Thanks for remembering that the Alien Franchise has always kind of been about monsters that rape you and use you as incubators and then bringing that to one of it's most awful presentations.
Some dialog
Spoiler:
I think the movie could have done without a lot of the throw back dialog. Rook didn't need to do the "I cannot lie to you about your chances..." bit. The one exception to this would be the Get away from her.... you bitch." Because it was set up earlier in the movie when Andy was watching the ass hole younger brother tack a "you bitch" onto the end of a different line. While yes it is a call back to that thing Ripley did it was at least set up in movie as him mimicking the people around him. The rest of that call back dialog could have not been there and it would have been fine. Might have even made the movie better. I don't need nostalgia bait. I am already watching an Alien movie. You put face hugers, chest bursters, and drones in it.
Rook.
Spoiler:
His family was all on board and the director bought the finished film to them before anyone else. They were happy to see Ian Holmes on screen again in one of his most famous roles. That is the one and only litmus test for resurrecting dead actors like this imo. If the actor or family is like okay. Then okay. If the studio is like "we didn't ask or don't care" then feth you.
The CGI for it wasn't the best, but in a lot of ways that added to the broken down robot he was. They probably could have and should have applied more damage to his face to cover for some of that. Oh well. His role in the movie was really good and just as sinister as the Ash incarnation.
Again. Loved it. Fantastic addition. Will see in theaters again. Will own on 4k or whatever. Looking forward to Alien: Earth Hulu show.
Unless I missed or forgot something, didn’t Rain and Andy head off into the wide black yonder with the Mucky GooGoo from Prometheus and Covenant? However unwittingly.
They're going to that planet Rain wanted to go to, but that also apparently wasn't welcoming to Weyland-Yutani androids. So the movie does end on a bit of sequel bait. And unless they dumped it, which isn't shown, they still have the spooge.
You know, thats how I wrote it out but autocorrect kept changing it back so I stopped trying to correct it.
LordofHats wrote:That's how the movie ends.
Spoiler:
They're going to that planet Rain wanted to go to, but that also apparently wasn't welcoming to Weyland-Yutani androids. So the movie does end on a bit of sequel bait. And unless they dumped it, which isn't shown, they still have the spooge.
Spoiler:
Yes! And most interesting to me, is this is now a situation where we get potential corporate or even nation state turf wars over this goo. Weyland Yutani isn't welcome there. And in the deep lore of the alien franchise there are about 4 different governmental bodies that own different sectors of space. Would Weyland send corporate mercenaries into another nation to try to reclaim their asset? Sounds like something they would do.
Having been chatting with my YouTube buddy (we’ve done two videos in like….8 or so months. World domination now surely just a hairsbreadth away!) I think I can offer some spoiler free encouragement for those on the fence.
1. Whilst a bit flawed? The creative team absolutely understand what makes a Genuinely Good Alien Movie. Atmosphere, action, antici……..pation, arseholes, aaaaaargh and…erm…nope I think I’m out of alliteration. And this is more than a brave stab at it. It Is Competent. Just falls frustratingly short of outright brilliance.
2. The cast are phenomenal. Genuinely so.
3. The way the plot plays out never feels contrived. There are “when you stop and think about it” in-universe good reasons for certain things, and the rest is just genuinely well written and decently executed.
4. It is scary. I’m a gorehound that’s been watching horror movies since the age of 11. And this film gets the scares done.
5. It genuinely adds to the background setting in what I consider to be interesting ways. It even plays with things that sucked in earlier entries and makes them at the very least passable.
6. Rain, our main protagonist isn’t Just Another Ripley. She’s a very different character with different motivations and different reactions.
I get that given most cinema prices these days* and the general cost of living squeeze you may wish to put it off. And as ever, totally fair enough. I’m not one to tell others what to spend their dosh on. But, once it comes to streaming (probably Amazon in about three weeks as paid for content, Disney+/Hulu in a couple of months)? Do yourself a favour. Gather your mates. Arrange a rental night like us sad old farts did before Blockbuster carked it. You cough up for the movie, your mates all bring snacks and drinks.
Alien Romulus has done for Alien what Prey did for Predator.
I got to see it today! To quote a good friend of mine, Holy Cats!
There's so much set detail to see I couldn't take my eyes off. The suspense was very strong, I don't like suspense very much so this really gets he hart beating! I have nothing bad to say. We're eager to buy this on dvd.
I loved the mining planet. It smacked me in the face that it's a company planet, like a company town. Which made it so bleak and horrible. Fantastic.
And the soundtrack/score what ever it's called. Perfect.
My hopes for the future now include a comic accurate AVP movie, if we could ever get so lucky. But what I really want is another movie set in this universe similar to Outlands. A good police story/mystery with a company researcher. We do have a few questions I'd love to have answered with another movie.
Spoiler:
How did they get the black goo ?
Hope we get to find out. I look forward to seeing this movie again in a few months.
My assumption is they went back to the planet Prometheus is set on. Pretty sure the scientists didn’t lick every pot of black goo with the Do Not Lick label
In my earlier praise of Andy, I fear I unfairly short changed the other cast members. Rain and Tyler in particular have real subtlety. Rain of course wants to trust Andy. Tyler….not so much. But ultimately, they have to trust Andy. Because upgraded to Evil or simply Amoral? Andy is at that point the one with the knowledge needed to get them through this.
And they play it beautifully, including not simply taking his word for everything, such as “if we inject Kay with the black goo she’ll totes survive”, and them deciding against it.
The ambiguity there is great. As I mentioned in an earlier post, exactly how much Andy knows about the goo is left unknown. But given we’ve not seen him put Rain and Tyler in any truly unnecessary danger, he may simply not have known. But then, given Kay was pregnant, it may have been an attempt to ensure a future source of black goo is in production.
I really hope the forthcoming TV series is up to snuff as well. Because I’ve definitely got a renewed appetite for further gribbly alien adventures in spaaaaaaaaace.
I’ve also softened my opinion on using CGI to resurrect Ian Holm for Rook. I still think they could’ve done more to cover up the dodgy deep fake (just give him a mangled face! Have the voice come without lips moving, relying on facial expression), but Rook being the same model as Ash ports over the distrust we need as the audience. And they played that pretty nicely too. They play with our expectations, and give us just about the right amount of “benefit of the doubt”, that as Bishop would say in a few years on, Ash’s model “always was twitchy”. Thus Rook’s somewhat ambiguous, but maybe he is on the level, actions work in a way “just another synthetic” probably wouldn’t have.
That's probably why they were growing samples we see in the cryo-room.
It is probably a blink and you'll miss it since it's only mentioned in a single line in one scene, but it sounds like the entire operation was focused on that as a goal, which is admittedly a thousand times less insane than previous films trying to play 'the company' up like it was looking for a bioweapon.
As a bioweapon the Xenomorph makes zero sense (one thing Prometheus sort of did right is that the xenomorph seemed like more of a byproduct, not the actual weapon). Just make a super virus that wipes out the planet if you're so inclined. Making monsters is just inefficient.
EDIT:
Speaking of, one things that Romulus really captures about the original 2 movies (the unabashedly good ones) is how the comapny's callous disregard for human life is the real villain of the plot. The alien itself is just a force of nature. An infection/storm/disaster inflicted on people by the company's selfish, short-sighted, ends.
We see it in Romulus too right at the start where the walk through the company town shows its low regard for people it has trapped. Then later in the movie, we see it again when <spoiler> is ranting about the great work the company is doing and how it'll fix everything. Not once does the company ever seem to consider that the problems its seeing in its colonies are the result of misery, overcrowding, and gakky living conditions that it casually creates and enforces.
No. The company's solution isn't to ask 'are we the baddies' but to say 'no, it's the humans who are wrong.'
I saw it this weekend and to be honest I still think Prometheus is the better followup to Alien.
Spoiler:
Romulus is... OK. It's a competently made film, but I feel like it does absolutely nothing original. I hate it when soft reboots go out of their way to recreate iconic moments from earlier in the franchise. Sitting up the half-ruined android to ask it questions, Rain slowly getting into the pressure suit at the end, 'I prefer the term artificial lifeform myself', 'get away from her you bitch' - this is the laziest form of fan service imaginable. I understand what you're doing, but tickling at my memberberries isn't gonna make me like your movie. You have to do something actually novel, and Romulus falls completely flat here. The only sort of cool thing they did that we haven't seen before in the franchise was the zero G acid bloodbath, and even that was still pretty dumb.
Prometheus, for all its faults, at least tries to do something different with the Alien mythos. It explores entirely new themes and asks different questions whilst still giving you a glimpse of the same world. It's far more original than Romulus and so gets a lot more credit from me.
I guess I just want something different from general audiences though, considering how positive the reception to Romulus is. I'll brace myself for more empty fan service coming my way in future instalments.
warhead01 wrote: I got to see it today! To quote a good friend of mine, Holy Cats!
There's so much set detail to see I couldn't take my eyes off. The suspense was very strong, I don't like suspense very much so this really gets he hart beating! I have nothing bad to say. We're eager to buy this on dvd.
I loved the mining planet. It smacked me in the face that it's a company planet, like a company town. Which made it so bleak and horrible. Fantastic.
And the soundtrack/score what ever it's called. Perfect.
My hopes for the future now include a comic accurate AVP movie, if we could ever get so lucky. But what I really want is another movie set in this universe similar to Outlands. A good police story/mystery with a company researcher. We do have a few questions I'd love to have answered with another movie.
Spoiler:
How did they get the black goo ?
Hope we get to find out. I look forward to seeing this movie again in a few months.
Spoiler:
Rook states that they harvested DNA from the original alien which they used to engineer the face huggers. Then they basically "milked" the face huggers for the black goo. Their "seed" to create the chest bursters. It seemed like the majority of the station was designed as a clone/manufacturing factory to support the harvesting and study of the goo. All those face huggers in all those containers both on the conveyor and in stasis and all they managed to produce/purify was those 6-8 viles.
creeping-deth87 wrote: I saw it this weekend and to be honest I still think Prometheus is the better followup to Alien.
Spoiler:
Romulus is... OK. It's a competently made film, but I feel like it does absolutely nothing original. I hate it when soft reboots go out of their way to recreate iconic moments from earlier in the franchise. Sitting up the half-ruined android to ask it questions, Rain slowly getting into the pressure suit at the end, 'I prefer the term artificial lifeform myself', 'get away from her you bitch' - this is the laziest form of fan service imaginable. I understand what you're doing, but tickling at my memberberries isn't gonna make me like your movie. You have to do something actually novel, and Romulus falls completely flat here. The only sort of cool thing they did that we haven't seen before in the franchise was the zero G acid bloodbath, and even that was still pretty dumb.
Prometheus, for all its faults, at least tries to do something different with the Alien mythos. It explores entirely new themes and asks different questions whilst still giving you a glimpse of the same world. It's far more original than Romulus and so gets a lot more credit from me.
I guess I just want something different from general audiences though, considering how positive the reception to Romulus is. I'll brace myself for more empty fan service coming my way in future instalments.
Honestly, I liked Romulus because it didn't go for the Hail Mary. It knew what it was...a grounded, back-to-basics Alien film, and it crushed it in that respect. Prometheus was the opposite, aiming high with a grander vision and bigger themes...but it was uneven and missed the mark in some ways because it went so big. I feel like there's room for both approaches.
I could rant about everything wrong with Prometheus, but I won't bother.
I think, at the end of the day, Prometheus' biggest problem is that it was advertised and offered as a new entry in the Alien mythos (yes. yes it was. I don't care that Scott danced around it, the sheer amount of dancing around the question was a downright admission), and instead it was an overwrought metaphor aspiring to grandeur beyond the Alien movie the audience wanted to see.
People went for a movie related to creepy rape penis monster.
They got a whole lot of uneven religious metaphors, something something getting what you want might not be what you really wanted, and ended with a big anvil about parental abandonment that left you asking 'wtf did I just watch?'
EDIT: But Prometheus was still an overwrought movie with too much aspiration and too little substance.
The best thing to happen to Prometheus was Covenant, because Prometheus was flawed, but Covenant was dog gak terrible.
I do wonder what people would make of Prometheus if it was Just A Science Fiction Movie.
On Romulus? Beyond trailers, I wasn’t aware of particularly intensive attempts to big it up. And that approach worked beautifully for Prey (which for me came out of the blue with a stunning “OH WOW!” trailer), and the lack of paid-for hype with Romulus came as refreshing.
There are many times where I sit down and ask myself "if this media hadn't been connected to a previous franchise the audience has expectations of, would it have faced the problems it did?"
To which I feel very much that yes. If it hadn't been a Star Trek movie, the JJ Abrams movies probably would be more fondly regarded (not Into Darkness, that movie had issues).
Prometheus also might have done better had it been utterly unconnected from Alien and thus free of expectations or complications. But I'd still contend Prometheus has flaws beyond its relation to the Alien franchise that would always hold it back, but at the very least, people would have less of a reason to look down on it.
A movie that reached high and fell short can be a lot more charming than a movie that reached high, fell short, and wasted my time not being the movie I'd been led to expect.
Big chunk of Prometheus’ problem for me is I didn’t feel I had reason to empathise with or otherwise root for the characters. And because the protean black goo was so protean, the tension felt off.
And in a series which works so heavily based on personal stakes and empathy for the heroes? That was a bloody big misstep.
Aliens arguably goes out of its way to make the Colonial Marines feel unlikable. Hudson and Vasquez in particular start off as meatheads, but when the brown stuff hits the rotating thing, we are rooting for the squad. Even Gorman.
Prometheus? Oh look. That bloke over there is dead now. Who was he again? Wait, wasn’t he a geologist or summat?
Automatically Appended Next Post: I do agree on your last comment. As anyone who’s been bored to tears reading my drivel will know, I always give points for trying. Which is why I’ll always champion Resurrection.
Not quite the sum of its parts, sadly. But it tried new stuff, and didn’t take a massive poop on what came before.
Prometheus and Covenant did however dump on the other films. Most notably we’ve still no explanation of how the Space Jockey’s ship ended up on LV426, filled full of Xenomorph eggs. In fact worse? We’re now left wondering “why did that Space Jockey look nowt like the others, and how come it fossilised super quickly?” Because accordingly to the in-universe timeline I found?
Prometheus occurs in 2093. At this point, still no Xenomorphs.
Convenant occurs in 2104, so 11 years later.
Alien? 2122.
So in 18 years, at least one Engineer (our Space Jockey) has caught up with C-Creepio, the Alien Queen has evolved, and it’s been able to harvest enough Eggs to fill its hold, get a Very Special Hug, stack it onto LV-426, and get fossilised.
The Colonial Marines are are wonderful case study imo in how to endear characters to an audience. Like yeah.
Is Hudson kind of an ass? Yes. But he's also basically the class clown so even though he's a douche at times, you kind of like him and it only grows as the movie goes on.
Is Vasquez kind of a bitch? Yeah, but she's got her bash bros relationship with Drake and her girl-friendship with the pilot lady.
Apon's entire mannerism became an icon, with later characters like Johnson from Halo being inspired by the performance.
Even Goreman is ultimately a guy you grow to respect, despite his screw up at a few points.
Most of these characters are only given a few lines. It's their attire and mannerisms together that do a lot of endearing them to the audience in an extremely short period of time. And yeah. Prometheus could have learned something from that, because its colorful cast of characters are grayer than gray, or off puttingly unlikable. The sheer frequency with which they behave incoherently just to move the plot along doesn't help.
Compare Gorman to Halloway for example.
Gorman; inexperienced officer with little practical experience. Tries to command 'by the numbers' as he was likely trained only to end up way in over his head with many of his marines killed. He rapidly makes up for this, rolling with the punches and not making a fuss or excuses afterward and then shows his bravery when he goes back for Vasquez. It helps that even at the start of the movie, Gorman is humbled to the audience at several turns with signs that he's putting up a front and not as all together as he wants to appear. He's just a guy trying to do his job and not look like a fool in front of his soldiers. He's relatable even when he's being unlikable.
Halloway; belittles people at most turns, intentionally or otherwise. Takes off his helmet for no reason just because he can. Gets pissy when he finds almost everything he wanted in the first place. By the time he dies in a selfless sacrifice, not only does it leave little impact because the man was an ass, but you could blame his death entirely on himself since he was an ass to David, and very easily could have been infected by his generally reckless behavior.
Gorman fethed up to, but Gorman's feth up is relatable because he was in over his head and he didn't proceed to make excuses for his mistakes. And I mean, we've all had that manager in like who is all 'by the rules' and he annoys us, but then he has our back when it matters so we forgive those times he annoyed us.
Gorman works for me because, with the arguable exception of Ripley? They’re all in way, way over their heads.
And so that’s the leveller for him and his newly appointed squad. Further more we do see him rise to that. He doesn’t bawl anyone out. He doesn’t point fingers. Instead he does what he can to get some measure of situation control in place, working with his squad. In fact, thinking on it? Maybe their piss taking of Gorman is just them busting his balls because he lacks combat experience, and them being a clearly veteran unit. I mean, they’re kinda hostile, sure. But he’s not part of their brotherhood - yet. And importantly to the best of my memory, he doesn’t put anyone in needless danger, or cause avoidable losses.
Also he listens to Ripley, which to me is the sign of a competent manager/commander, as opposed to “but I am has training, I are knows best”.
As you said, the Marines earn our interest and investment in their attempts at survival. The crew of the Prometheus? I still couldn’t tell you one from another. Mostly because I can barely watch it, but also because too many characters, all seemingly interchangeable.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Romulus does get me caring though.
Not quite enough for the guy that can’t grow a beard and may have made smoking weed his entire personality. But the rest I all felt for.
I like Prometheus for the technical aspects and would still recommend it with caveats. The problem holding Prometheus, and Covenant, back is that the characters were stupid or made no sense. If you look at the greats the characters tend to, at the very least, be competent. In The Thing (OG or John Carpenter) their actions make sense. The same is true for Alien and Aliens. In Prometheus you had a geologist spelunker with advanced cave mapping equipment getting lost by walking around and a biologist going upto a completely unknown species and going "pspspspsps". Putting characters in over their head makes for good drama but having non entities acting idiotic for the sake of plot will always be a detriment.
The way the characters find stuff out feels organic, and they make decisions based on information they have.
Even down to slightly silly stuff, like the aim assist Pulse Rifle.
Now that item of course explains how a bunch of Civvies could possibly be a match for the most pants fillingly terrifying beasty known to man. Which is one thing.
But, the context in which that item is introduced really helps. Because it’s not standard military issue. But something held in a lab. Studying highly dangerous organisms. Staffed by scientists. Who would need all the help they can get - and I dare say the reassurance you don’t have to be Rambo to be useful in a fight should things go horribly wrong would actively increase their survival chances by reducing panic.
And so a “well that’s convenient, isn’t it?” and slightly silly item is given in-universe context and explanation. Importantly, it also lets our unlucky spods be spods, and not instant butt kickers.
Now I’m sure not everyone will find that to their taste, and as ever fair enough. But it is an example of how a little bit of thought about the situations you want to put the characters in can be survived. And that’s something we see a lot in Romulus. Care and attention to detail.
The way the characters find stuff out feels organic, and they make decisions based on information they have.
Even down to slightly silly stuff, like the aim assist Pulse Rifle.
Now that item of course explains how a bunch of Civvies could possibly be a match for the most pants fillingly terrifying beasty known to man. Which is one thing.
But, the context in which that item is introduced really helps. Because it’s not standard military issue. But something held in a lab. Studying highly dangerous organisms. Staffed by scientists. Who would need all the help they can get - and I dare say the reassurance you don’t have to be Rambo to be useful in a fight should things go horribly wrong would actively increase their survival chances by reducing panic.
And so a “well that’s convenient, isn’t it?” and slightly silly item is given in-universe context and explanation. Importantly, it also lets our unlucky spods be spods, and not instant butt kickers.
Now I’m sure not everyone will find that to their taste, and as ever fair enough. But it is an example of how a little bit of thought about the situations you want to put the characters in can be survived. And that’s something we see a lot in Romulus. Care and attention to detail.
Interesting stuff about that the AA variant of the rifle (it's really a later model. The one in Aliens is the M41A. There are a bunch of variants of just the 41 model), The F44AA appears to run on similar but more limited tech as he M56 Smartgun used by Vasquez and Drake.. That big mechanical arm helping them hold the large "Smart Gun" works similar to that little piston thing and the targeting bit they put over their eye is synced to cameras on their helmet.The user CAN control the gun entirely guiding it to specific targets. But they are supposed to hold it and let the arm guide them. All they do is pull the trigger.
According to the Aliens Colonial Marines Technical Manual this is really hit or miss. Some marines swear by it's accuracy and think it's creepy as hell. A whole rebel base camp wiped out every single one of them had one large entry wound center of their chest. Others think they are pieces of gak. Tiny grain of sand gets in the arm and all the sub systems you are hauling around to make it work is just dead weight.
But yeah. The military might not be using the absolute bleeding edge top of the line rifle as standard. But Weyland Yutani's own lab and mercenary forces would be equiped however WY wants them to be. It's not like they need to buy their own supply.
Funny enough, I saw Prometheus without any real expectations regarding the franchise it was riding the coattails of. Afterwards I assumed that lack of familiarity left me feeling like I was missing something, but having come around again from the beginning its just kind of a fumbling film.
First off, its an ancient aliens story at a time when that idea was already pretty played out and never really got buy in from the public in the first place. It also doesn't really seem to know what it wants to say about the idea. The film opens with an alien killing himself for no apparent reason creating life and earth and ends with this world threatening crisis because one woke up and needs to kill everything with the weapon that created everything and what exactly is the point of this?
The goo itself is just a huge problem and I'm sad to hear it continues to return. It's just too much of a "whatever the plot needs to happen" juice and lacks any sort of coherent function to make it interesting. It makes whatever the plot decides it wants to, whether that's Xenomorphs or Engineerish things or just all life on Earth except when it kills everything. More than anything else, this seems to be the thing that embodies how utterly disposable Prometheus would be if it wasn't riding on the back of a couple movies with a wildly more effective world design.
Essentially? Weyland Yutani has come to find mankind just isn’t very well suited to settling new planets.
Differing atmospheric conditions, novel diseases with no clear treatment running rampant, mining leaving people with cancer etc.
But it sees the Black Goo as a potential solution. A way for Mankind to evolve itself to taste, and rapidly so. A way to make us more resilient and better suited to turning up to a new planet and colonising it.
Now, does that suddenly make the Black Goo super duper cool and awesome? Not entirely, no. But it does give some very welcome context to Weyland Yutani’s seeming obsession with the Xenomorph, and creates a more stable bridge between the proper films and the prequels.
Automatically Appended Next Post: And in reply to Lance?
I figured the AA Pulse Rifles were a more basic model than the ones we see in Aliens?
Spoiler:
In Aliens, the Marines’ fire power goes through Xenomorphs like a hot knife through butter. And that’s likely due to military issue ammo, which is explosive tipped.
In Romulus? The Xenomorphs take way more hits before they go down.
Of course there are other perfectly valid rationales. First and foremost? Armour piercing explosive tipped bolts are not Mr Orbital Station’s friend. Second and speculative? Perhaps Weyland Yutani ensured Colonial Marines packed them for that mission, hoping they’d be able to take out the mature Xenomorphs and the Queen, allowing the Company to nip up and snaffle up the remaining eggs?
There are others but they’re quite fully formed in my brain.
LunarSol wrote: The film opens with an alien killing himself for no apparent reason creating life and earth and ends with this world threatening crisis because one woke up and needs to kill everything with the weapon that created everything and what exactly is the point of this?
There is a deleted scene of Engineer dialogue, or just a part of the script was cut and only storyboarded, wherein the freshly awoken Engineer :
revealed that the Engineers created the human race but were disappointed with their creation because humans made wars and killed each other, calling them a "barbaric violent species."[5] He mentioned a "mother's child" being taken to Paradise to be taught the meaning of life and creation in order to educate the human race in Eden (i.e. Earth), but the humans decided to punish him. This hints at the history of Jesus.[6]
With that little tidbit removed, the motivation of the Engineer is never stated and the question of why they wanted to kill humanity was left with Shaw to figure out in the next movie. And in that next movie, she was killed offscreen and the question of the Engineers seemingly abandoned.
Probably for the best, as the Alien franchise is best as just a survival horror(imo) and the larger question of "why is this happening" is left unexplored.
LunarSol wrote: The film opens with an alien killing himself for no apparent reason creating life and earth and ends with this world threatening crisis because one woke up and needs to kill everything with the weapon that created everything and what exactly is the point of this?
There is a deleted scene of Engineer dialogue, or just a part of the script was cut and only storyboarded, wherein the freshly awoken Engineer :
revealed that the Engineers created the human race but were disappointed with their creation because humans made wars and killed each other, calling them a "barbaric violent species."[5] He mentioned a "mother's child" being taken to Paradise to be taught the meaning of life and creation in order to educate the human race in Eden (i.e. Earth), but the humans decided to punish him. This hints at the history of Jesus.[6]
With that little tidbit removed, the motivation of the Engineer is never stated and the question of why they wanted to kill humanity was left with Shaw to figure out in the next movie. And in that next movie, she was killed offscreen and the question of the Engineers seemingly abandoned.
Probably for the best, as the Alien franchise is best as just a survival horror(imo) and the larger question of "why is this happening" is left unexplored.
I originally was going to go into this but cut it from the post to make it a little less rambly than it already is. This is kind of what I'm talking about. Even knowing the why, its not actually interesting. Had the dialogue not been cut it really doesn't improve the film. It's basically the plot of Halo or any of a dozen other ancient alien plots running around at the time and its not even a particularly interesting one. I love me some cryptic films but the problem with Prometheus isn't a matter of lack of exposition, its a lack of human connection.
Ultimately, everything is Prometheus is detached. The crew barely seem to like each other and none of them seem particularly invested in their jobs either. It doesn't feel like they do anything for any real reason and then the goo comes in and does vaguely evil things to them but not in a way that unsettles. I can't even tell if the movie is trying to be scary, but there's no other emotion it tries to envoke. The monster at the end is focused on one of those threasts too large in scale to get invested in.
It's just not terribly interesting. If you'd somehow never come across the idea that what we call god is actually aliens.... honestly there's still a million more compelling takes on that, many of which were released in the decade prior. There's dozens of "humans bad and should all die" plots of the era, but most of them have a cast you care enough about to remember. Prometheus is just lacking an emotion throughline to anchor a plot that isn't nearly as groundbreaking as it seems to think it is.
Essentially? Weyland Yutani has come to find mankind just isn’t very well suited to settling new planets.
Differing atmospheric conditions, novel diseases with no clear treatment running rampant, mining leaving people with cancer etc.
But it sees the Black Goo as a potential solution. A way for Mankind to evolve itself to taste, and rapidly so. A way to make us more resilient and better suited to turning up to a new planet and colonising it.
Now, does that suddenly make the Black Goo super duper cool and awesome? Not entirely, no. But it does give some very welcome context to Weyland Yutani’s seeming obsession with the Xenomorph, and creates a more stable bridge between the proper films and the prequels.
It's an improvement, but doesn't really solve the issue of it just not really being a very compelling plot device. It just kind of acts as magic plot device juice and thus far there hasn't really been any sense of it actually being useful. Like, whatever they think it COULD do doesn't really matter when all it actually seems to do is make people explode into monsters that kill everyone. It's also just kind of odd as its no where near as compelling as the original, iconic lifecycle of the xenomorphs. What does the goo add exactly?
If they want to go the human evolution route they need a movie with that as a central theme rather than an explanation. A test colony where everyone mutates or like the next generation is all Genestolens or something. This isn't really hate on Romulus. The movie by and large gets it right; I just don't like the goo and need to see it given some consistent properties before it stops feeling like its an interesting addition to the franchise.
nels1031 wrote:Probably for the best, as the Alien franchise is best as just a survival horror(imo) and the larger question of "why is this happening" is left unexplored.
For the best they cut that bit too honestly.
It makes the plot 1000% stupider.
"You're too violent and barbaric, so we're going to murder you all with brutal body horror bioweapons. How dare you kill Jesus. Come on! We dropped one guy in one corner of your whole planet who never went more than 50 miles from where he was born and you killed him? The whole lot of you are a waste, but especially the Moche and the Chinese for not believing Jesus! This will show you! Also you can find us at these coordinates. We know you can't get there so just wait and suck it primates!"
It's so fething dumb... Actually it's so fething dumb it almost crosses into comedy so maybe the movie would have been better? Don't know. Don't care. I agree that the ancient aliens plot was played out and basically a bad joke before the movie even released. All the themes about religion, creation, abandonment etc, largely fell flat and didn't help anyone take the movie seriously despite its aspirations.
LunarSol wrote:The goo itself is just a huge problem and I'm sad to hear it continues to return.
I'd argue the movie kind of redeems the concept, or at least uses it for something that actually makes sense instead of being so cryptically mysterious about I couldn't care less.
Romulus actually takes several ideas from more maligned Aliens films and kind of makes them work.
LunarSol wrote:The goo itself is just a huge problem and I'm sad to hear it continues to return.
I'd argue the movie kind of redeems the concept, or at least uses it for something that actually makes sense instead of being so cryptically mysterious about I couldn't care less.
Romulus actually takes several ideas from more maligned Aliens films and kind of makes them work.
I think it helps that they went a route that in no way requires and would probably be improved without the existence of the Prometheus variation. Harvesting facehugger seed for its ability to adapt to the host DNA is an all around solid idea. There's definitely directions they can go with it from there that haven't really worked before.
The space jocky could have been freeze dried within a few days if the spaceship had a slow air leak (a direct pop the hatches would probably be too fast but might still be ok given the suit he was in had a big hole in it) and the life support was off so the ship got cold which would be plausible, it could even have landed on some sort of autopilot
how that fits with whatever might have come up in Promethius/Covenant I couldn't tell you as i've very little memory of my single viewings of either bar dissapointment
I figured the AA Pulse Rifles were a more basic model than the ones we see in Aliens?
Spoiler:
In Aliens, the Marines’ fire power goes through Xenomorphs like a hot knife through butter. And that’s likely due to military issue ammo, which is explosive tipped.
In Romulus? The Xenomorphs take way more hits before they go down.
Of course there are other perfectly valid rationales. First and foremost? Armour piercing explosive tipped bolts are not Mr Orbital Station’s friend. Second and speculative? Perhaps Weyland Yutani ensured Colonial Marines packed them for that mission, hoping they’d be able to take out the mature Xenomorphs and the Queen, allowing the Company to nip up and snaffle up the remaining eggs?
There are others but they’re quite fully formed in my brain.
Yeah I would say thats down to ammunition. The marines are equiped with, as you say, armor piercing explosive tipped caseless rounds that on an orbital station might just be suicidal. It's more the tracking system going from a full torso rig and sights mounted on a helmet to a little IR screen and a automated stock is an interesting example of technology becoming smaller and more compact through iteration.
Also, Romulus builds its new bits of the world nicely.
For instance, when we’re kicking about Jackson’s Star at the beginning? We find out all sorts of useful info, including the problems mankind is facing as it leaves its birth rock. But rather than the colonists being all hand wringing and “won’t someone think of the children”? They just seem relegated to accepting it.
Weyland-Yutani’s work quotas and “yeah well we just doubled it, get wrecked” paints them as callous and uncaring.
We find out there are non-Company settlements. And it’s hinted that they might be less awful. Though one is put in mind of folk leaving Europe for the New World a few centuries back quite possibly regretting that decision!
And then as we’re about to enter the third act? The Black Goo is reintroduced as a potential panacea for Weyland-Yutani’s ills. A way to rapidly adapt colonists to whichever hellish environment they need adapting to.
On one hand? That’s a pretty noble goal (and a very 40K one, see Leagues of Votann), a warm light for all mankind to let us explore ever more extreme environs.
On the other? There’s no way Weyland-Yutani would use that responsibly or ethically. We’ve seen them perfectly happy to just up someone’s work quota. And it’s presented as being really bloody difficult to get off world, because sure you might have a ship, but cryopods are rare and highly regulated, so getting anywhere is just a death sentence. Hence The Company have all the power. Now, extend that to “well those adaptations we provided aren’t free you know, this is you work quote for that, your work quota for transport, and your work quota for bed and board. Oh and that genetic tinkering? Sorry that was a one way thing, and oh no, how, erm, utterly unforeseeable, it seems you’re no longer particularly able to live outside of this specific world’s environment oh deary me what a shame and a pity never mind in fact speaking of mined go get those minerals for us, pleb”
You know, the goo experiments are almost at the wrong point in the timeline, aren't they?
Alien Resurrection had the piss off and train the xenomorphs subplot- but the far more useful one was the idea of creating a humanoid alien superhybrid. Clone Ripley was a huge success- had the process been perfected, you'd have hyperdurable supersoldiers for colonization. Something that could alter a living host, without the need to start from scratch would be preferable to the hassle of making a clone of your colonists. And if these clone colonists could peacefully coexist with the xenomorph, there's your colony security problem sorted. In that context, and at that point in the timeline, the goo would be a great idea to pursue for research.
LordofHats wrote: There are many times where I sit down and ask myself "if this media hadn't been connected to a previous franchise the audience has expectations of, would it have faced the problems it did?"
To which I feel very much that yes. If it hadn't been a Star Trek movie, the JJ Abrams movies probably would be more fondly regarded (not Into Darkness, that movie had issues).
Prometheus also might have done better had it been utterly unconnected from Alien and thus free of expectations or complications. But I'd still contend Prometheus has flaws beyond its relation to the Alien franchise that would always hold it back, but at the very least, people would have less of a reason to look down on it.
A movie that reached high and fell short can be a lot more charming than a movie that reached high, fell short, and wasted my time not being the movie I'd been led to expect.
Not sure if you've read the original script for Prometheus by Jon Spaihts, back when it was titled "Alien: Engineers". It's a fascinating read just to see what changed, what morphed, and weirdly what didn't change.
Been a while for me, but IIRC the planet was LV-426, the alien ship was THE ship, etc. Basically it's a more direct prequel to Alien, which seems so much easier and cleaner. I'm not the sort who wants or needs "here's how Han got his blaster" prequel stories, but in this case I think it was a better approach even if the script needed some polishing.
I think Damon Lindelof had a hand in polishing the final Prometheus script, and that explains some of the...inscrutable...aspects. I feel like he's prone to overindulging in that stuff (see The Leftovers). Although it's not like Scott is immune to piling on anime-style inscrutable story points and semi-religious metaphors. Just look at Raised By Wolves.
Romulus mostly succeeds because as some of our chit chat here shows? Where Prometheus left people asking “what the hell was that all about?”, Romulus has us considering wider lore impact, and how its, for the most part if not exactly exclusively, deepened the lore, and even shone a new light on motivations behind events to come in chronological terms.
I really want a sequel or spin off!
Automatically Appended Next Post: Oh those sods! Seems Marvel is doing a tie-in prequel comic in October, bridging events between Alien and Alien Romulus.
LordofHats wrote: There are many times where I sit down and ask myself "if this media hadn't been connected to a previous franchise the audience has expectations of, would it have faced the problems it did?"
To which I feel very much that yes. If it hadn't been a Star Trek movie, the JJ Abrams movies probably would be more fondly regarded (not Into Darkness, that movie had issues).
Prometheus also might have done better had it been utterly unconnected from Alien and thus free of expectations or complications. But I'd still contend Prometheus has flaws beyond its relation to the Alien franchise that would always hold it back, but at the very least, people would have less of a reason to look down on it.
A movie that reached high and fell short can be a lot more charming than a movie that reached high, fell short, and wasted my time not being the movie I'd been led to expect.
Not sure if you've read the original script for Prometheus by Jon Spaihts, back when it was titled "Alien: Engineers". It's a fascinating read just to see what changed, what morphed, and weirdly what didn't change.
Been a while for me, but IIRC the planet was LV-426, the alien ship was THE ship, etc. Basically it's a more direct prequel to Alien, which seems so much easier and cleaner. I'm not the sort who wants or needs "here's how Han got his blaster" prequel stories, but in this case I think it was a better approach even if the script needed some polishing.
I think Damon Lindelof had a hand in polishing the final Prometheus script, and that explains some of the...inscrutable...aspects. I feel like he's prone to overindulging in that stuff (see The Leftovers). Although it's not like Scott is immune to piling on anime-style inscrutable story points and semi-religious metaphors. Just look at Raised By Wolves.
Yeah I've read about it. Found it interesting how many plot elements stayed in Prometheus.
Honestly 'Engineers' sounds like it would have been a more enjoyable movie.
Oh those sods! Seems Marvel is doing a tie-in prequel comic in October, bridging events between Alien and Alien Romulus.
Guess that’s going in the basket in due course.
Tangentially, if you haven’t, you should check out Marvel’s recent Predator runs. Largely centered around a person trying to hunt down a specific one who killed her family. Begins with Predator (2022).
Both Marvels current Predator and Alien runs have been decent to good so far. Also there are some fun side stuff like "What If.... Carter Burke Survived?" and "Predator Versus Wolverine".
Carter Burke was a good fun story. Predator vs Wolverine was meh, too much skipping around thru time instead of one solid encounter. I haven’t read it yet because I’m a week or so behind on books, but I’m hoping the Predator vs Black Panther is better.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: Romulus mostly succeeds because as some of our chit chat here shows? Where Prometheus left people asking “what the hell was that all about?”, Romulus has us considering wider lore impact, and how its, for the most part if not exactly exclusively, deepened the lore, and even shone a new light on motivations behind events to come in chronological terms.
I really want a sequel or spin off!
Hmm yes, lore very deep.
Romulus succeeded at nothing except making money. What it didn’t succeed at was being scary at any moment, which I’m told is a drawback for a horror.
It was the bottom of the barrel being scraped clean through. AI level script, genuinely cringe fan service, a cast of characters who might as well be named Victim 1, Victim 2, etc and a narrative structure of a video game.
The guy playing the android did a good job, by far the best thing in the film.
Android bloke good. He succeeded in making me remember the main characters name through constant repetition. Otherwise she would not have been memorable.
How often do we remember the names of characters from a single watch?
Ripley of course is one, because she’s central to the story. Andy here on account Sweet Googly Moogly that dude portrayed the same character in three ways, and convincingly so.
I know the main lass is called Rain, because I googled it earlier in this thread and it’s a unique enough name to stick.
The others? Well. I’ve seen it a grand total of That One Time. When I’ve used the names in earlier comments, I freely admit I googled those too, but they’ve not stuck.
Not because their roles are pointless or badly portrayed. But because….the names just aren’t instantly memorable and they were supporting cast.
That's a metric of how i judge a movie. If i remember the characters names after i've watched it, they're good characters with good moments. If i don't, they're forgettable and disposable. Unfortunately that's the case for romulus.
He’s clearly the central character of the movie. And not just by performance.
Andy was solid. Especially so because formula says, when will the robot turn evil and try to kill everyone. So he was always going to be watched very closely.
I remember all of 3 names from Alien Romulus. I remember every name from Alien. I feel like the problem is these characters were little more than meat puppets waiting their turn for slaughter more than there were good characters. "A crew of young people" who come off as generic for the most part. They are fairly forgettable.
Bret and Parker and a bonus situation ! Never gets old.
Granted I've only seen it once and if we watch it at least once a year as we do with Alien* then maybe there's something there I'm not seeing but I doubt it.
* It's a movie we both love so it's in rotation quite a lot.
I think it’s a little of column A and a little of column B; the first three films (and particularly the first two) all take quite a bit of time with the crew before the alien actually appears, where as all of the subsequent ones really want to dive into the goopy, bloody stuff ASAP and do a bare minimum with character setup. I do think this one will get better on a rewatch, because the corporate hell-hole setup they do is quite interesting, but I do wish they’d make a slower burn alien film and trust that the audience can wait to get to the shiny black highlight.
In fact, I’d say taking more time to build up that tension would make it a better film; we, as the audience, know what’s going to happen, but when?!
I'd be interested to see what time the alien chest burst in alien and what time it burst in romulus. Because I felt like they did a fair bit of character build up. But we're also old and those damn kids annoy us.
I saw it today. It was very well done. Not as well done to reinvigorate the franchise like Prey was for Predator but honestly I'd probably put it pushing for second out of all the alien flicks but I'll put placings after watching alien, romulus, and aliens in a binge together.
Also loved they kept the esthetic from the first 2 movies and didn't upgrade the tech. Fantastic touch.
Alien makes it a bit weird because in Alien the timeframe is vague. The Facehugger was on the guy seemingly longer than it took the burster to appear with one scene going right to the next.
The issue is Aliens in which Ripley's recollection of events explicitly says it took a few hours from Facehugger fall off to chestburster and I think she says it took three days for the hugger to fall off.
So if you just watched Alien, you might think it only takes a few minutes for the burster to come out unless you watched Aliens right after and took note of Ripley specifying the timeframe.
LordofHats wrote: Alien makes it a bit weird because in Alien the timeframe is vague. The Facehugger was on the guy seemingly longer than it took the burster to appear with one scene going right to the next.
The issue is Aliens in which Ripley's recollection of events explicitly says it took a few hours from Facehugger fall off to chestburster and I think she says it took three days for the hugger to fall off.
So if you just watched Alien, you might think it only takes a few minutes for the burster to come out unless you watched Aliens right after and took note of Ripley specifying the timeframe.
Well... We can take some things from David in Covenant to explain a little of that. He said as he experimented with the black goo that it took on different forms and stabilized. Generation by generation, experiment by experiment, it took longer and longer for reactions to take place.
These face huggers are not born in eggs by a queen. They were generically engineered in an assemly line to be milked for their black goo to be purified and experimented with.
What does that make these face huggers? Are they closer to the ones david made or the ones the nostromo found?
I am more willing to see rapid gestation any time the black goo is in close proximity because the stuff is so volatile.
It's especially silly when you consider that film is a terrible collectible because it just doesn't age very well. Even in ideal archival conditions film has something of a self-life and most casual collectors don't have a hardcore archive in the closet with complex environmental controls.
Yeah vinyl has some of that charm to it whilst VHS I recall it eating the tape sometimes; having to rewind and a way way lower resolution than DVD or Bluray - so you've not only got to have a VHS player but an older TV.
The only VHS I can think of that would hold value is things that have just never made the jump into DVD and beyond; which can be shows or specific translations/productions of shows.
But yeah its a bit of harmless marketing fun - who knows perhaps it might get a small VHS following going of collectors and such; but otherwise its just a neat thing kinda. (I mean it did get us all talking about it)
There was a trend a few years ago for bands to release albums on cassette, which I suspect sold primarily to people buying them as collectibles, rather than because people legitimately want to listen to cassettes again. I suspect that this will be the same... People will buy it as a cool thing to put on the shelf, regardless of whether or not they still own a VCR.
But as it’s got us talking about the movie again, it’s doing its job. And how much does it cost to produce them? Worth it for the advertising they get from the novelty.
I know when collecting books I like to keep them in the same format to have the shelf look nice. There may be a market for people who feel the same way about VHS.
I own the aliens movies on DVD, so that’s not me. But I understand.
Nevelon wrote: And how much does it cost to produce them?
Possibly quite a lot. 20-odd years ago when I was working in retail and DVDs had effectively taken over, I was told during a product seminar that there was only one factory left in the world producing video tapes commercially. I can't imagine it's been a growth industry since then, so it's entirely possible that someone would have had to set up a production line from scratch to make these.
Nevelon wrote: And how much does it cost to produce them?
Possibly quite a lot. 20-odd years ago when I was working in retail and DVDs had effectively taken over, I was told during a product seminar that there was only one factory left in the world producing video tapes commercially. I can't imagine it's been a growth industry since then, so it's entirely possible that someone would have had to set up a production line from scratch to make these.
That’s fair. Any economy of scale is long gone.
Unless someone went industrial dumpster diving and picked up an old production machine, or the ones left are desperate to get any jobs.
VHS wasn't even a quality format when it was new. The videophiles always preferred betamax or laserdisk. Definitely more of a collectors item than a thing to actually watch.
