So we were talking about this a bit ago, and I just saw it, so I figured I'd follow-up with some (spoiler free) thoughts:
I liked it! In fact, I think it's better than Alien 4, and perhaps Alien
3 too, though I have some persona biases against 3. ;) The movie is definitely a bit of a love letter to the moves - it feels like they "got it" in terms of tone, visuals, some of the more tense moments. There's also lots of little references, only one that felt a little too out of place and on the node. A lot of very overt references too, including a direct explanation of the "black goo" from Prometheus and Alien:
Covenant in case you didn't quite get it (or remember it.)
There was one particular effect that bugged me, and I couldn't quite figure out if it was intentional or not, but overall it was a beautiful movie with lots of intentional throwbacks to the practical effects of
the first couple of movies. The zoomer kids thankfully didn't bug me too much, and their motivations are very clear.
Not saying anyone NEEDS to go see this, and I think I'd need to see it more than once to REALLY digest it, but yeah, worth seeing if you're an Alien fan, and man, between this and Dune, it's nice seeing some big budget sci-fi movies in the theaters again!
Anyone else see it? Thoughts without spoiling too much?
Can't wait to see this. I'm still iffy on the whole origin thing...
SPOILERS AHEAD! Prometheus and Covenant edition...
So the engineers were genetically identical (or close to) humans. And
one of them landed on earth and sacrificed himself to seed the planet
with human DNA. That's the start of Prometheus, right?
But the black goo thing doesn't make a ton of sense to me yet. Who made it? Why?
Seems like the android dude got some sort of sentient god complex and
then made the black goo evolve into something that created xenomorphs,
or something...but I can't remember.
I was just watching a long YouTube doc on practical effects. I really
miss them. Alien and Aliens did this really well. The suspension of disbelief with some of those effects was great. I really still dislike most of the CGI driven effects that all feel...cartoony to me.
Same! Dune and Dune II were great! Aside from the end of Dune II which wasn't really my cup of tea, but I feel like the whole Paul character
arc happened suddenly and didn't feel terribly believable. But I digress.
Wanna see it soon! Maybe this week depending on class load.
According to rumors and semi-confirmed by a Ridley Scott interview, and fleshed out majorly by fan theories, something along the lines that
after creating humanity, we were fucking up, so they sent something of
an emissary down to earth to teach us their ways. Instead, we crucified him. Yes, Jesus Christ was an engineer. Maybe that's when they decided
to send that ship full of black goo to earth to wipe us out? Fun.
We don't know that the engineers made the black goo. For all we know,
they discovered it and just started using it. It also seems likely it getting out of control is what might have killed them off.
Anyway, the black goo is something of a bio-weapon that breaks an
organism down to its DNA and then infects other organisms with it (to steal an explanation from a forum post.) Thus it can be used to wipe out entire planets, or to purposely create new types of life. It does kind
of seem like that always results in some hideous, xenomorph like
creature, however, at least in the form we see it in during Prometheus
and Covenant, so Weyland and David's goals of perfecting humanity or whatever, likely probably doomed to fail.
The main thing I don't get is that it seems incredibly dangerous to just use this shit as a weapon, when it could result in creating a planet
chalk full of these incredibly deadly and hard to kill creatures.
You'll like Romulus then. A lot of the effects look straight out of
Alien and Aliens. There's CGI of course, but... well, we can talk about the one issue I had resulting in some (possibly intentional?) weird uncanny valley shit after you see it for yourself. Too much of a (minor) spoiler to get specific here.
It was all kind of abrupt, but I wasn't weirded out by it being familiar with other adaptations. Maybe just a pacing issue? Regardless, both
movies were excellent.
Do it! Definitely glad I saw it on the big screen.
Oh boy...this is dangerously close to some of the Matrix lore that was exposed after the first film lol.
Gotcha. So I can assume no further details/closure/etc on the black goo. That's a bummer. Maybe they'll reveal it in another movie at some point. *sigh*
Got it. The bio weapon thing makes sense. The David arc is truly fascinating in prometheus and covenant. It was the most interesting
aspect of those films IMO.
Yeah - mutually assured destruction. Essentially the gamble of any bio weapon. Maybe it's a cautionary tale. I wonder if they got that black
goo out of a lab in Wuhan?? hehe
Roger. I'll keep an eye out. On the whole, though, this sounds pretty slick and right up my alley.
Yeah, it was a pacing issue. Who knows, maybe there were a bunch of cut scenes which would have fleshed it out a bit more. Nevertheless both
films kicked ass and will go down as legendary.
Woot! Gonna bribe the wife. Wish me luck.
Well to be fair, according to Ridley Scott, it was never an actual part
of the story, just an idea that was tossed around. He called it too on
the nose, plus I'm sure the bigwigs wouldn't have let them do something
so potentially offensive to people.
I don't know if its a bummer, personally. I don't feel like I need *everything* explained in detail. Oftentimes these types of things get examined to death (be it by overzealous fans or by the movie-makers themselves, usually in unnecessary, cash-grab sequels) they're revealed
to be the cheap plot devices they actually are, and the fun is ruined
for everyone.
Yeah, never mind that David is probably the best character in both of those films anyway. :P
I have to say though, despite my above statement about the dangers of over-explaining plot elements, Prometheus (and to a lesser extent, Covenant) made me *more* curious about the engineers themselves. We
don't know ANYTHING about their culture, really. They ran around seeding life on other planets? They weren't afraid to casually use weapons of
mass destruction? They had impressive, alien technology that allowed for (I'm assuming) FTL space travel. They seemed to have some kind of religious like order. They appeared to be somewhat militaristic. That whole Jesus idea would suggest that they were a progressive, peaceful people, and yet the engineers we encounter are fucking rage monsters (although that could have be explained in other ways.) Are they truly extinct, or have we only been to places they've abandoned? We don't know.
Mine is so happy to go gorge herself on movie theater popcorn (one of
her only real vices, heh) that it's usually an easy sell.
jack phlash wrote to esc <=-
The main thing I don't get is that it seems incredibly dangerous to
just use this shit as a weapon, when it could result in creating a
planet chalk full of these incredibly deadly and hard to kill
creatures.
Makes sense. *phew*
Hehe. Idk man...fiction lore is great but that whole Jesus thing wouldn't really offend me (fwiw) but would just feel a bit silly.
If I'm the only one who thinks so, I'll shut up!
Totally. Not to mention he's the only one who's consistently /in/ both
of them, right?
Regardless he's well written and well played, I find his parts to be the most fascinating in both.
Ha! Nice. Our movie theater is pretty cool, it has recliners and full menus with servers. The food ain't great but you can't go wrong with
some tater tots and a root beer!
Dude, I'm such a priss, I won't go to a movie theater without big comfy seats any more. Remember back in the day getting into a theater without assigned seats and you have to go all hunger games finding the seat you want? No more of that bullshit, hehe.
It's sort of like salting the fields of Carthage so no one can live
there again. Leaving your defeated enemy's planet full of xenomorphs is
a great way of making sure they stay defeated.
I'm surprised no one has theorized that the Predators made the goo to
make different kinds of prey for the hunt.
I'm surprised no one has theorized that the Predators made the goo to
make different kinds of prey for the hunt.
It is, but also the aliens have been shown to be quite resilient and
have an amazing knack for getting into places they shouldn't/no one thought they could, so what are the odds of them staying on that planet?
esc wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-
Interesting! Didn't the Alien lore gatekeepers basically toss out the whole Alien/Predator thing?
Maybe the xenomorphs are an unintended consequence of evolution or something, idk. *shrug*
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