Alien (1979) - 40th Anniversary

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Thoughts on Ripley having a daughter at home or not based on the directors cut? I really dislike the idea Ripley had a daughter. It detracts from the family dynamic created between her Hicks and Newt at the end.

The fact she outlived her daughter drives directly into the catharsis she feels by rescuing Newt and essentially becoming her mother.

The scene with her in the "garden" when she learns of her daughters death was originally removed as they felt it would make things too obvious later on once she found Newt and the lengths she'd go to rescue her.

I don't know what goes wrong with so many films now but I would say visual effects possibly have a lot to answer for. Standing in front of green screens surely does not get the best out of actors or the crew. In a real world set you would rework and develop a scene probably a lot more than in a green environment. Just making sure you stand in exactly the right place and pretend to be interacting with something not there must be the highest priority.

I was reading an article about Denis Villenueve who stated he could count on his fingers the number of times they had to use green screen for Blade Runner 2049.
 
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Aliens - Special Edition. Been a long time since I last watched it. Effects have aged badly in places, but still a good film, although it drags a bit towards the end, would be better if they just got off planet just as the plant went up and didn't have the silly loader fight. The overdone, hammed up characters work better with age as a bit of a pastiche of naff 80s poseurs, with Sigourney Weaver providing the serious glue that pulls it all together. Her performances in the early films are really something, looking back now. Class.

Alien Covenant. First 45 minutes is great, up until we meet David. The medbay scene on the lander in particular is as visceral and shocking now as Hurt's scene in the first film imo.

The rest of the film suffers from the aliens taking a back seat to David as the main bad guy. When the film is sticking to the core franchise elements of people being scared ****less and getting slashed up by monsters, it's as good as any others. Kinda feel that the franchise would have been better with David's story spun off separately...it's good, and gives us some motiviation story for Weyland-Yutani, but doesn't quite work when bouncing off the actual xenomorph.

It brushes over the Engineer's story a bit too easily too, they are supposed to be the creators of all this...but they just wiped out...they have just one city? Really?
 
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@Somnambulist Feels like FOX are putting out feelers to see what kind of Alien movie people want next.

I don't mind though, some of the short indie Alien movies have been excellent over the years.

Here's the rundown:

“ALIEN: Alone”: Hope, an abandoned crew member aboard the derelict chemical hauler Otranto, has spent a year trying to keep her ship and herself alive as both slowly fall apart. After discovering hidden cargo, she risks it all to power up the broken ship in search of human life. Written and Directed by Noah Miller.

“ALIEN: Containment”: Four survivors find themselves stranded aboard a small escape pod in deep space. Trying to piece together the details around the outbreak that led to their ship’s destruction, they find themselves unsure to trust whether or not one of them might be infected. Written and Directed by Chris Reading.

“ALIEN: Harvest”: The surviving crew of a damaged deep-space harvester have minutes to reach the emergency evacuation shuttle. A motion sensor is their only navigation tool leading them to safety while a creature in the shadows terrorizes the crew. However, the greatest threat might have been hiding in plain sight all along. Directed by Benjamin Howdeshell.

“ALIEN: Night Shift”: When a missing space trucker is discovered hungover and disoriented, his co-worker suggests a nightcap as a remedy. Near closing time, they are reluctantly allowed inside the colony supply depot where the trucker’s condition worsens, leaving a young supply worker alone to take matters into her own hands. Written and Directed by Aidan Breznick.

“ALIEN: Ore”: As a hard-working miner of a planet mining colony, Lorraine longs to make a better life for her daughter and grandchildren. When her shift uncovers the death of a fellow miner under mysterious circumstances, Lorraine is forced to choose between escape or defying management orders and facing her fears to fight for the safety of her family. Written and Directed by the Spear Sisters.

“ALIEN: Specimen”: It’s the night shift in a colony greenhouse, and Julie, a botanist, does her best to contain suspicious soil samples that have triggered her sensitive lab dog. Despite her best efforts the lab unexpectedly goes into full shutdown and she is trapped inside. Little does she know, an alien specimen has escaped the mysterious cargo, and a game of cat and mouse ensues as the creature searches for a host. Directed by Kelsey Taylor.

http://www.darkhorizons.com/alien-40th-anniversary-shorts-revealed/
 
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Snip

Alien Covenant. First 45 minutes is great, up until we meet David. The medbay scene on the lander in particular is as visceral and shocking now as Hurt's scene in the first film imo.

The rest of the film suffers from the aliens taking a back seat to David as the main bad guy. When the film is sticking to the core franchise elements of people being scared ****less and getting slashed up by monsters, it's as good as any others. Kinda feel that the franchise would have been better with David's story spun off separately...it's good, and gives us some motiviation story for Weyland-Yutani, but doesn't quite work when bouncing off the actual xenomorph.

It brushes over the Engineer's story a bit too easily too, they are supposed to be the creators of all this...but they just wiped out...they have just one city? Really?


I felt the David stuff was the strongest part of the movie by a country mile, same with Prometheus. Even when paired with Ridley's insatiable lust for **** poor screenplays (in his recent movies only), Davids relationship to humanity is still the most distinctly interesting and generally absorbing thing in the movie, even if it feels completely separate from the tone of 'Alien' generally. That's the biggest rub for me and a lot of people I think. It should have been it's own separate entity all together. Trying to weave a creation myth into something as raw and barebones an idea as 'Alien' just ends up feeling convoluted.

Whilst I liked the action in Covenant, it just feels like we're re-treading old ground whilst refusing to salt it with new ideas. Nothing about the action scenes (aside from the first you mentioned) feels in anyway unique or interesting.

Can honestly say I love every single one of the Alien flicks though. Very few franchises have such disparate styles within them and I really hope they continue to make them, with or without Ridley.
 
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