Michael Fassbender Talks David's Character Development

Started by Corporal Hicks, Jan 19, 2017, 04:10:56 PM

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Michael Fassbender Talks David's Character Development (Read 21,801 times)

426Buddy

Quote from: Master on Jan 20, 2017, 10:45:21 PM
But that jettison  whole Unknown Alien aspect out of  the series. The core element of the dark cold universe, with horrors older then time itself  is essentially thrown away.

This is how I feel as well.

Its a major part of the "alien"ness of the series in the first place. The cthulhu-esque eldritch dread and terror has already been seriously eroded by Prometheus and its ancient astronaut "they are us" story.

Nyarlathotep

Nyarlathotep

#46
Quote from: OpenMaw on Jan 20, 2017, 10:22:11 PM
Quote from: Nyarlathotep on Jan 20, 2017, 10:10:52 PM
That still doesn't justify the scene in which dozens of them mindlessly charge towards firing sentry guns.

Sure it does. In the first instance they managed to get passed those sentries to the pressure door. When that didn't work, they doubled back and tried the direct attack in the hall. When that seemingly failed they doubled back again and tried from above. They adapted very quickly.
I guess I just don't care all that much for the concept of a Hive mind. I prefer it when at most there's only a small handful of Xeno's, that way they are more indispensable to the plot.

BringbackJonesy!

BringbackJonesy!

#47
Just the fact that the previously mysterious 'space jockey' skeletal remains were reduced to a 'helmeted spacesuit with tubes' in a 'Chariot Of The Gods'-type plot...is enough to make me look on this PROMETHEUS storyline as merely being set in an 'alternative universe' to the 'Ripley' ALIEN storyline, and totally unrelated to it - in other words, I've decided it's merely a 'fan fiction' franchise which uses similar ALIEN imagery to tell a different storyline altogether, rather than being the actual 'prequel' to the original movie. 

And whether the 'Big Chap' is shown to be cooked up by David in COVENANT or not, if this 'Xenomorph' just turns out to be yet another NON-'bio-mechanical' creature, then that will only confirm my way of looking at it for me.

I'm certainly looking forward to what COVENANT brings, due to the fact that I'm curious to see how Ridley chooses to tackle the numerous headscratching elements his PROMETHEUS movie threw up.  However, I'll enjoy it more by imagining it's a totally seperate thing to the more 'Giger-esque' vibe of his original ALIEN movie.  :P

echobbase79


Didn't Ridley say it was always a suit? I know it wasn't written that way by O'Bannon, but over the years before Prometheus I thought he commented on it being a suit?

I've always liked this drawing of the Space Jockey.


Molecules

Quote from: echobbase79 on Jan 21, 2017, 12:02:05 AM

Didn't Ridley say it was always a suit? I know it wasn't written that way by O'Bannon, but over the years before Prometheus I thought he commented on it being a suit?


I watched Alien again tonight with someone who'd never seen it (always fun that), and the SJ looks and is described by Dallas as being 'fossilised'. It simply looks like the skeleton/exo-skeleton of an organism, right down to the distinctly un-humanoid body proportions (super tall, huge chest cavity, long arms).

The route they went down was the SJ being an exo-suit made with biotechnology (which, it follows, would decompose/harden) and it works, they even addressed Dallas's comment about it appearing to 'grow out of the chair'... but the proportions of that original SJ anatomy... they'll never be able to write their way out of that. I'm able to gloss over this personally :P

XENOMORPHOSIS

Here's a thought, will either David or Walter die in this movie, bring an end to Fassbender's role in the series? Or the proper description for an A.I. /Synthetic would be expire/dismantled.

Necronomicon II

Necronomicon II

#51
Quote from: 426Buddy on Jan 20, 2017, 10:56:57 PM
Quote from: Master on Jan 20, 2017, 10:45:21 PM
But that jettison  whole Unknown Alien aspect out of  the series. The core element of the dark cold universe, with horrors older then time itself  is essentially thrown away.

This is how I feel as well.

Its a major part of the "alien"ness of the series in the first place. The cthulhu-esque eldritch dread and terror has already been seriously eroded by Prometheus and its ancient astronaut "they are us" story.

Well, hang on a sec, in Lovecraft's mythos the Great Old Ones ruled on Earth for a time and then proceeded to fall into a death-like sleep, well, per Prometheus, many died and one fell asleep. Thus humans are still irrelevant ultimately, it's more that the preconceptions and/or expectations the fandom held about the Space Jockey were subverted and Prometheus tonally was not horrifying enough, and yet, because Scott has to address the Engineers' 'creator', that presents an opportunity for more Lovecraftian cosmicism (better executed and actually horrifying, hopefully!), since if it is something akin to an "Outer God"; something truly alien, both Engineers and Human beings are irrelevant alike.

426Buddy

Yeah but it didn't turn out that we were the great old ones, in the way that we are the engineers. Also the idea that David creates the alien we know only a few years before Ripley arrives cheapens the whole thing IMO.

Put those two things together and it loses some of what made the original derelict and space jockey scene great.

Really I'm onboard with wherever this story is going except for the idea of David creating the alien.

Necronomicon II

Actually, the Engineers would more accurately stand in for the Elder Things, though the Engineers bare no physical resemblance, the Elder Things nonetheless were genetic engineers and kick started life on earth. As such, the story thus far hasn't really negated Lovecraft's central premise at the heart of his mythos, regardless of how the Engineers turned out. The Engineers' "God"; if truly dark and terrifying, would undoubtedly restore that overarching thematic dread.
As far as David creating the classic beast is concerned, yeah I share your concerns, but Haag gave me reason to suspect it won't be so clear cut. Any process of demystification will always be hard, especially with a fairly unforgiving, established fandom, but if it turns out that David is merely re-creating or re-animating a process some Great Old One already performed, I'd be fine with that. I don't see Scott messing with the grandeur of the original Derelict scene other than perhaps providing more context, but nothing more. It all remains to be seen!

Enoch

+1

Well said.

oduodu

Not holding my breath that Scott has any designs on preserving any Lovecraftian Eldritch ancient vibe mystery elements. 

Ingwar

Split personality? Schizophrenic? Hmmm ...

QuoteYou play another robot in "Alien: Covenant" called Walter. How is he different from David?

[Laughs] It's a robot with a split personality. It's a schizophrenic robot [laughs]. Walter is a different character. Basically, Walter is an updated model of David. So, because the David model freaked people out a little bit they developed Walter, who is just a lot more straightforward without those human kinks.

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2017/01/19/michael-fassbender-offers-insight-into-his-alien-covenant-roles/

skhellter

Quote from: oduodu on Jan 21, 2017, 07:12:42 PM
Not holding my breath that Scott has any designs on preserving any Lovecraftian Eldritch ancient vibe mystery elements.

I dont think Ridley is the type of guy who's aware of Lovecraft.

prometheusfire08

prometheusfire08

#58
cough.....

given how diehard fans of lovecraft that both O'Bannon and giger were and that the Alien comes straight from the necronomicon of giger ALSO that O'Bannon wrote alien as taking place within the mythos of lovecraft and also how heavily steeped in mythos lore prometheus actually is ( for those that actually read lovecraft anyways 😉) idea bet that Scott absolutely knows about lovecraft .

Nyarlathotep

Quote from: echobbase79 on Jan 21, 2017, 12:02:05 AM

Didn't Ridley say it was always a suit? I know it wasn't written that way by O'Bannon, but over the years before Prometheus I thought he commented on it being a suit?

I've always liked this drawing of the Space Jockey.


I would take anything that Ridley says with a serious grain of salt if I were you.

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