Ridley Scott is every bit as toxic to the Alien franchise (spoilers)

[Orrex]

Last edited Sun May 28, 2017, 08:37 AM - Edit history (1)

As Lucas is to Star Wars.

Honestly, couldn't Scott see how bad Prometheus was? Did he really have to take another swing at fucking it up?

Michael Fassbender is awesome because he's Michael Fassbender, but other than him the entirety of Alien: Covenant is a turkey.

Don't waste the price of admission. Not worth it.

[Iggo]

1. Shit! There goes my Sunday.

[dchill]

2. Ah, go see it.

As long as you get to stress about seeing ugly space dinosaurs pop out of people's chests, how can it be all bad?

(Caveat: I think the first one was the best.)

[Orrex]

6. The last surprising alien pop was Bishop at the end of Aliens

And that wasn't even a chest burster.

Granted, the dog in Alien 3 was quite effective, but even that was 25 years ago.

[Towlie]

8. Ridley Scott had nothing to do with Aliens or Alien 3.

[Orrex]

10. I know, and they were all the better for it.

[Ron Obvious]

3. I feared as much from the trailer...

I saw some positive early reviews but somehow they didn't make me want to see it as I'm still skittish after Prometheus as well.

A few days I ago, (re-)watched Alien 3, though this time the extended edition. I recalled virtually nothing of it from the first time I watched it other than it took place in a prison colony. I thought it was very good and much better than I remembered. It really surprised me.

Expectations may have something to do with it.

[Orrex]

7. I liked Alien 3 from the first time I saw it.

The simple matter of switching male leads halfway through was quite striking, and IIRC almost unprecedented in science fiction films. Also, Ripley's interaction with Dillon--particularly in the cafeteria--is some powerful acting by two great onscreen presences.

Covenant is (I guess) better than Prometheus, but so is an infected hangnail.

[Ron Obvious]

9. That first male lead was Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance), btw

If you follow Game of Thrones. Or even, for that matter, if you don't.

I have face-recognition problems anyway and all those shaven-headed British actors (all of whom have been in Midsomer Murders, Dalziel & Pascoe and Touch of Frost, I'm pretty sure), were hard for to tell apart.

Thanks for the warning about Covenant, btw. I'll be giving it a miss for now.

[Freelancer]

4. Warning!!! Spoilers galore...

This isn't just a bad movie. It's bad movie making – unforgivable, even.

Okay, correct me if I'm wrong, but when they're off to find the source of the transmission on the planet, they follow a huge swath of scraped rock and flattened trees, to find the alien ship perched where it crash landed. Then later, the movie shows the same ship come in over a crowd of "engineers" -- all of which appear to be male, btw -- where it hovers, and docks with some huge curly-cue horn of plenty thing. Which is it? You can't depict a starship landing AND crashing. It's either or. Also, later, when the human crew are making their way across the courtyard, weaving their way through fossilized engineers, there's no trace of the huge docking apparatus that we are shown later. AAARGH!!!

Sorry. For a moment I changed into a Peanuts character.

[Orrex]

5. I thought heard female engineers during the screaming, but you're correct

Are we to believe that David personally dismantled the docking tower, perhaps? Or that he restarted the ship just to crash it again for dramatic effect? Garbage!

The monumental stupidity of the captain and crew is likewise unforgivable. The "memorial" took five minutes, but Captain Faith-based decides to forbid it? For what reason? I guess to create tension between him and the crew, but this never pays off. And after having, by his own assertion, identified the devil in David, why the hell would he look into the death-egg? Why wouldn't he check in with the crew first? Answer: he wouldn't. Bad writing.

And much of the film could have been prevented either by sending Walter to explore solo or by WEARING GODDAMN SPACESUITS! Honestly, you're venturing into an utterly unknown environment, and it doesn't occur to you to take basic day-one safety precautions? For that matter, what kind of quarantine protocol requires you to walk an infected team member the length of the ship before reaching the secure med bay? Bad writing.

I enjoyed the interaction between David and Walter, but that's about it. What a stinker.

[HeartachesNhangovers]

11. I didn't think Covenant was horrible. Great movies, like

the original Alien, only come around so often. Alien squeezed every bit of suspense and horror out of some pretty basic sets (mostly taking place inside of a space transport vehicle), while most of the sequels have tried to use bigger and more lavish sets and more convoluted plots to make up for the fact that we already know what's going to happen.

Anyway, Covenant is a standard franchise sequel. If you like that sort of thing, go see it. Especially a cheap matinee.

[Orrex]

13. Yeah. Well.

The next time people talk about Scott as a visionary director, I'll say that he provided us with "a standard franchise sequel" and two incredible films 35+ years ago.

[HeartachesNhangovers]

16. Don't forget Blade Runner - the best sci-fi-noir film ever.

Oops - typed before I understood. Of course you meant Blade Runner.

[Orrex]

17. LOL

[Towlie]

12. What color is this new Alien movie?

Alien was black and white.
Aliens was Cameron blue.
Alien 3 was brown.

[Orrex]

14. Kind of beige

Or maybe it just seemed that way because it was so boring.

[miyazaki]

15. Glad Alien 3 gets some positive attention.

To me it was better than all of them except for the original, and had a deeper pathos.