Ridley Scott is a hack

[genocyber]

After three Alien films he's directed under his belt its very appear ant this guy is an overblown hack and never had anything beyond medicore propped up by HR Giger's influence. In Alien, Prometheus, and Covenant its been the same exact movie he's been doing but each one even less interesting than the last.
Astronauts pick up a signal in space, go down to alien planet, find derelict ship, investigate, someone gets infected, monster is born, android turns evil and tries to protect monster, crew dies, ship is damaged or destroyed. Rinse and repeat with the same plot. Even James Cameron and all the others who came after him knew you couldn't just tell the first story over again or else it becomes a dead franchise, and that's exactly where this franchise has gone.

[SM]

I don't recall "astronauts pick up a signal in space", "find derelict ship", and "android turns evil and tries to protect monster" in Prometheus.

As for Cameron - just some minor changes...
"Astronauts lose signal in space, go down to alien planet, find derelict base, investigate, someones already infected, monster is born, Company guy turns evil and tries to protect monster, crew dies, ship is damaged or destroyed."

[genocyber]

I don't recall "astronauts pick up a signal in space", "find derelict ship", and "android turns evil and tries to protect monster" in Prometheus.

As for Cameron - just some minor changes...
"Astronauts lose signal in space, go down to alien planet, find derelict base, investigate, someones already infected, monster is born, Company guy turns evil and tries to protect monster, crew dies, ship is damaged or destroyed."

Prometheus
-Astronauts go into space following map ie: signal left behind on earth
-Astronauts find derelict ship, the same exact looking ship from Alien but not the same one but still left there a long time
-David turns against crew for Weyland ie: helps protect and grow the life of a xenomorph

As for Aliens....the astronauts this time were colonial marines, a complete different flavor of character who weren't there to look around. The derelict base ship from Alien makes a small appearance but the colony is the main setting. However their are major differences in that Ripley goes from a slasher victim survivor to a female warrior in this. The aliens look and behave differently, with the introduction of a hive element along with a Queen expanding but not copying the original. The corporate guy is evil, but the android was not going against the tropes Ridley Scott has been playing at...crew dies, however their are a few left by the end to make a memorable final stand that again was never in any of the prequels or original movie. Your comparisons are shallow.
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[SM]

My comparisons are obvious and well documented.

I don't doubt the comparisons between Alien and Covenant.  I think Ridley even acknowledged some of them.

You comparisons to Prometheus are however, vague and simplistic, and I don't agree with the 'hack' assertion.  Whatever one thinks of the storyline - Prometheus and Covenant are still awesome looking films.

[PsyKore]

Yeah, he says on the Covenant commentary that it's the same plot. I'd hardly call them the same movies, though, despite the skeletal structure of them resembling.

[SM]

The set up is the same.  But once they get to the planet one of the more obvious comparisons I saw was to Aliens in that their ship is fragged and they have to somehow get another one down from orbit.  The whole thing about David killing Engineers and creating his own monsters didn't really owe anything to Alien, beyond the broad evil robot trope - and to be less broad Ash was following orders while David was just doing it for teh lulz.

[Scorpio]

After three Alien films he's directed under his belt its very appear ant this guy is an overblown hack and never had anything beyond medicore propped up by HR Giger's influence.

Don't underestimate the importance of Ridley Scott to Alien.  Yes, it was a collaborative effort but Ridley brought his A-game just like O'Bannon and Giger. 

Giger had actually made a few films prior to Alien and they are not even publicly available.  Alien made Giger a global phenomenon, although he had already made it in Europe as a successful artist.

Case in point, Ridley was a key player in Alien and is nowhere near an 'overblown hack'.

[Russ840]

I don't agree at all about Ridley being a hack. A bit rude and not needed.

[Jonesy1974]

Ridleys filmography proves that's a ridiculous and clearly false statement.