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Alien Covenant

Visually this is what you would expect from Scott - but I very much hope that the film builds and expands upon 'Prometheus', rather than swerving away in the direction of Cameron's 'Aliens'.
 
Beats & Pieces said:
Visually this is what you would expect from Scott - but I very much hope that the film builds and expands upon 'Prometheus', rather than swerving away in the direction of Cameron's 'Aliens'.
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I very much hope this swerves far away from the mess that was Prometheus and comes closer to Alien, which strikes me as the film to invoke here rather than that of a director with a very different style from that of Scott.
 
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Reno said:
I very much hope this swerves far away from the mess that was Prometheus and comes closer to Alien, which strikes me as the film to invoke here rather than that of a director with a very different style from that of Scott.
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We just have to disagree, 'Prometheus' is a far more intriguing - 'Alien' is a good film (especially visually) - but it really isn't more than 'Jaws' in space.
 
Beats & Pieces said:
We just have to disagree, 'Prometheus' is a far more intriguing - 'Alien' is a good film (especially visually) - but it really isn't more than 'Jaws' in space.
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I think I've just lost all respect for your taste in films. :eek:

Alien only is "Jaws in space" if you manage to totally ignore any of its subtext.
 
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Reno said:
I think I've just lost all respect for your taste in films. :eek:
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Come on, 'Alien' is a good film but that is largely because of the visual impact and the way the story is told. It also has a very strong female character. But beyond that? 'Prometheus' was flawed, and appears to have been a work in progress in shooting (the deleted scenes indicate this especially), but at least it tried to tell an interesting story.
 
Well it's fucked up already if Fassbander is starring and Noomi Rapace isn't, the pair of them flew off into the sunset on Prometheus to find the makers.

I also liked the premise of Prometheus, could have been better but was still entertaining .
 
Beats & Pieces said:
Come on, 'Alien' is a good film but that is largely because of the visual impact and the way the story is told. It also has a very strong female character. But beyond that? 'Prometheus' was flawed, and appears to have been a work in progress in shooting (the deleted scenes indicate this especially), but at least it tried to tell an interesting story.
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I don't think attempting to skew the Alien universe towards 2001 via Chariot of the Gods mumbojumbo makes for an interesting or original story. Prometheus looked nice and had a few decent individual scenes, but it was a completely schizophrenic film where Ridley Scott couldn't make up his mind what story he did want to tell.

I don't believe a film necessarily need to have a great "story" to be a great film or to be able to say something interesting. Films aren't books. On the surface Alien may just be Jaws or And Then There Were None in space, but there are so many interesting ideas woven into that. It's not just that the film has a strong female lead which was most unusual then for a big budget science fiction film, the whole film is a nightmare exploration of sexual violence and male/female tensions, not to talk of its critique of corporate culture and it's genuinely novel take on an alien life cycle.

It's not neccesarely the story which makes a film, it's how the story gets told cinematically (mise en scene). On the surface Vertigo, my favourite film and considered Hitchcock's masterpiece, has a story which is full of plot holes and which falls apart on close examination. It's the subtext which is woven through the film which makes the film great and where its true meaning lies. This idea that the best film is the one with the best story is such a British idea and it comes from it being a literary more than a visual culture.
 
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Reno said:
I think I've just lost all respect for your taste in films. :eek:

Alien only is "Jaws in space" if you manage to totally ignore any of its subtext.
Click to expand...
Reno said:
I don't think attempting to skew the Alien towards 2001 via Chariot of the Gods mumbojumbo makes for an interesting or original story. Prometheus looked nice and had a few decent individual scenes, but it was a completely schizophrenic film where Ridly Scott couldn't make up his mind what story he did want to tell.

I don't believe a film necessarily need to have a great "story" to be a great film or to be able to say something interesting. Films aren't books. On the surface Alien may just be Jaws or And Then There Were None in space, but there are so many interesting ideas woven into that. It's not just that the film has a strong female lead which was most unusual then for a big budget science fiction film, the whole film is a nightmare exploration of sexual violence and male/male tensions, not to talk of its critique of corporate culture and it's genuinely novel take on an alien life cycle.

It's not neccesarely the story which makes a film it's how the story gets told cinematically (mise en scene). On the surface Vertigo, my favourite film and considered Hitchcock's masterpiece, has a story which is full of plot holes and it falls apart on close examination. It's the subtext which is woven through the film which makes the film great and whereits true meaning lies. This idea that the best film is the one with the best story is such a British idea and it comes from it being a literary more than a visual culture.
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I thought it was interesting, wanting to know a little more about the strange and long dead creature that the Nostromo crew encountered upon entering the alien craft and which was clearly linked to the 'Alien' in the ship's hold. I think you also can see the problem with the film, which (as I indicated) appears to stem from an uncertainty during filming. This might also be interpreted as flexibility but there was one key deleted scene featuring the two doomed scientists which strongly indicated the former. The sex element in 'Alien' is undeniable, stemming from Giger's designs and the positioning of rape, but this was a film designed to shock (which it did) without making any great claim to meta or micro narratives.

I like your idea regarding a possible literary / visual dichotomy in film linked to culture - if you have any further recommendations I would be interested in exploring this further!
 
Beats & Pieces said:
Come on, 'Alien' is a good film but that is largely because of the visual impact and the way the story is told. It also has a very strong female character. But beyond that? 'Prometheus' was flawed, and appears to have been a work in progress in shooting (the deleted scenes indicate this especially), but at least it tried to tell an interesting story.
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No, it was just a mismash of unoriginal ideas.
 
Anyone who rates Prometheus over Alien should be ban themselves from ever again commenting in this forum. Embarrassing. Prometheus was a passable romp with some appropriate moments of wtf and eye-candy, but unlike Alien it never even rose a shaky middle finger to the genre conventions, nor did it, as already commented on, have an interesting or coherent plot.
 
Prometheus with that stupid statue is the worst film I've ever seen in a cinema.

The other Prometheus with the aliens was miles better.
 
TruXta said:
Anyone who rates Prometheus over Alien should be ban themselves from ever again commenting in this forum. Embarrassing. Prometheus was a passable romp with some appropriate moments of wtf and eye-candy, but unlike Alien it never even rose a shaky middle finger to the genre conventions, nor did it, as already commented on, have an interesting or coherent plot.
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Prometheus is the Highlander 2 of the Alien series.
 
That was such a shame I was really looking forward to Prometheus, I told my
friends this was going to be the next big thing :facepalm:
 
Looks really run of the mill - the only bits of alien architecture you see in the trailer are ones from the original film
 
A380 said:
I think Aliens is by far the best film of the franchise.

There, I've said it. Game over man. Game over

I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit.
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See, I disagree, but I can respect that. Aliens is a damned fine action horror. I'd say it doesn't have the raw nerve of Alien, but it does make up for that in sheer kinetic impact.
 
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